The Securities and Exchange Board of India has opened a local office in Kochi on Wednesday. S. Raman, Whole Time Member, SEBI, inaugurated the office.

The Kochi office will cover the entire Kerala and Union Territory of Lakshadweep. It will be under the administrative control and jurisdiction of SEBI’s southern regional office at Chennai.

It will look after investor protection, facilitating the redressal of the investor grievances against listed companies and market intermediaries in Kerala and to spread investor education and financial literacy in Kerala.

Over a period, other important areas of work such as registration of intermediaries, IPO processing, investigation, etc, would also be delegated to the local offices.

sajeevkumar.v@thehindu.co.in

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