The pursuit of the reform process requires a renewed focus on capital market reforms and a revisiting of the regulatory mechanism for the entire financial sector, according to R K Dubey, Chairman and Managing Director of Canara Bank.

Speaking at a seminar on 'Capital market: The growth engine’, organised by the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) in Mangalore on Wednesday, he said that leveraging India’s capital market advantage requires synchronised measures. These measures include improved corporate governance, reduced market concentration, availability of the market capitalisation for trading and enhanced role of mutual funds.

He said that the protection of the confidence of the retail investor, modernisation of the capital markets and transparent operations, development of the corporate debt market, regulatory backing and development of Mumbai as an international financial centre would also help.

Single clearing corporation

Dubey said that setting up a single clearing corporation for money, debt and foreign exchange will widen and deepen the capital markets. Towards this end, robust development of the insurance sector with a higher capital base and more diverse products would generate the necessary long-term funds for investing in the debt market, and release resource for areas such as infrastructure funding.

On the role of the company secretaries in capital market, Dubey said that historically company secretaries have developed as a professional with core competence in compliance and corporate governance.

“They are now popularly known as governance professionals in capital markets, and more frequently called upon to guide the corporate board on various strategic, governance and compliance issues related to the capital markets,” he said.

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