Groww Invest pays over ₹34 Lakh to settle Sebi case linked to tech glitch

Groww Invest Tech has paid a Rs 34.12 lakh as settlement in a case filed in October last year, markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said on Tuesday.

The case stems from an incident on January 23, 2024, when Groww’s platform suffered a glitch that prevented clients from placing trades. Following this, the company filed for a settlement with Sebi, choosing to resolve the issue “without admitting or denying the findings of facts and conclusions of law".

In its official order, Sebi confirmed that GrowwInvest, which was earlier known as Nextbillion Technology, had completed the payment. Sebi stated, “In view of the acceptance of the settlement terms and the receipt of the settlement amount...by Sebi, the instant adjudication proceedings initiated against the applicant vide SCN (show cause notice) dated October 11, 2024, are disposed of.”

According to Sebi’s notice, Groww, in its role as a stockbroker, failed to send critical data to the exchange through LAMA, which is a logging and monitoring system, on the day of this technical disruption.

The company allegedly also did not have any backup support for its clients during the glitch period. There were reportedly no working phone lines, trading terminals, or staff available to take trading calls, which led to a complete service shutdown for all users for as long as the trading downtime persisted.

Sebi noted in its adjudication proceedings that Groww’s cybersecurity checks, in particular its Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing (VAPT), failed to act effectively to subside any sort of issue that arose.

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