While probing manipulators in the capital markets space, some officials at regulator SEBI have got a specific job that they do very seriously — that is reading media reports to get leads on possible irregularities.

Scanning of news reports has been integrated into SEBI’s surveillance and market intelligence systems, while necessary follow-up action is flagged off to the concerned departments or authorities whenever anything suspicious comes to the fore.

“I would also like to tell you that we read media reports very seriously. There are people whose job is to read your reports,” SEBI Chairman U K Sinha told PTI in an interview.

“And wherever we find that something wrong is happening, we follow-up on those cases,” he said.

Sinha was talking about the new measures taken by SEBI to enhance its surveillance and intelligence systems.

“We have created a very strong electronic surveillance mechanism... There is a major technological advancement that we have done,” he said, adding that its new surveillance mechanism is giving SEBI “a lot of pipeline” of cases for further probes.

Among others, news reports also help SEBI determine whether the companies have followed all necessary norms in their business plans.

Stock exchanges have already been asked by SEBI to seek clarification from listed companies whenever any important news comes in media regarding them and if the same has not been informed to the investors through regulatory system.

When asked whether SEBI was looking at social media space also to prevent its possible misuse, Sinha said: “That is an area where SEBI needs to cover some more ground. I don’t think we are fully on top of it.”

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