Sebi restructures expert panel on fair market conduct

Regulator Sebi has reorganised its committee on 'fair market conduct' that advises it on measures to improve surveillance of markets and strengthen rules for algo trades.
The fair market conduct committee is chaired by former law secretary T K Viswanathan.
Besides Viswanathan, the panel consists of 14 members, including top executives of leading bourses NSE and BSE as well as government representatives.
Members of the committee include BSE's Ashishkumar Chauhan; NSE's Vikram Limaye; Anup Bagchi, Executive Director of ICICI Bank; Kaku Nakhate, country head at Bank of America Merrill Lynch; KPMG Chairman and CEO Arun Kumar and HDFC Mutual Fund Managing Director Milind Barve.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) had constituted this committee in August this year.
The committee is mandated to suggest measures for improvement in PIT (Prohibition of Insider Trading) norms, PFTUP (Prohibition of Fraudulent and Unfair Trade Practices) regulations and mainly related to 'trading plans' and handling of 'unpublished price sensitive information' during takeovers, according to the latest information with Sebi.

It is also responsible for recommending steps to align insider trading regulations with Companies Act provisions.
The committee is also tasked with suggesting "short term and medium term measures for improved surveillance of the markets as well as issues of high frequency trades, harnessing of technology and analytics in surveillance".

Algorithmic trading, or algo trading, refers to orders on bourses that are generated using high-frequency and automated execution logic.