Jane Street defends India trading activity

Jane Street Group LLC told its employees that India’s securities regulator made “many erroneous or unsupported assertions” about its trading activity in the country, and the firm intends to defend itself against the accusations.

- BEI HU

In an email to staffers over the weekend, the American proprietary trading firm and market maker said it strongly rejects the premise and substance of an interim order from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) that accused it of “index manipulation.”

The regulator last Friday temporarily barred Jane Street from accessing India’s securities market, and said it would seize 48.4 billion rupees ($564 million) in alleged “unlawful gains.” Jane Street made the equivalent of about $4.3 billion in overall trading gains between January 2023 and March 2025, according to Sebi.

“We reject the premise and the substance of the Order in the strongest possible terms,” Jane Street said. “It's deeply upsetting to see the firm mischaracterised in this way,” it added.

The firm said Sebi’s report used extremely inflammatory language and was “fundamentally mistaken” about Jane Street's trades. It is preparing a formal response to the regulator and also assessing its legal options.