Deepen the corporate bond market, Jaitley tells Sebi

The central board discussed the implementation of the Budget announcements related to Sebi.

Finance minister Arun Jaitley Saturday asked markets regulator Sebi to take more steps to deepen the corporate bond market and hoped that continuing uptrend in IPOs will help in meeting the disinvestment targets.

Finance minister Arun Jaitley during the 569th Central Board Meeting of RBI in New Delhi on Saturday. (PTI Photo)

The board of Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) apprised Jaitley about the market trends and recent initiatives taken by it.

Jaitley addressed the market regulator’s board in a customary post-Budget exercise.

Talking to reporters, Sebi chairman Ajay Tyagi said the finance minister was of the view that the regulator should focus on deepening the corporate bond market and more IPOs to help meet the disinvestment targets as well as monetisation of assets through InVITs.

“We have apprised the finance minister about what are our priorities and what we have been doing in the (past) one year,” he said.

He added that Jaitley appreciated the initiatives taken by the markets regulator.

“I think more than Sebi, capital markets... have been really doing well globally,” Tyagi said.

Later, while addressing RBI’s board, Jaitley said: “I had a meeting with Sebi board and one of the factors that stood out from the regulator’s presentation is that there is an increased reliance on corporate bonds as far as credit is concerned.”

Besides Jaitley, the Sebi board meeting was attended by minister of state for finance Pon Radhakrishnan, finance secretary Hasmukh Adhia, chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian, corporate affairs secretary Injeti Srinivas, Sebi’s board members G Mahalingam, Arun P Sathe and Madhabi Puri Buch and other senior officials of the markets regulator.