NSE settles case with SEBI, pays Rs 4.87 crore as settlement fee

The National Stock Exchange of India Ltd (NSEIL) on Wednesday settled with markets regulator SEBI a case pertaining to alleged violation of Straight Through Processing (STP) services guidelines after paying Rs 4.87 crore towards settlement fee. In a settlement order, SEBI said it was disposing of “adjudication proceedings initiated against the applicant viz. National Stock Exchange of India Limited vide SCN (Show Cause Notice)… dated March 26, 2021”.

It was alleged that NSEIL functioned as a STP centralized hub without obtaining the renewal of approval from SEBI and also failed to ensure if its STP service providers were having valid approvals, which resulted in violation of several provisions of the STP Guidelines.

Generally, financial firms use STP to pass information electronically in order to optimize the speed at which they process transactions. This eliminates the need for a hands-on re-entry of data that has already been completed at the source. However, it was observed that NSEIL failed to comply with the same. It was alleged that NSEIL has not obtained renewal of approval from SEBI as per STP guidelines.