SEBI seems to be in no mood to relax the Rs 100-crore net worth and Rs 1,000-crore annual turnover norms for the regional stock exchanges.
The decision has been taken by SEBI, said a head of a regional stock exchange.
Exchange heads confirmed that SEBI had indicated a willingness to consider consolidation among the 19 regional stock exchanges so that two or three new exchanges could come up. However, they said that the regulator was waiting for the exchanges to come up with a proposal for consolidation.
The regulator will permit only those exchanges which had the potential to attain Rs 100 crore net worth and Rs 1,000 crore annual turnover either by themselves or through consolidation.
This is tough as technology would require significant investments, they said.
However, it is a paradox that the regulator indicates consolidation of stock exchanges on the one hand and goes ahead to give permission to new exchanges on the other, said a head of another regional exchange.
As far as regional exchanges which are involved in litigation with SEBI, the decision will be only after the case is over.
However, there is no clarity on how the Rs 100 crore net worth criteria was arrived at, they said.
SEBI’s latest data shows that no other regional exchange has logged the required Rs 1,000-crore annual turnover, except Kolkata.