The Securities and Exchange Board of India, at a meeting on Tuesday, has asked major stock exchanges to submit reworked schemes for corporatisation and demutualisation following the government ordinance on the Securities Contract (Regulation) Act (SCRA), 1956 last month.
Senior executive director of Sebi Pratip Kar said, "We met with the stock exchanges and discussed the various amendments in the SCRA."
The ordinance pertains not only to corporatisation of the exchanges but also to setting up of clearing corporations and other changes in the functioning of the exchanges itself in the new regime.
Kar said the meeting focussed on how the exchanges can go through with the corporatisation process "in a time-bound manner" and its implementation.
The various procedures in the entire process was also discussed with the exchange officials, Kar said.
All the exchange including the Bombay Stock Exchange, will have to submit reworked schemes in light of the amendments made to the SCRA.
Kar said no final deadline has been set but that time limits have been given for filing the first draft, taking it on to the next stage and so on.
While sources indicated that Sebi has an internal deadline of by the end of this current fiscal, Kar said, "We have not set a final deadline."
The regulator will be meeting again with the exchanges in another month or so, he said.
BSE is understood to have already reworked its original scheme and is ready to submit its scheme to the securities watchdog.
Last month the government promulgated an ordinance seeking amendments in SCRA. As per the amended SCRA, the BSE is understood to have made three major changes to its original scheme.
According to the proposed amendments, the maximum broker representation on the governing board of a recognised stock exchange should not exceed one-fourth of its total strength.
The earlier recommendation by the Kania Committee had stipulated broker representation at 33 per cent.
The ordinance also says that exchanges, which have approved the scheme for demutualisation and corporatisation, have to ensure that 51 per cent of the equity share capital is held by the public, other than shareholders having trading rights, within 12 months from the date of publication of the order.
The amendments give a one-year time frame to the exchanges for offloading the 51 per cent stake to the public.