Reshuffle On The Agenda At Boi Shareholding

The organisational structure at BoI Shareholding Ltd is set to undergo a change. The move comes as a part of the Bombay Stock Exchange's efforts to streamline the operations at the clearing house following delays in delivery of shares in earlier weeks. The revamp mainly aims at upgrading the skills of the officer-cadre in charge of overseeing the operations of the depository section which manages the vyaj badla shares. "Overseeing the depository part of the clearing house requires adequate expertise and sufficient experience in custodial operations. Also, since the officers (from BoI) are on deputation, by the time they come to terms with the operations, they return to their parent organisation," said Deena Mehta, BSE governing board member, currently in charge of streamlining the process at the clearing house.

 

The BSE will be shortly holding talks with the Bank of India to reach an agreement over the issue. Officers from the Bank of India are sent on deputation to the BOISL for a period varying from one-two years. "Nobody doubts the commitment or integrity of these officers on deputation. However, if their efforts are not channelled efficiently, the whole exercise becomes futile," Mehta said.

The exchange, which has taken up the clean-up operations on a war-footing, is keen to ensure that operations are streamlined at the earliest and will look at all options. Deena Mehta declined to comment on whether the officers would be trained specifically for the purpose or whether the exchange would hire professionals from outside to fill in the slots.

Meanwhile, the streamlining process at the clearing house is nearing completion with 98 per cent of the backlog having been cleared. "The new software has been put into place which is capable of effectively coping with any amount of increase in badla activity," said Mehta.

According to her, most of the manual job at the clearing house has been reduced sharply. Earlier, even after the brokers submitted their distinctive share numbers on a floppy to the clearing house for crediting or debiting accounts into each members account, the whole numbers would have to be repunched manually. "With the new software in place, there is no duplication of work," Mehta said. Also, the vyaj badla depository and demat accounts used to run parallel to each other without connectivity. This would result in one of the accounts showing a deficit. For example, if the broker delivered the demat vyaj badla shares in the physical form, then the demat account would show a deficit. In case the physical shares were delivered in the demat form, then the depository account would show a deficit. This anomaly has been rectified with both the accounts being inter-connected. To reduce paper in the system, the BSE is actively persuading the brokers holding vyaj badla shares to dematerialise the shares at the time

of book closure. The clearing house has also synchronised the pay out of vyaj badla shares with the normal pay out of shares.