Sebi plans to increase its workforce to tackle investment frauds and to regulate the ever-expanding marketplace

Updated on: Monday, July 01, 2013

Gearing up for greater powers to tackle investment frauds and to regulate the ever-expanding marketplace, Sebi plans to expand its headcount by more than 50 per cent to close to 1,000 employees in next few years.

A significant part of the proposed increase in the headcount, from about 600 employees currently, could be carried out in the current fiscal itself, a senior official said.

While an expanded headcount would also lead to some increase in the regulator's revenue expenditure in the current fiscal, an increase in employee strength has become necessary in view of Sebi gearing up oversight on all kinds of investments schemes raising public money and its growing local office network across the country.

Besides, interim recommendations made by independent consultants engaged by Sebi have also called for enhancing the staff strength from about 600 currently to at least 950 by the fiscal 2015-16, sources said.

"This increase is required for the future manpower requirement to take the full ownership of regulatory oversight of all investment schemes, staff requirement in regional offices as well as local offices," Sebi has said in an internal memorandum for its board.

Sebi has further said that its staff strength also needs to be enhanced to meet its future role and functions, especially when seen in the context of resource allocation to its peer regulators.

The capital market regulator is opening local offices on a pan-India basis for enhanced investor awareness and services.

Speaking on the occasion of Sebi's silver jubilee celebrations last month, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram had also emphasised on the need for augmentation of staff strength at Sebi.

"The country, the economy and the market are too large and are poised to become larger. We need far more than 600 men and women to regulate the stock market," Chidambaram had said.

On the same occasion, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also said that the size and sophistication of the Indian securities market had been increasing at a very rapid pace and Sebi also needs to move ahead accordingly.

"Every day, we see the development of new products with greater complexity than ever before. Developments in technology have resulted in speedier trading processes.

"Simultaneously, the number of entities that Sebi needs to regulate continues to increase. All this points to the need for Sebi to constantly upgrade and improve," Singh had said.

"It is only by building its human and technological capabilities that Sebi can fulfil its mandate of delivering strong and effective enforcement," the Prime Minister said.

Sebi plans to increase its workforce to tackle investment frauds and to regulate the ever-expanding marketplace

More Education news