Sebi asks broking community to enhance security firewalls to prevent cyber fraud

Markets watchdog Sebi has asked the broking community to strengthen data/cybersecurity firewalls to secure their customers from cyber fraudsters and develop technologies to ease the process of investing in the markets.

Addressing the Association of National Exchange Members of India (Anmi), Sebi executive director GP Garg on Friday urged brokers to draw the maximum benefit from the innovation sandbox that Sebi has set up to develop new customer-friendly and more secure technologies.

He also noted that the pandemic has fastened the digital transformation in all walks of life, especially in the financial and equity markets.

It has been a good transformation moving from offline to online, and the pandemic has expedited this digital transformation. Given this, I want Anmi to continue bringing solutions to provide ease of investing experience to investors, as the future lies in providing complete data security, Garg said.

A good technological solution needs to be accessed even by the common man and should not be just for the tech-savvy investors, he added.

Garg also released a technology survey prepared by the Anmi, which is the largest grouping of over 900 brokers and members of BSE, NSE and MCX and other bourses.

The survey has found that as much as 92.6 per cent of stockbrokers -- who are the association members -- have increased their spending on technology during the pandemic, with 41 per cent of them increasing it by over 20 per cent. And 65.8 per cent of them said their board meetings during the pandemic discussed technology as the main header.

Kamlesh Shroff of Anmi said the changing landscape of financial technology has gained momentum since the pandemic. Today most capital market entities have largely ingrained technology into their business model. 

The shift from offline to online has helped the financial economy, including the brokers survive in these challenging times.