A panel set up by markets regulator Securities & Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to address concerns over conflicts of interest linked to its chairman and senior officials will submit a report by November 10, chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey said at a business summit on Friday.

The panel was set up after the previous Sebi chief, Madhabi Puri Buch, faced allegations of conflicts of interest from the now-closed investment research firm Hindenburg Research.

There is a possibility that the external panel will recommend that the Sebi chairman and senior officials disclose their assets publicly, to pre-empt the conflict-of-interest charge. If accepted, the recommendations would bring Sebi in line with global practices.

Speaking at the BFSI Summit organised by Business Standard in Mumbai, Pandey spoke on a range of issues, including the NSE IPO, F&O expiries, withdrawal of money by foreign portfolio investors as well as the expense ratio that the mutual fund industry charges investors.

F&O expiries

Pandey ruled out the complete closure of weekly F&O expiries, a measure that could be aimed at reducing speculation and increasing cash market volume.

“We cannot just shut down weekly F&O expiries; many market participants are using this,” he said, adding that the market regulator is collecting data related to F&O trading.

He said Sebi took a series of measures to improve the derivative market.

“This (weekly F&O expiry) is a very sensitive subject and has a lot of nuances. There has been a problem in the derivatives market, which has been highlighted by Sebi,” said Pandey.

“Need to see irrational exuberance is in control for smaller or less savvy market participants. How can we shut down the weekly options market just like that? Sebi will do further data crunching on the weekly options issue,” Pandey added.

Expense ratio

After Sebi proposed to bring down the upper limit of the expense ratio that the mutual fund industry can charge, stocks of asset management companies came off sharply earlier this week.

Pandey said Sebi’s recent draft on fee structures emanates from the need to provide clarity and remove any anomalies.

“What has been indicated in the draft is a practical way of reconciling the interests of the industry and the investor. We have a balancing to do. We are saying that we need to be more transparent, investors need to know,” Pandey said.

He also said Sebi would be discussing ways to popularise the small amount of SIPs, admitting that the sachetisation has not taken off as desired.

FPI selling

The Sebi chief exuded confidence in the depth of the Indian stock market, commenting that a $4 billion sale by a set of investors holding over $900 billion of assets does not make him “unduly worried”.

Citing his interactions with the FPIs across the world, Pandey said the confidence they have in India is very high, and added that these investors operate in many markets and evaluate their positions based on aspects such as valuations, which may lead to certain moves. These interactions with the FPI community have helped Sebi understand the pain points and initiate steps to simplify access for such investors into India or initiate digitisation initiatives, he added.

NSE IPO

The long-pending NSE share sale will see "the light of the day", Pandey said, but did not elaborate further. The share sale of India’s leading stock market has been hanging fire for some time. It is now widely expected that the IPO will take place in 2026.

NSE is awaiting a no-objection certificate from Sebi before filing the IPO prospectus.