SEBI Further Eases Compliance Norms For Brokers

On Friday, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) extended the deadline for brokers to submit reports on client funding and daily margin till 31 July, in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis.

Besides, the markets regulator has also given more time for submitting compliance certificate on margin trading, risk-based supervision, internal audit report as well as net worth certificates of brokers for the half-year ended 31 March 2020.

This is the third extension in the deadline for compliance amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The decision comes after receiving a representation from stock exchanges, SEBI said in a circular.

The regulator has given time till 31 July to brokers for submitting reports on client funding for April, May and June as well as March quarter report on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) applications.

In view of the situation arising due to COVID-19 and the lockdown, based on representations received from stock exchanges, SEBI said it has decided to extend the due date for the regulatory filings and compliance requirements by their trading and clearing members.

Further, the regulator has again extended time for not imposing penalties for non-collection or a short collection of upfront margins in cash segment.

The imposition of penalty was effective from April 1 and the relaxation in this regard was given till 30 June.

"However... reporting of non- collection/short collection of margins in the cash segment shall continue," it added.

The relaxation in compliance requirement for maintaining call recordings of instructions received from clients will also continue till 31 July with respect to trading members working from designated alternate locations.