NSE forms 2-member committee to probe officials in co-location server case

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) has formed a two-member committee to look into alleged involvement of current and former officials in the co-location server case, according to sources privy to the development. The committee will soon submit its report to the NSE board, sources told Moneycontrol. The board will then decide further course of action in the case. The Securities and Exchange of India (SEBI) had recently issued show-cause notices to the NSE officials and now is also targeting the brokers who made illegal profits by getting preferential access to NSE’s trading server. The market regulator plans to take action against them for unfair trading practices rule. The breach in co-location trading happened between 2010 and 2015 where some members were given preferential access to the exchange server’s price feeds. A whistle blower exposed the violation by writing to the SEBI. SEBI had issued show-cause notices to 15 officials – three from senior management (two of whom have already left) and 11 senior managers (two of whom have already left). The They have been given 21 days to respond. The senior management, who have received the notices, are Ravi Narain, Vice-Chairman and Shareholder Director on the board, Chitra Ramakrishna, ex-Managing Director, Anand Subramanian, ex-Group Operating Officer. Ramakrishna and Subramanian quit in 2016 within a few months of each other. Narain, who was part of the founding team of NSE in the early 90s, is still serving on the board. Senior officials include Ravi Varnasi, Chief of Business Development, Mayur Sindhwad, Chief of Trading Operations, Shankar Sen Banerjee, CTO, Projects, Nandkumar M, Project Leader, GM Shenoy, CTO, NSE Infotech, Ravi Apte, ex-CTO (has quit), Suprabhat Lala, Vice-President, Nagendra Kumar, Chief Business Officer, Debt, Murali S, Umesh Jain, ex-CTO (has quit) Jagdish Joshi (ex-NSE IT, has quit). The market regulator is now going through all the transactions that took place between 2010 and 2015 where brokers are estimated to have made a few0000000000 rupees.