Sebi to expnd its presence

Sebi has floated tenders for premises to set up a local office in Patna and Chandigarh and had earlier invited bids in April to purchase a new property in Delhi to house its Northern Regional Office in the national capital.

It plans to set up these new local offices to cater to investors, market entities and the companies from these states.
 
In Patna the market regulator intends to acquire ready for possession office premises in the city, preferably in the main city area and has floated a tender for the same.

Sebi would take the property on lease for a three year period initially, with a provision to the effect of further renewal for another three years. While speaking at a seminar in Patna on 26 August, Sebi chairman U K Sinha asked the state's citizens to consider mutual funds investments and equity markets for better and long-term returns.

Sinha pointed out that mutual funds sector had only 0.42 per cent share of Bihar's investment, and the number of demat account holders in the state was also quite low.
 
Additionally, the state had only one registered share broker and just two listed companies, he noted.
 
The market regulator had initiated a number number of reforms recently to attract investors from smaller cities to avenues like IPOs and mutual funds.
 
The Sebi board in March 2012 approved opening of new local offices in Chandigarh, Indore, Bangalore, Kochi, Patna, Bhubaneshwar and Jaipur to help it decentralise operations and more effectively reach out to the investors in smaller cities.

Also, the regulator was setting up new regional offices in various parts of the country in an effort to decentralise work.

This forms part of Sebi's initiative aimed at taking its services to the door step of investors to promote a balanced, pan India securities market, as physical proximity of the regulator's office to investors and intermediaries would promote deepening and broadening of the securities market.