Sebi asks bourses to maintain up-to-date broker details

With an aim to check any suspicious activities of brokers through front entities, market watchdog Sebi has asked the exchanges to maintain an up-to-date database of their trading members' group and staff details.

As per Sebi's directions, all the trading members of stock exchanges would be required to submit on a continuous basis, the general business and organisation details, key personnel details, subsidiary and associate or group company details, among others.

This latest step has been taken by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) as part of its efforts to keep a check on any possible market manipulations or other unlawful activities that could be conducted through undisclosed related entities.

Pursuant to Sebi's directions, leading exchange BSE today put in place an online filing system to enable trading members submit these details on a continuous basis.

The new facility, named BSE Electronic Filing System (BEFS) where BSE trading members can continuously edit and update the required details, would be made available to them with effect from April 15.

BSE said the new facility has been introduced pursuant to Sebi's directions for submission of these details on a continuous basis by the trading members.

The details that need to be submitted on this system include the trading member's business group -- whether it is a subsidiary of another corporate entity -- information about CEO or business head and details about other key officials, along with PAN details of all the mentioned entities.

The members would also have to mention whether any other capital market activities, such as merchant banking, depository etc, were being carried out by the member, along with the details of those activities as well.