Market watchdog SEBI has established a local office in Lucknow, as part of its decentralisation of work to regional offices.
“The Board has established its local office at Lucknow under the administrative control of its Northern Regional Office at New Delhi,” the regulator said in its notification issued today.
The new office would cater to regulatory aspects of investor protection, financial as well as investor education and such other functions as may be assigned from time to time.
“...its (local office) role and responsibility shall extend to the areas falling under the territorial jurisdiction of the State of Uttar Pradesh,” SEBI noted.
Earlier in February, Mumbai-headquartered SEBI had opened its local office Hyderabad. Last year, the regulator had established offices in cities such as Jaipur, Bangalore and Guwahati.
In March 2012, the regulator said it would also open offices in Chandigarh, Indore, Bangalore or Kochi, Patna or Bhubaneswar and Jaipur.
SEBI, in its board meeting in July 2011, had cleared a proposal to decentralise its functions by opening regional offices.
The market regulator is looking to strengthen its regional offices since physical proximity of its office to investors and intermediaries would promote deepening and broadening of the securities market.