Securities Appellate Tribunal reduces fine on BOI Shareholding

The Securities Appellate Tribunal today steeply reduced the fine imposed on depository participant BOI Shareholding to Rs 6 lakh, saying the penalty of Rs 40 lakh imposed by Sebi was "excessive".

The markets regulator had penalised BOI Shareholding, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bank of India, for delayed implementation of Sebi circulars relating to anti-money laundering (AML) policy.

"Given the fact that, though belatedly, the appellant (BOI Shareholding) has implemented all the required policies and procedures on AML/ CFT policy as stipulated under the various circulars of Sebi and by the penalty precedent set by Sebi itself we are of the view that the penalty of Rs 40 Lakh imposed on the appellant is excessive," the tribunal said in an order.

"We, therefore, reduce the amount of penalty imposed on the appellant to Rs 6 lakh," it added.

In June 2015, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) had conducted an inspection of the depository participant's books of accounts to examine whether it had put in place systems and processes to comply with the Sebi circulars relating to the AML policy to be adopted, among others.

In July 2017, the regulator had imposed a penalty of Rs 40 lakh on BOI Shareholding after finding that it had "violated AML /CFT (Combating the Financing of Terrorism) policy by delaying its proper implementation by a number of years".