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Informist, Friday, Oct. 31, 2025

 

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--SEBI Pandey: India's financial system remains resilient
--CONTEXT: SEBI Chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey's comments at an event in Mumbai
--SEBI Pandey: Investor participation has spread to cities beyond metros
--SEBI Pandey: Panel on conflict of interest to submit report by Nov 10
--SEBI Pandey: Working on simplifying investment process for FPIs
--SEBI Pandey: See very high confidence among FPIs for India
--SEBI Pandey: Need to give flexibility to MF industry for it to grow
--SEBI Pandey: To roll out measures on F&O in phased manner
--SEBI Pandey: Need to curb the risk of fraud
--SEBI Pandey: To deal with prohibited fincl content online more forcefully
--SEBI Pandey: To discuss MF sachetisation with industry soon
--SEBI Pandey: Haven't made much progress on small-denomination SIP
 

 

MUMBAI – The Securities and Exchange Board of India will strike back forcefully against financial influencers who peddle prohibited, misleading content online in the near future, its Chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey said at the Business Standard BFSI Insight Summit 2025 here on Friday. "We are doing about 5,000 takedowns every month, so far we have done more than 100,000 takedowns; this is an ongoing thing," Pandey said.

 

Sharing financial education would be tolerated, but the regulator will not tolerate prohibited content that misleads investors, Pandey said. The regulator has been working with platforms such as Google, Meta, and X (formerly Twitter) in order to curb the spread of such content, he said. 

 

SEBI has been cracking down on "finfluencers" of late. Earlier this year, the regulator restricted the use of live stock market data in educational content. This was done to prevent the provision of real-time trading tips under the guise of financial education.

 

Pandey said that as a regulator, SEBI was doing more to improve its surveillance activities to maintain public trust in capital markets. "We have enough power, we have to use it judiciously and sensibly and continuously, and we have to upgrade our own surveillance tools, which we are constantly doing. We have done much better than before," Pandey said.

 

Pandey took charge as chairman of SEBI in March, succeeding Madhabi Puri Buch. His team grappled with the issue of whether the regulator has enough norms in place to tackle worries about conflict of interest within the regulatory body following allegations against Buch holding back on investigations into the Adani group. 

 

"We created a high-level committee on conflict of interest issues and this committee has a very good team. They have actually interacted with several of the participants, different players, internally, externally," Pandey said, adding that he expects a report to be submitted by this panel by Nov. 10, following which SEBI will assess further steps needed to tackle the issue.

 

Pandey also touched upon concerns about foreign portfolio investors exiting India at a fast clip. FPIs pulled $2.13 billion from Indian equities in September, extending their selling streak to the third consecutive month. Interactions with investors from major markets suggest confidence in India is high, Pandey said.

 

"The sense I am getting is that the confidence of the foreign players, the FPIs, is very, very high, as far as India is concerned. They have not only an interest in the long-term story of India's growth, but all the short-term stories," he said. The regulator is currently working on simplifying the investment processes for these investors. 

 

With the Indian stock market seeing increased traction from retail participants, the mutual fund business too has seen a significant increase in traction. 

 

In April, SEBI had launched a specialised investment fund to cater to high net worth individuals, which requires a minimum investment of INR 1 million across strategies. 

 

"Mutual fund industry also needs more flexibility, because it has grown in size, it has got a lot of professionals and, therefore, we cannot really tie their hands up and we have to also give them flexibility," Pandey said. "That is how SIFs (specialised investment funds) came and there are other reforms where they can do many more activities which they would do subject to their maintaining a certain level of segregation across to manage risks," he added.

 

Under Buch's leadership, SEBI had launched pocket-sized mutual fund plans to boost retail participation in this space. The regulator approved launching sachetised systematic investment plans of INR 250 a month. Pandey acknowledged that there hasn't been much movement on this plan after he joined. However, he seeks to have interactions with the industry on this issue soon, he said.

 

Given the regulatory steps taken by authorities in recent years, Pandey said that India's financial system was currently resilient. He also lauded the increased participation of investors from across India, especially those beyond metro cities, from smaller towns. Within India, SEBI has established various tools to help investors mitigate the risk of fraud.  End

 

Reported by Anand JC, Sagar Sen, and Krity Ambey

Edited by Avishek Dutta

 

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