Sebi to tap social media; plans crowdsourcing, start-up norms

Market regulator to further ease investing process through measures like e-IPO and Aadhar-based e-KYC

Saddled with greater powers and gearing up for a larger role, market regulator Sebi today said it is framing new norms to help young entrepreneurs raise funds through crowdsourcing and listing of start-ups, while it plans to tap social media in a big way to help investors.

Besides, the regulator would further streamline its enforcement process to ensure uniformity in its approach and improve the efficiency of its enforcement proceedings across the organisation.

The initiatives lined up for the next fiscal also include an "extensive and integrated use of technology to facilitate and further ease the investing process in the securities markets through measures like e-IPO and Aadhar-based e-KYC".

Sebi said it would take proactive steps to meet the "aspirations of young entrepreneurs and cater to the financing and listing needs of start-ups with measures like Institutional Trading Platform (ITP), crowd-funding etc or a separate carve out for them in the ICDR (Issue of Capital and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations".

Sebi would also enhance significantly its investor education and awareness efforts through collaboration with other agencies and through empanelment of more Resource Persons and would tap the increasing stature of social media for enhancing investor awareness an education, the regulator said.

It would also enhance the experience and interface of investors and other stakeholders through upgradation of Sebi website.

These are part of Sebi's proposed policy initiatives in the next fiscal 2015-16, which were approved by the regulator's board today along with its budget for the year.

Sebi is working on a new roadmap to attract larger number of retail investors towards capital markets, develop a vibrant bond market and create a unified regulatory regime for all segments of derivatives, including commodities.

This assumes significance in the backdrop of government setting an ambitious $10 billion disinvestment target for the next fiscal, beginning next month, with plans to give a larger pie of shares in state-run companies to the public shareholders rather than largely depending on institutions, including from overseas and within the country.

The new roadmap, to be framed in consultation with the government and other stakeholders, follows proposals made by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the Union Budget, including those about the merger of commodities market regulator FMC (Forward Markets Commission) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to create a unified markets regulator.

Besides, Finance Bill 2015 has also proposed 'securities' to be taken out of the regulatory ambit of banking regulator RBI and the move is being seen in line with an overall thinking that Sebi should be made the comprehensive regulator for all kinds of securities without any regulatory overlaps.