The parliamentary standing committee on finance headed by Jayant Sinha met the officials of the Securities and Exchange Board of India on Monday amidst disapprovals in the regulator’s handling of the Franklin Templeton debt default and particularly weak action on its part in the NSE co-location case. The regulator had dropped action against the NSE and its former bigwigs.

The six debt schemes of Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund with property of around Rs 26,000 crore were frozen on 23 April, 2020 after they faced unprecedented redemptions. The schemes were known to invest in relatively risky debt to get high returns.

The discussions of the house panel mainly focused on a single regulatory code that was proposed in the budget and seeks to consolidate provisions in various legislations, including the Sebi Act, Depositories Act and the Government Securities Act.   

Sebi’s yearly report had called for the early finalisation of the unified code.

The standing committee had former met RBI officials and discussed the role of the central bank in regulating the country’s debt markets and single securities code. Sebi has said the code will remove ambiguities and contradictions between various laws.

A member of the parliamentary panel stated “discussions were on the broad policy issues and not on specific case details. Much of the discussion with financial sector regulators on strengthening broad policy measures and submissions would be studied in detail and would be part of the report to be submitted to parliament.”

The six debt schemes of Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund with assets of around Rs 26,000 crore were frozen on 23 April, 2020 after they faced unprecedented redemptions. The schemes were known to invest in relatively risky debt to get high returns.