Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) appears to have steered clear of taking contentious decisions in what could be the Chairman Mr C.B. Bhave's last board meeting.

Decisions on important issues such as the MCX-SX case, Direct Takeover Code and Jalan Committee report have been deferred. Also overlooked were the life insurance IPO norms and rights issue norms for IDRs.

“The Government needed more time to decide on the Direct Takeover Code recommendations and hence a decision on this has been deferred,” said Mr Bhave. On the Jalan committee report, he said that responses were still being collated.

Meanwhile the SEBI board met in Mumbai on Monday and decided that ASBA (application supported by blocked amount) would be made mandatory for all non retail investors (QIB and HNI) for public and rights issues from May 1.

“ASBA would bring down the process time,” said Mr Bhave.

The regulator has also made a recommendation to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs on related party transactions. SEBI suggested that Clause 66 of the Companies Bill 2009 should be amended to disallow interested shareholders from voting on the special resolution of the prescribed third party transaction even if the interested shareholder happens to be the promoter.

The learning was gleaned by the regulator while investigating the Satyam case and the recommendation is expected to protect the small shareholder from abusive third party transactions.

SEBI also decided to grant a five-year registration to every intermediary. Registration would become permanent after an intermediary is successful in maintaining a track record as per SEBI stipulated performance standards.

The currency derivatives segment would have self clearing members with a net worth requirement of Rs 5 crore.

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