Sebi chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey on Monday said the regulator has no plans to roll back the recently introduced Closing Auction Session (CAS), even as it reviews concerns raised by market participants, according to Business-Today. The authority is considering whether the framework needs any improvements, but Pandey made clear the auction system is here to stay.
Sebi: CAS is here to stay
Speaking on the sidelines of a cybersecurity event organised at the Sebi-promoted National Institute of Securities Markets, Pandey told reporters: "The CAS is here to stay for sure, only we will see if there are certain constraints or certain issues that we can improve, certainly we will improve." He described CAS as a major reform in the markets and said Sebi had certain objectives that it was seeking to achieve through the framework, Business-Today reported.
The system, introduced on August 3 this year, has drawn attention from some participants over issues they have faced, with several concerns also being raised on social media.
Feedback and improvement process
Pandey said Sebi was examining the feedback but was not yet in a position to spell out any specific changes. "We are looking at all the suggestions, I have myself seen a number of suggestions which have come from social media. Our teams have gone through it, they are discussing with the participants," the career bureaucrat-turned-regulator said. However, he added that the regulator would not react to every criticism of the new framework.
"We are looking at all the suggestions, I have myself seen a number of suggestions which have come from social media. Our teams have gone through it, they are discussing with the participants." — Tuhin Kanta Pandey, Sebi chairman
Adaptation and legacy systems
Pandey said some of the difficulties being reported could diminish as more participants start using CAS. He also pointed to the continued reliance of several participants on systems based on the older volume-weighted average price framework, saying this meant they were unable to benefit from CAS, according to Business-Today.
The Sebi chief has previously said that similar frameworks are already used in other countries and that India was a late adopter. On Monday, he raised the question of whether market participants had put enough effort into familiarising themselves with the new system. "When you have something going on for years and years, they feel that change will never come. We do not put in energy into learning a new system," he said.
Stakeholder reception
Pandey noted that Sebi had received congratulatory messages from many stakeholders for introducing CAS, according to Business-Today.
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| System | Closing Auction Session (CAS) |
| Introduced on | August 3 this year |
| Status | "Here to stay" — no rollback plans |
| Review status | Feedback being examined; no specific changes announced yet |
| Previous framework | Volume-weighted average price (VWAP) systems still used by some participants |
For finance executives and treasury professionals tracking Indian capital markets, the CAS framework represents a structural change in closing price discovery. According to Business-Today, Pandey's remarks signal that Sebi is committed to the new mechanism while being open to refinements. Participants still relying on older VWAP-based systems, as noted by Pandey, may need to upgrade their trading infrastructure to benefit from the new session as adoption broadens.
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