SEBI to push capital market reforms, ease compliance and expand investor access: Tuhin Kanta Pandey
Chairman Pandey outlines priorities on listing rules, bond liquidity and investor access as market capitalisation reaches ₹472 lakh crore
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) aims to drive capital market reforms, ease regulatory compliance, and widen investor access while maintaining safeguards, according to SEBI Chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey. At the Financial Express Modern BFSI Summit 2026 in Mumbai, Pandey outlined the regulator's priorities, which include updating listing rules, enhancing debt markets, adopting innovative technologies, and expanding investor access.
India's market capitalization has nearly quintupled over the past decade, reaching ₹472 lakh crore, with over 15 crore unique investors and ₹83 lakh crore in mutual fund assets.
Pandey emphasized that SEBI's regulatory approach must align with activity risks and investor sophistication, stating, "Investor protection and market integrity remain non-negotiable." The regulator is reviewing the Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements (LODR) framework and proposing stronger monitoring of funds raised through public issues.
Additionally, SEBI is refining the small and medium enterprise (SME) initial public offering framework to facilitate genuine businesses' capital raising while protecting investors.
In the realm of corporate bonds, SEBI is creating a market-making framework to boost secondary-market liquidity and developing a framework for Fixed Income Channel Partners to enhance retail access to regulated online bond platforms. The second phase of its Demat 2.0 pilot will facilitate secondary-market trading of tokenized corporate bonds.
Pandey also highlighted the importance of AI in market regulation, announcing the exploration of an AI sandbox to test applications in a controlled environment, assess risks, and devise safeguards while offering regulatory clarity to innovators.
The SEBI Chairman concluded by stressing the need to balance improving investor awareness with maintaining robust investor protection. He noted that the SEBI Investor Survey 2025 found that only 36% of investors possessed moderate to high knowledge of securities markets, underscoring the necessity of digital education to empower investors to use market opportunities wisely.
Written by urgent.news from Hindu BusinessLine's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
