Investor plaint on brokers: Sebi disposes of case against NSE

Regulator Sebi on Wednesday disposed of proceedings against NSE in a case relating to investor complaints against two former broker members, saying the bourse has settled their claims worth about Rs 30 crore and has taken "sufficient steps" to prevent such recurrence.

Sebi had issued a show-cause notice to the NSE in November 2015 in respect of non-compliance of its directions on matters pertaining to investor complaints against Unickon Securities and Kassa Finvest.

It was alleged in the notice that despite directions by Sebi followed by various reminders, the NSE had not disbursed the claim amounts payable to the clients of Unickon Securities and Kassa Finvest in time.

Several investor complaints were received by the NSE against the entities in question. These complaints related to non-receipt or delay in payment of funds and securities and unauthorised trading by the brokers.

The two were expelled by the NSE in 2015.

In an order passed today, Sebi said the NSE has taken "sufficient steps to prevent the recurrences of such events in future". Also, it has filed a separate 'comprehensive report' stating the steps taken by the exchange for curbing the illegal activities by their member brokers.

The report covers general preventive measures taken to prevent failure of brokers resulting in losses to investors, details of awareness initiatives by the NSE on safety of client funds and securities and training programmes to members, among others.

Besides, the NSE has settled claims of a number of clients of the two brokers.

In the case of Unickon Securities, out of the total 1,564 claims admitted by the defaulters' committee amounting Rs 14.11 crore, the NSE has settled the claims of 1,251 investors by disbursing Rs 12.56 crore from the investors' protection fund (IPF) till April 25.

Of the total 262 claims admitted by the committee in the case of Kassa Finvest, the exchange has settled 218 amounting to Rs 17.43 crore from the IPF account.

Accordingly, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has disposed of the show-cause notice dated November 10, 2015, issued against the NSE without any directions.