Sebi proposes to ease compliance for non-convertible securities

Aimed at promoting ease of doing business for non-convertible securities, market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Friday released a consultation paper seeking feedback on proposals, including alignment of provision regarding approval and authentication of financial results for entities having listed non-convertible securities with that for equity listed entities.

Under the proposed norms, the quarterly financial results submitted shall be approved by the board of directors. Further, the financial results submitted to the stock exchange shall be signed by the chairperson or managing director, or a whole-time director. In the absence of all of them, it should be signed by any other director of the listed entity who is duly authorised by the board of directors to sign the financial results.

Under the current regulation, listed non-convertible securities requires quarterly results to be taken on record by the board of directors and to be signed by the managing director/ executive director. Regulations applying to entities with listed specified securities require the quarterly financial results to be approved by the board of directors and signed by the chairperson or managing director, or a whole-time director or in the absence of all of them, by any other director duly authorized by the board of directors.

The move comes following the announcement made by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Budget of FY2023-24 calling for simplifying, easing and reducing cost of compliance for participants in the financial sector.

Sebi constituted various working groups to recommend measures to simplify and ease compliances under various SEBI regulations.Among other things, a proposal has been made to align provision regarding disclosure of fraud/default in respect of price sensitive information for entities having listed non-convertible securities with that of equity listed entities.The committee members had recommended a common definition of ‘fraud’ for equity and debt listed entities.The consultation paper also proposes reduction in timeline for intimation of record date to stock exchanges by entities having listed non-convertible securities to ‘atleast three working days’ from ‘atleast seven working days’.

Filing of all disclosures by listed entities having listed non-convertible securities with stock exchanges is proposed to be done in XBRL format in line with provision specified for equity listed entities.

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