SEBI eyes lower cost of capital, compliance reforms to boost competitiveness

“It will be a high-level, permanent centre that will support ongoing research,” Chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey said, adding that it would collaborate with academic and policy institutions to examine the impact of regulations on market development, access to finance and overall efficiency | Photo Credit: DHIRAJ SINGH

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is working on lowering the cost of capital and rationalising regulatory compliance requirements to strengthen India’s competitiveness.

Speaking at the sixth Annual International Research Conference hosted by the National Institute of Securities Markets (NISM) on Thursday, Chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey said, “Cost efficiency of all our measures is important. If you have to build competitiveness, then there is a compliance burden on regulation. It is too high in terms of cost and time. To that extent, the competitiveness also goes down.”

As part of this effort, SEBI is working on a regulatory impact assessment framework, an initiative announced earlier by the Finance Minister in the Budget. A committee led by the Chief Economic Advisor will guide this exercise. The framework is expected to evaluate the costs and benefits of regulatory measures before and after implementation, with a view to improving policy design and reducing unintended burdens.

To support evidence-based policymaking, the regulator is also setting up a Centre for Regulatory Studies. “It will be a high-level, permanent centre that will support ongoing research,” Pandey said, adding that it would collaborate with academic and policy institutions to examine the impact of regulations on market development, access to finance and overall efficiency.

He said that such issues are also deliberated at the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC), where inter-regulatory coordination enables data sharing and research across sectors. This integrated approach is aimed at improving access to finance and reducing its cost over time, he said.

Settlement delays

On the recent technical disruption at National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL), Pandey said systems are now functioning normally. A glitch in the inter-depository transfer mechanism had resulted in settlement delays that extended for a couple of days, but pending transactions were completed over the weekend.

SEBI is awaiting a detailed root cause analysis, which will be placed before its Technical Advisory Committee. “We do have complexities, and complexities are also growing. And the complexities need to be managed through a proactive approach… dealing with this in a patient, calm manner with due cooperation because the system is interconnected,” he said.

Based on the findings, the regulator will consider short-, medium- and long-term corrective measures, including system upgrades or vendor-level interventions where necessary, particularly given rising market volumes and legacy technology challenges.

Published on February 12, 2026