Sebi penalises Federal Bank employee for violating market norms

Capital markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Thursday penalised an employee of Federal Bank , who is also a designated person, for violating insider trading norms and not obtaining pre-clearance from the bank for his trades The employee, Harsh Dugar, holds the position of country head – corporate and institutional banking.The order came after Sebi conducted an investigation between March 2017 and April 2017 in the scrip of Federal Bank.Sebi has levied a total fine of Rs 800000 on Dugar for violating provisions of Minimum Standards for Code of Conduct to regulate, monitor and report trading by insiders and provisions of Prohibition of Insider Trading (PIT) Regulations, 2015.It was found that Dugar executed certain transactions in the scrip of Federal Bank whose market value was more than Rs 500000 without obtaining pre-clearance.In terms of code of conduct adopted by Federal Bank, pre-clearance is required for any trade by designated persons involving more than Rs 500000 market value.Besides, he also failed to make mandated disclosures to Federal Bank for the transactions executed by him."The non-disclosure and failure to take pre-clearance in respect of the...trades by the noticee was a technical breach by the noticee."However, as the noticee failed to comply with legal obligations which are an important part of the mechanism to prevent insider trading, he is liable for an appropriate penalty as prescribed," Sebi said.Noticee refers to Harish Dugar.Accordingly, a total fine of Rs 800000 has been imposed on Harish Dugar.Sebi, during a probe, found that Nikki Global Finance either made delayed disclosure or totally failed to make disclosures to BSE regarding disclosures made by three entities in terms of PIT Regulations.In four instances, there has been a delay of more than seven days and in one instance there has been no disclosure at all, Sebi noted.Besides, Levia Trading and Scope Vyapar did not make required disclosures to Nikki Global Finance and BSE regarding certain transactions executed by them in the shares of Nikki and the consequent change in their shareholding in the company.The regulator levied a fine of Rs 500000 on Nikki Global Finance Limited Rs 400000 on Levia Trading Private Limited and Rs 600000 on Scope Vyapar Private Limited (now known as Class Commercial Private Limited .Through another order, Sebi levied a fine of Rs 100000 on broker Ashok Kumar Kayan for failing to segregate securities or money of clients -- Overarching Dealers Private Limited and Levia Trading Private Limited