MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF FINANCE (SHRI JAYANT SINHA)
(a): The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has provided details pertaining to investigations completed by it in the last three years regarding the number of frauds pertaining to stock market, illegal collective investment schemes (CIS) and insider trading which are as follows:
Classification 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 Market manipulation and price rigging 37 41 73 Issue related matters 4 52 12 Insider Trading 21 14 13 Takeovers 2 2 6 Miscellaneous 10 10 16 Number of orders passed by SEBI 4 4 19 against entities for carrying out CIS activities without obtaining the certificate of registration Source: SEBI
(b), (c) and (d): Measures/actions taken by SEBI pertaining to fraud detection are as follows:
(1) SEBI maintains a constant vigil in the market, and in case of any abnormality, takes appropriate action against the concerned entities. The authorities have put in place systems and practices to promote a safe, transparent and efficient market and to protect market integrity. The systems instituted include advanced risk management mechanisms comprising continuous monitoring and surveillance, various limits on positions, margin requirements, circuit filters, etc. Also, SEBI has put in place surveillance systems such as the Integrated Market Surveillance System (IMSS) and the Data Warehouse & Business Intelligence System (DWBIS).
The IMSS keeps track of market aberrations and generates alerts on a daily basis. These alerts are holistically analyzed so as to identify any manipulative trading in the market. During the past few years, SEBI has redesigned the IMSS system software to handle more than two billion messages in a day. To further enhance the system capability and performance of alert generation process, alerting on multiple market streams was also implemented. On the other hand, the focus of DWBIS is to strengthen the surveillance and investigation functions of SEBI by providing comprehensive access to the securities market related data/information.
(2) SEBI has been undertaking various activities for the protection of interests of the investors. These, inter-alia, include conducting regional seminars, investor awareness programs through investor associations, mass media campaign relating to cautioning investors against schemes offering unrealistic returns, issuing list of Do’s and Dont’s through leading newspapers for investors with regard to dealing in securities and issuing monthly press releases cautioning the investors not to invest in the schemes floated by specific entities against which SEBI has passed an order. Besides, SEBI has also launched SEBI Complaints Redress System (SCORES) which is an internet based application wherein the aggrieved investors can lodge a complaint with SEBI. In addition, SEBI has also set up toll free helpline service numbers, which are available to investors from all over India and are in 14 languages.
