MUMBAI: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) directed the National Stock Exchange (NSE) to pay Rs 687 crore and barred it from accessing the securities market for six months following investigations into the colocation of servers that gave an unfair advantage to some traders.
The regulator also banned former NSE chief executives Ravi Narain and Chitra Ramkrishna from associating with any listed company or stock exchange for five years for their alleged role in the matter.The regulator said high-profile academic Ajay Shah was also prohibited from associating in any manner with any stock exchange, depository, market intermediary or listed company for two years.
It also barred stock broker OPG Securities and its directors Sanjay Gupta and Sangeeta Gupta from accessing the securities market for five years.The case dates back to 2015, when a whistleblower wrote to Sebi alleging that NSE, Indias largest stock exchange, gave preferential access to a few high-frequency traders and brokers to the exchanges trading platform.
Sebi named the complainant as Ken Fong.Colocation refers to traders being able to place servers in close proximity to those of an exchange, thus giving them a time advantage that translates into massive profits.