SEBI fines NSE and former chief Chitra Ramkrishna

SEBI fines NSE and former chief Chitra Ramkrishna

The penalties must be paid within 45 days

The capital market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has imposed a penalty of Rs.7 crores on National Stock Exchange (NSE) in the 'dark fibre' case, widely known as the NSE co-location case.

The case is about the alleged improper dissemination of information from the computer servers of the market exchanges to the stockbrokers.

The focus of the investigation was on the role of the stockbrokers who allegedly benefited from preferential access to the exchange's system, including the quantification of gains of the stock brokers.

Besides NSE, the capital market regulator imposed a penalty of Rs.5 crores each on the former Managing Director of the stock exchange Chitra Ramkrishna and Group Operating Officer Anand Subramanian.

As per the SEBI order, a penalty worth Rs.3 crores was imposed on the internet service provider Sampark Infotainment, Rs.6 crores on stockbroker Way2Wealth, and Rs.5 crores on GKN Securities.

The order read, "It is now established that W2W and GKN, in collusion with the employees of NSE and Sampark, made significant profits due to the unfair latency advantage available with them."

Pursuant to the investigation, it was alleged that Sampark had arranged the cabling in the co-location in a manner that some stock brokers had lower latency compared to other trading members connected to Sampark.