Three persons settle NSE 2021 trading glitch case with SEBI

Three persons, who were part of the crisis management team at the National Stock Exchange (NSE), on Wednesday settled with markets regulator SEBI a case of trading glitch that occurred at the bourse in February 2021.

The three executives settled the case with SEBI on non-monetary settlement terms as the regulator ordered them to do community service for the cause of investor education and awareness for 14 days. Also, they have been directed to take up and pass appropriate training courses.

Those who settled the case were — Ravi Varanasi, who was Chief Business Development Officer at NSE, K S Somasundaram, who was Chief Enterprise Risk & Information Security Officer of NSE and Mayur Sindhwad, who was Chief Operating Officer of the bourse, at the time of the glitch.

Trading was halted at the NSE for nearly four hours on February 24, 2021, reportedly due to telecom links failure leading to unavailability of the online risk management system of NSE Clearing Ltd (NCL).

NCL, a wholly-owned subsidiary of NSE, is responsible for clearing and settlement of all trades executed on the exchange.

Earlier NSE, NCL and three of their top executives settled the matter with SEBI last week after paying a settlement amount of Rs 72.64 crore.

In an order passed on Wednesday, SEBI said that ”instant adjudication proceedings initiated against the applicants (Varanasi, Somasundaram and Sindhwad) vide Show Cause Notice (SCN) dated August 31, 2021 are disposed of”.

The order came after three senior executives filed applications with SEBI proposing to settle the proceedings initiated against them, ”without admitting or denying the findings of facts” through a settlement order.