Regulating the auditors: How NFRA and Sebi could co-exist

The absence of an authority like the NFRA makes a strong case for Sebi's intervention

The audit fraternity appears a divided lot. This is to do with the securities market regulator’s oversight powers to penalise and bar an audit firm from undertaking assignments of listed entities. The question being hotly debated in the audit fraternity is: “If the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has the oversight powers over audit firms of listed firms, what will be the role of the proposed National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA), the independent regulatory?”

 “Will the NFRA just look at the unlisted entities?” asked a former president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), the fraternity’s