Moulding the future of finance

Damodaran calls for heightened regulatory impact assessment

- Manas Pimpalkhare

Former Sebi chairperson M. Damodaran, speaking at the Mint BFSI Summit, called for heightened regulatory impact assessment at a time capital markets are surging in value. He said corporate governance in Indian companies has improved as independent directors have started voicing their opinions more in the boards.

"The markets have grown in complexity, in size, number of investors have increased, number of issuers have increased. There are external factors, not related to India, but impacting India," he said, noting that many of these complexities did not exist a decade ago.

"Sebi is not getting the credit for the work they are doing. They do not need advice, but in the excitement to do more good things, somewhere I think regulatory impact assessment should get factored into the decision-making process," said the former Sebi chairperson.

He added that the market regulator had moved from "distrust and crucify" to a "trust but verify" approach, as he had suggested several times in the past.