Finance minister advises more transparency in Sebi operations

Finance minister Arun Jaitley has asked market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to adopt greater transparency in its functioning, in the back drop of the Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission's (FSLRC) recommendations.

In his first customary address at the post-Budget meeting of the SEBI board, Jaitley also asked the capital market regulator to focus more on attracting the retail investor and on redressing investor grievances even as it remained vigilant about probable violations in the market.

In his meeting with the members of the Sebi board and senior officials of the market regulator, the finance minister discussed the current state of the investment climate in the country and the recommendations of FSLRC.

Addressing the media after the meeting, Sebi chairman U K Sinha said the finance minister also discussed the legislative measures proposed in the FSLRC report, adding that the government is expected to have more consultations before taking any decision.

Sinha said the finance minister is of the view that ''all regulators should work towards more transparency in regulation-drafting''.

The government has already said that some of the FSLRC recommendations require legislative changes while for others, work will start soon.

FSLRC submitted its report last year where it talked about a unified regulator besides other issues. However, there are differences among regulators on the issues.

Currently, there are five main regulators in the financial sector - Sebi for the capital market, RBI for the banking sector, IRDA for the insurance sector, PFRDA for the pension sector and FMC for the commodity futures segment.