Exchanges start walking the line on Sebi's call for data democratisation

Calling data a public infrastructure, Sebi chairperson recently spoke in favour of enforcing free accessibility

Aligning with the market regulator’s efforts towards data accessibility for free, the National Stock Exchange (NSE), BSE, and Metropolitan Stock Exchange of India (MSE) released a joint statement informing about their step towards providing market-related data promptly on their websites.

“In view of the larger interest of investors and various market participants who use the daily price related information like open price, day’s high, day’s low, closing price etc. of securities for their downstream processes, the exchanges have jointly decided to provide such information on their website as early as possible after the close of markets,” the statement read.

The statement comes days after the Securities and Exchange Board of India’s (Sebi) chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch called for data democratisation at a fintech summit. 

"For us, data is a public good, it is a public infrastructure. No private person can claim ownership of this structure. We ensure that it is made publically available in any file format or manner. It is free, nobody can charge for it. This is the path that the regulators in India are taking,” said Buch.

The stock exchanges till now have appeared to be reluctant in data sharing as it constitutes a significant share to their revenues. However, the market regulator may now speed up the discussions with the exchanges, as hinted by the Sebi chairperson, to put in ink the guidelines and regulations making data and information submitted for regulatory process accessible for free to everyone.

Batting for free access to data, Buch added that if a company or fintech is attempting to claim that they will own the public infrastructure, it is very unlikely that the regulator will let it happen.

The market regulator had constituted a Market Data Advisory Committee (MDAC) to look into recommendations for policy of access to securities market data for both transactions and disclosures, identification of data needs and data gaps, and standardization of formats and documents.

It remains to be seen how exchanges walk the fine line between upholding their business interests and making large chunks of data accessible freely to the public at large.