The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) today suspended the registration certificates of 578 brokers for six months over non-payment of registration fee dues to the capital market regulator.
According to sources, the dues run into hundreds of crores of rupees as they have been defaulting for several years now. In August 2005, the regulator had appointed officers to conduct a probe against these brokers. It had also asked stock exchanges to probe the matter.
A person familiar with the development said in some cases there was no chance of any recovery of money as most of them were small brokers while some had shut shop. Almost all brokers of the Inter-Connected Exchange and the Over the Counter Exchange of India have defaulted.