Sebi gets suggestion on algo trade from US SEC

Even as a probe continues into alleged misuse of co-location facility and algo trading, markets regulator Sebi has received suggestion from its US counterpart - Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is also looking to strengthen its regulation for co-location facility and algo trading.
"A telephonic conference call was arranged between US-SEC and Sebi officials where the SEC officials provided valuable perspectives on algorithmic trading, co-location and high frequency trading to Sebi," according to Sebi's annual report for 2016-17.
Algorithmic trading or 'algo' in market parlance refers to orders generated at a super-fast speed by use of advanced mathematical models that involve automated execution of trade, and it is mostly used by large institutional investors.

Co-location involves setting up servers on the exchange premises.
The regulator is currently probing alleged lapses in high-frequency trading offered through NSE's co-location facility, while the role of some of the former top officials is also under the scanner.

With a view to understanding and imbibing the best practices of the US SEC in examining mutual funds, a Sebi team comprising three officials participated in an on-site examination of mutual funds /investment advisers jointly with the US-SEC.
Besides, Sebi has provided inputs on various issues, agenda items and topics relating to the securities market for various international bilateral dialogues.
This included inputs on Indo-Swiss financial dialogue; Indo-Norway bilateral consultation and inputs on Green Finance for the Prime Minister's visit to the G20 Summit 2016 in Hangzhou, China.