Lyons Range Plans Revamp

Among its top priorities are online trading, setting up of a clearing house and insurance cover for brokers.

The recast is being undertaken with the help of some key CSE brokers who have, in earlier years, been instrumental in steering the bourse through difficult times.

According to sources, the Calcutta Stock Exchange president D K Singhania, accompanied by a top CSE broker, met Sebi officials in Mumbai during the week to discuss these issues. The exchange is planning a three-pronged revamp, details of which are being worked out and would be intimated to Sebi thereafter.

The revamp plan comes close on the heels of the unseemly events which led to the showcause being slapped on some Calcutta Stock Exchange brokers, including former vice-president Subhas Pachisia, for alleged illegal carryforward operations. Pachisia later resigned from the committee.

 

The top priority before the CSE is to set up a clearing house through which all the trades would be routed.

The online network being planned by the exchange would, CSE sources said, lead to some staff being rendered surplus, and they could then be absorbed into the clearing house.

``To start with, we will have it in-house, and then set up a separate entity,'' the sources said, indicating that a clearing corporation as a separate company was also under consideration at a later stage. Banks would also have to be roped in for the purpose, the sources said.

The much-delayed online network is likely to get under way by November this year and is expected to change the face of the bourse completely. Calcutta Stock Exchange has, thus far, consistently lagged behind other bourses in computerisation.

But with the new committee taking over recently, there is a new thrust for change, sources pointed out.

The other crucial issue is an insurance cover for all the brokers on the lines of the National Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange packages.

The exchange is confident that the insurance too would be in place by November.

The important thing for the Calcutta Stock Exchange is that the new team appears to have the full backing of the old guard of the stock exchange, which includes former committee members.