The Securities & Exchange Board of India (Sebi) yesterday decided to amend the Sebi (Foreign Institutional Investors) Regulations, 1995 to include treasury bills in the definition of debt securities to enable foreign institutional investors (FIIs) to purchase or sell treasury bills within the overall approved debt ceiling.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Merchant Bankers) Regulations, 1992 was amended in December 1997 whereby category-I merchant bankers were prohibited from carrying out any activity other that in the securities market.
Consequently, some merchant bankers are hiving off their merchant banking activities to new entities, says the market regulator.
Registration applications by new entities are being treated by Sebi as applications for continuous registration with the validity of the registration being the same as that of the old entity.
The market regulator has decided to credit the fee paid by the earlier merchant banking entity to the new entity to which the registration has been transferred.
