Tag Archive for: pooled investment vehicles

• CS Sikha Bansal, Partner and CS Aisha Begum Ansari, Manager | corplaw@vinodkothari.com

Regulatory framework for surveillance of DPs

SEBI (Prohibition of Insider Trading) Regulations, 2015 (‘PIT Regs.’), although prohibit trading on the basis of unpublished price sensitive information (UPSI) by any “insider” (which includes even an accidental insider or an outsider having come to possess UPSI); however, from a surveillance and compliance system perspective, the PIT Regs. focus on certain specific insiders called designated persons (DPs). Trading in securities of the listed company by the DPs is sought to be “regulated, monitored and reported” by the Code of Conduct (reg. 9 read with Schedule B) which, inter alia, provides for (a) bar on trading while the trading window is closed; (b) prior clearance by the compliance officer while the trading window is open subject to certain declarations; (c) bar on short-term reversal trades; etc. Another article deals with a detailed discussion on the manner in which ‘insiders’, ‘connected persons’ and ‘designated persons’ are dealt with under PIT Regs.

Similar framework has been envisaged in case of intermediaries and fiduciaries who deal with listed companies. In such cases, the compliance officer of such intermediary/ fiduciary is required to maintain a ‘restricted list’ of securities, which is used as the basis for approving or rejecting the application for pre-clearance of trades by the DP. The DP may trade in the securities of a listed client company which is not in the restricted list subject to pre-clearance by the compliance officer.

Hence, there is no blanket prohibition of trading in the listed securities by the DPs; although, there are conditionalities involved. Very recently, there have also been concerns around investment by DPs in the units of pooled investment vehicles (as we discuss below).