IT giants keen on upgrading Sebi's fraud detection tool

Information technology giants from India and abroad have evinced interest in Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi)’s proposal to upgrade business intelligence gathering software used for detecting fraudulent activities in capital markets.

Sebi, the capital market regulator, last month floated a tender to upgrade the software. It has also extended the time for bid submission to January 15. Earlier, the bids were to be submitted by December-end.

Information technology firms such as Wipro, Tech Mahindra, IBM, HP, HCL, EMC and SAS could be some of the bidders for upgrading Sebi’s ‘Data warehouse capacity and business intelligence report capacity’, according to the information on the regulator’s website. These firms had approached Sebi with some queries related to the proposal, to which the regulator responded.

STRENGTHENING SYSTEMS

• Sebi looks to upgrade  fraud detection tool at its data centres in Mumbai and Chennai
• The regulator last month floated a tender to upgrade the software
• It extended bid time to January 15 next year
• Earlier, the bids were to be given by December-end
• Wipro, Tech Mahindra, IBM, HP, HCL, EMC and SAS are likely to bid
• These firms approached Sebi with queries related to the proposal

The software tool in used for speedy analysis of data and identification of possible violations like insider trading and money laundering in stock markets. It was set up by Sebi in 2011.

Looking to upgrade this tool at its data centres in Mumbai and Chennai, Sebi has invited bids from agencies to work on the design, supply, installation, configuration and maintenance of the system.

In a tender notice last month, the regulator said it “envisages field upgradeable architecture of the system to handle the future requirements extending to twice the current load with the same level of performance.”

The tool might be installed at other data centres, if the existing data centres can’t accommodate the new systems.

According to Sebi guidelines, the eligible bidder is required to have “the ability to supply, install, design and implement and maintain the required hardware, operating system, application software (security application, databases) and utilities.”

Data Warehouse primarily collects transaction and master data from exchanges (National Stock Exchange, BSE, MCX Stock Exchange, United Stock Exchange) and depositories (National Securities Depository Ltd, Central Depository Services Ltd) on a daily basis and generates reports for users in a highly time-efficient manner.