Sebi to unveil new insider trading norms in a year

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) will come up with new insider trading norms within a year, according to the market regulator's chairman, U K Sinha.

Addressing a programme on investor protection here on Tuesday, Sinha said a committee of experts would be set up shortly to revamp the insider trading norms, benchmarking these with best practices in other markets.

Sinha said the know your customer (KYC) norms would also be standardised. A proposal to share KYC among various financial sector institutions was afoot. "We are in talks with RBI (Reserve Bank of India), Irda (Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority) and the ministry of finance."

In this context, he pointed out that an attempt to use a single KYC for all Sebi-related transactions had been fruitful.

In the light of two-thirds of the initial public offerings (IPO) in the last two years' trading at below market prices, Sinha said Sebi, in the last six-eight months, had put more obligations on the merchant banker about disclosure about the company and of its own record.

Stating that Sebi had circulated a discussion paper on IPO safety margins, he sought investors' views on this aspect. "We want the interests of small investors to be protected."

Earlier, Sinha opened a regional office of Sebi in the city.