Sebi meet: All bourses to offer stocks & commodities trading from Oct 2018

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Thursday gave its nod to the convergence of both equities and commodity-backed stocks on exchanges from October, 2018.

According to Sebi Chairman Ajay Tyagi, the move will allow major players like BSE, NSE and Multi-Commodity Exchange of India (MCX) to list both equities and commodity-backed financial instruments on their platforms.

Tyagi said the convergence will be effective from October, 2018 and will help in cross-listing and provide investors with access to various asset classes. Other decisions taken at the meet are:

* Credit rating agencies need to have governance structure

* Minimum net worth for a credit rating agency enhanced to Rs 25 crore from Rs 5 crore

* Cross-holding in credit rating agencies, mutual funds to be capped at 10% to tackle conflict of interest

* Norms mandating loan default disclosures by listed companies deferred for further discussion

* Security receipts issued by Asset Reconstruction Companies to be allowed to get listed and traded on stock exchanges

* Sponsor of one mutual fund cannot have significant shareholding in another fund house

* Access norms, KYC rules to be simplified for foreign portfolio investors coming to Indian markets

* Firms to face action for WhatsApp leak of financial details as it's clear leakage happened from companies; to amend rules if required