Sebi seeks services of 22 FMC officials post merger

Capital markets regulator Sebi has sought services of 22 employees out of 41 presently working with the Forward Markets Commission (FMC) after the merger of commodities market regulator with itself.

The remaining staff is likely to be part of the surplus pool of the Ministry of Personnel, which will deploy them as per the requirement in various ministries.

Last week, the government had issued a notification to merge FMC with Sebi, with effect from September 28.

"We have 41 permanent staff, who will be notified as central government employees. Of which, Sebi has asked for services of 22 officers. A final order in this regard will be issued soon," FMC Chairman Ramesh Abhishek told PTI.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has selected these officers to work on deputation as per its requirement, he said, adding that the remaining staff would go back to the surplus pool of the Ministry of Personnel.

Abhishek, an IAS officer from 1982 batch, has been empaneled for promotion to the rank of secretary.

According to sources, Sebi is planning to depute its own officers to regulate the commodities futures market, and may also hire experts from the market.

A unified regulator for commodities and capital markets will help streamline monitoring of commodity futures trading and curb wild speculations.

In the wake of a Rs 5,500-crore scam at the National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL), FMC was brought under the Finance Ministry in 2013.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, in his Budget speech, had announced the merger of FMC with the capital market regulator Sebi to strengthen the regulation of commodity futures market.

Currently, there are three national and six regional bourses for commodity futures in the country.

The business at these exchanges had fallen sharply to Rs 61.68 lakh crore in the 2014-15 fiscal from Rs 101.44 lakh crore in the previous year due to the NSEL crisis.