Market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has let off the hook three former executives of the National Stock Exchange who were accused of failing to ensure equal access for all brokers to the bourse’s network servers.

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But Sebi has asked the exchange to take action against two others for having shown laxity and dereliction of duty in the so-called co-location case. NSE officials were accused of providing some high-frequency traders unfair access through co-location servers placed at the site of the exchange, which could aid high-speed trading.

In an order released the regulator let off Subramanian Anand, who was the Chief Strategic Officer and Group Operating Officer of the NSE. Anand was accused of failing to perform his role in establishing adequate systems leading to the scenario whereby certain brokers were allowed to breach the norms of fair and equitable access.

The regulator also found Mahesh Soparkarand and Deviprasad Singh, who were head of the Project Support and Management (PSM) team at different periods, to have failed to discharge their duties as PSM team heads, which included monitoring the access to Secondary Server by trading members from time to time and administering uniform standards of discipline against them.

However, the regulator also found such conduct has been found to be suitable for handling by NSE “so as to fix accountability on the employees, as deemed fit and appropriate.”

Accordingly, NSE has been directed to initiate enquiry under its Employees Regulations against these two notices and submit a report to Sebi within six months from the date of order.

(With inputs from Moneycontrol.com)

First Published:Aug 29, 2019 11:50 PM IST