Sebi suspends registration of two brokerage firms in NSEL paired contracts case

Sebi suspends registration of two brokerage firms in NSEL paired contracts case

Capital markets regulator Sebi on Monday suspended the registration of two brokerage houses — Nortel Vincom and Northeast Commodities — for their involvement in illegal paired contracts on the now defunct National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL).By providing access for taking exposure to paired contracts, the broking firms exposed their clients to the risk involved in trading in a product that did not have regulatory approval, Sebi said in two separate orders.

Further, the regulator said that trading activities of the brokers in paired contracts for their clients on the NSEL platform have “serious ingredients jeopardising the reputation, belief in competence, fairness, honesty, integrity and character of the noticees in the securities market”.

In September 2009, NSEL introduced the concept of paired contracts for trading, which allowed buying and selling of the same commodity through two different contracts at two different prices on the exchange platform.The scheme of paired contracts traded on NSEL had caused a huge loss to investors to the extent of Rs 5,500 crore, as per the orders.