SAT stays Sebi's order restraining IIFL Securities from taking up new clients

In an interim relief to IIFL Securities, the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) has stayed market regulator Sebi's order that banned the broking house from onboarding new clients for two years. The order came after IIFL Securities, earlier known as India Infoline Ltd, filed an appeal against the order passed by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).

In an order uploaded on its website on Wednesday, the appellate tribunal has stayed the order passed by Sebi. The matter has been listed for final disposal on August 23.

The capital markets regulator, on June 19, prohibited IIFL Securities from taking up new clients for two years for alleged mis-utilisation of client funds.

In its order, Sebi found that IIFL failed to segregate its own funds from clients' funds, misused the funds of its credit balance clients for settlement of its proprietary trades as well as the trades of its debit balance clients from April 2011 to June 2014, and the said violations were again noticed during March 2017 inspection for the period of FY 2015-16 and 2016-17.

The order came after the Sebi conducted multiple inspections of the books of account of IIFL for the period April 2011 to January 2017. IIFL had earlier stated that the Sebi's order does not affect the company's existing business with the existing clients. In May 2022, the regulator imposed a penalty of Rs 1 crore on IIFL Securities for misusing client funds.

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