MUMBAI: Sebi has suggested the government to appoint at least one woman director on the regulator's board, in line with its own directions for listed companies' gender diversity on high-table under corporate governance norms.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) had issued guidelines in February 2015 asking companies to appoint at least one woman director on their boards.

In a bid to make primary markets more efficient, regulator Sebi is working towards cutting down the time taken for listing of companies on stock exchanges to four days from the current norm of six days.

Presently, it takes six days after the close of bidding in the initial public offer (IPO) for a company to list on stock exchanges, thus keeping the investors' funds locked in for a longer period of time.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) will give priority to strengthening risk management systems for commodity markets, its chief UK Sinha said.

Many measures have been taken by Sebi on strengthening the commodity derivatives market in the last one year after the market regulator’s merger with Forward Markets Commission (FMC) on September 28, 2015. Sebi is also looking at allowing players like mutual funds, banks and insurance companies to participate in commodity derivatives market.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has allowed commodity exchanges to introduce trading in options. The regulator on Wednesday said in a circular sent to exchanges that would require its approval, which will be subject to guidelines that would be announced later.

Sebi has refrained from introducing index-based futures as of now. Leading commodity exchanges have their indices, but Sebi wants to finalise a standard methodology. “Traders need to hedge against price change in a particular commodity and not the overall market and, hence, index futures are not given a priority,” explained a person connected with the development.

In his last address at the Association of Mutual Funds of India’s (Amfi- the Indian mutual fund industry’s trade body) annual general meeting held in Mumbai on Monday as the chairman of the capital market regulator, Securities of Exchange Board of India (Sebi) chief U.K. Sinha nudged the mutual funds industry to advertise direct plans.

According to chief executive officers of three fund houses, who were present at the meeting, confirmed to Mint that Sinha wondered why mutual funds were not talking more about direct plans to their investors.

Putting in place enhanced supervisory framework for stock brokers, Sebi has issued a detailed set of guidelines to monitor their financial strength and detect any misutilisation of clients’ funds.

Besides, stock brokers will now have to follow a uniform nomenclature for “naming/tagging of bank and demat accounts” and reporting of such accounts to stock exchanges and depositories.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) board meeting on Friday amended the regulations for infrastructure investment trusts (InvITs) and real estate investment trusts (REITs) to facilitate their growth and allowed foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) to directly trade in debt markets.

The regulator also discussed floating a consultation paper on corporate governance issues in compensation agreements such as non-compete fees at the board meeting held at the new National Institute of Securities Market campus in Navi Mumbai.

The agitated employees of the stock market regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), have formally written to the Board seeking its intervention to put in place a mechanism to respond to inquiries by law enforcement agencies, such as Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Sebi is, in turn, likely to seek clarity from the finance ministry on CBI's scrutiny of its staffers in various high profile cases.

Markets regulator Sebi on Tuesday came out with the indicative format in its circular on the disclosures of distributors’ commission. Even board of the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi) had discussed the issue of commission disclosures to distributors in consolidated account statement (CAS) from October 1, 2016.

In March, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) had issued the circular stating that, fund houses should disclose actual commissions paid to the distributors in absolute terms during the half-year period.

Mumbai: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is examining whether its listing norms were breached in Yes Bank’s aborted $1 billion qualified institutional placement (QIP), said five people familiar with the matter, including officials of the capital markets regulator.

Sebi is also looking into the possibility of entities trading the stock on the basis of insider information, the people said on condition of anonymity.

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