Sebi slaps Rs 30 lakh fine on Geojit Financial Services

Markets watchdog Sebi on Tuesday imposed a fine of Rs 30 lakh on Geojit Financial Services Ltd for various violations of stock broker norms.

The regulator had conducted an inspection of the books of accounts and other records of the Geojit Financial Services, which was earlier known as Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services Ltd.

The inspection period was financial years 2013-14 and 2014-15.

In a 50-page order, Sebi said the entity has violated various regulations, including that it had not settled accounts of its inactive clients in seven quarters during the inspection period.

"... the total amount not settled during the quarter ranged from approximately Rs 1.50 crore to approximately Rs 2.59 crore and the number of such clients ranged from 1,278 to 1,962," Sebi said.

According to the regulator, the entity was also not settling client accounts with balances less than Rs 1,000 in the seven quarters, where the total amount not settled during the quarter ranged from around Rs 43.87 lakh to Rs 83.06 lakh. The number of such clients ranged from 38,039 to 52,146, it added.

Among others, it was found that the entity was not settling the pay-in amounts received during the seven-day period before the settlement date. This amount ranged from approximately Rs 1.98 crore to Rs 7.76 crore during the quarter ending June 2013 to quarter ending March 2015.

The count of clients ranged from 1,578 to 4,538.