A huge scam seems to be on the verge of being unearthed at the National Stock Exchange of India.

By Deepak Sharma

A huge scam seems to be on the verge of beiBy Deepak Sharma

A huge scam seems to be on the verge of being unearthed at the National Stock Exchange of India. The scam which is
estimated to run into crores relates to leakage of all important market price data. An internal correspondence reveals that top executives of NSE allegedly gave faster access to a select band of brokers who minted money worth several billion.

The alleged scandal was unearthed by a Singapore-based whistleblower who informed about it to the DGM, Marketing Regulation Department of SEBI. Sources said that Finance Ministry has initiated a probe into the racket which at the moment seems to be the tip of the iceberg.

In his complaint the whistleblower has alleged that market was manipulated at NSE for the past 4 years as a nexus of employees and brokers laid its hands on information of market price ahead of the rest of the market.

The NSE is supposed to give market price information and access to every broker at the same time. However in this case the employees provided early information and access to select brokers. Obviously in Stock market whoever gets early access and information makes a lot of money than the rest.

The whistleblower has informed the SEBI that estimates of such gains to the nexus of brokers and employees could be more than several thousand crores. “We can’t figure out exact numbers. However, the scam is big and very much organised. At the moment it would seem to sabotage the enquiry if we take names of the executives and the brokers,” said a source to India Samvad.

Suspicious of the ongoing racket, some leading stock brokers of Mumbai later complained the matter to NSE management. Instead of plugging the loopholes, NSE instructed its subsidiary company Omnysis to charge extra money to brokers for facilitating early information. Some brokers did pay this service fee too. The whistleblower says that in this way NSE converted bribe money to a service fee. It is alleged that some top brokers of Mumbai went ahead of greasing the palms of key data managers at NSE to get early market data from its system. “ In fact some employees of the NSE gave faster access to a few brokers who made huge money in over last 4 years,” reveals the complaint sent to SEBI’s market regulation department.

Noted market columnist Sucheta Dalal writes on her website that , “Ater five months of silence, multiple agencies have woken up to the possible dangers of large-scale market manipulation by large institutional traders who run high-frequency trading (HFT) programmes in India. A whistleblower’s letter to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) detailed how certain institutions registered for HFT were allowed to profit illegally by the NSE’s insiders. The letter, written in January 2015, was addressed to SEBI’s deputy general manager BK Gupta.”

It is a market where every microsecond that you gain in executing high-speed trading orders is worth several hundred crore rupees in profits. Large investment institutions pump money into expensive technology and servers get co-location advantage by instaling them inside the Exchange’s premises. The whistleblower’s letter explains in detail how the NSE’s insiders allowed some chosen traders to benefit through faster connectivity, a day after day. These high-frequency trades contributed to the huge froth of trading volumes on the Exchange.ng unearthed at the National Stock Exchange of India. The scam which is estimated to run into crores relates to leakage of all important market price data. An internal correspondence reveals that top executives of NSE allegedly gave faster access to a select band of brokers who minted money worth several billion.

The alleged scandal was unearthed by a Singapore-based whistleblower who informed about it to the DGM, Marketing Regulation Department of SEBI. Sources said that Finance Ministry has initiated a probe into the racket which at the moment seems to be the tip of the iceberg.

In his complaint the whistleblower has alleged that market was manipulated at NSE for the past 4 years as a nexus of employees and brokers laid its hands on information of market price ahead of the rest of the market.

The NSE is supposed to give market price information and access to every broker at the same time. However in this case the employees provided early information and access to select brokers. Obviously in Stock market whoever gets early access and information makes a lot of money than the rest.

The whistleblower has informed the SEBI that estimates of such gains to the nexus of brokers and employees could be more than several thousand crores. “We can’t figure out exact numbers. However, the scam is big and very much organised. At the moment it would seem to sabotage the enquiry if we take names of the executives and the brokers,” said a source to India Samvad.

Suspicious of the ongoing racket, some leading stock brokers of Mumbai later complained the matter to NSE management. Instead of plugging the loopholes, NSE instructed its subsidiary company Omnysis to charge extra money to brokers for facilitating early information. Some brokers did pay this service fee too. The whistleblower says that in this way NSE converted bribe money to a service fee. It is alleged that some top brokers of Mumbai went ahead of greasing the palms of key data managers at NSE to get early market data from its system. “ In fact some employees of the NSE gave faster access to a few brokers who made huge money in over last 4 years,” reveals the complaint sent to SEBI’s market regulation department.

Noted market columnist Sucheta Dalal writes on her website that , “Ater five months of silence, multiple agencies have woken up to the possible dangers of large-scale market manipulation by large institutional traders who run high-frequency trading (HFT) programmes in India. A whistleblower’s letter to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) detailed how certain institutions registered for HFT were allowed to profit illegally by the NSE’s insiders. The letter, written in January 2015, was addressed to SEBI’s deputy general manager BK Gupta.”

It is a market where every microsecond that you gain in executing high-speed trading orders is worth several hundred crore rupees in profits. Large investment institutions pump money into expensive technology and servers get co-location advantage by instaling them inside the Exchange’s premises. The whistleblower’s letter explains in detail how the NSE’s insiders allowed some chosen traders to benefit through faster connectivity, a day after day. These high-frequency trades contributed to the huge froth of trading volumes on the Exchange.

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