Sebi finalising draft discussion paper over guidelines for 'finfluencers'

Sebi will be finalising a draft discussion paper in a month or two to formulate rules and guidelines to regulate the mushrooming number of unregistered financial influencers

Market watchdog Sebi will be finalising a draft discussion paper in a month or two to formulate rules and guidelines to regulate the mushrooming number of unregistered financial influencers or “finfluencers” who offer investment advisors to the public.

The statement from Sebi chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch comes on the heels of the income tax department reportedly sending notices to top 35 social media influencers for not paying taxes worth crores of rupees and after last week's searches on the top 13 Youtubers in Kerala for similar offences.

"We are crystalising a discussion paper to regulate financial influencers. The paper should be ready for public comments in the next couple of months," Ms. Buch told reporters late last night after a marathon board meeting wherein the board approved a rash of regulatory measures including halving of the share listing time to three days the present six after an IPO.

The board also decided to tighten the disclosure norms for large foreign portfolio investors.

Explaining the regulatory position, the chairperson said, "We've no problem if someone chooses to educate investors/would-be-investors about the market and investments. But there is a serious problem if they are offering unsolicited investment advice and are not registered with the Sebi."

There are numerous unregistered finfluencers who are manipulating the market and offer qualified advice to the gullible public and earn huge money by way of commission from these platforms on one hand and on the other from the market by transacting on those stocks they talked up or talked down.

With the number of such people thriving on social media platforms like Youtube, Instagram, Telegram, WhatsApp and Twitter in recent years, Sebi has been cautioning the public against falling into their advisory traps on one hand and also hinting at bringing out regulations to contain their free-run.