In first public appearance since short-seller Hindenburg Report, SEBI chief Madhabi Puri Buch highlights compliance, discusses REITs

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch today stresses that compliance should become a "low hum in the background" of every organization that the market regulator regulates. 

"This is our ultimate objective at SEBI," she said in her first public appearance after the U.S.-based short-seller Hindenburg Research targeted her for alleged conflicts of interest.

"Literally, compliance becomes just a low hum that goes on in the background," she added, using the example of breathing.

On the second day of the Global Fintech Festival (GFF) today, Buch kicked off the capital market sessions with her keynote address on the 'Role of Fintech in Ease of Doing Business.'

This marks her third visit to GFF in as many years. In February 2022, Buch was appointed SEBI Chairperson for a three-year term. She joined SEBI in April 2017 as a Whole-Time Director.

She also touched on the subject of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), where Hindenburg Research had pointed out her conflict of interest subject. 

She said when SEBI launched the concept of Small and Medium REITs, the response from the industry was overwhelmingly positive. "They wanted to be regulated. They were operating in an unregulated environment and were suffering from the fact that investors did not have faith and trust in their products and services because they were unregulated," Buch said.

In March this year, SEBI issued regulations to amend the REIT regulations to create Small and Medium Real Estate Investment Trusts.

She also touched upon futures and options ( F&O) trading, where the market is expecting some regulations to tame the high volumes. 

“We have received around 6,000 responses to our F&O consultation paper. Imagine if we had tried to do this manually; we would have died,” she said with a grin. She said this in the context of using technology. 

SEBI conducts extensive consultations before issuing new regulations and guidelines, with much of the process being automated, she said. 

In July this year, SEBI floated a consultation paper outlining steps to be taken to regulate F&O trading, especially index futures, which are witnessing high speculative volumes. 

SEBI has yet to issue a final directive in this regard.

At GFF, she made a presentation, as she usually does at public gatherings, covering the key points in half a dozen slides.She did not take any questions from the moderator as her session ended shortly after her presentation.