Sebi plans to outsource processing of complaints

The decision to outsource processing and maintenance of investor grievances has been taken by Sebi to help it resolve these complaints on a fast-track basis, a senior official said.

Sebi has decided to put in place stringent conditions for selection of the agency to be empaneled by it for handling the investor complaints and due care would be taken to safeguard the investors’ interest, the official added.

The activities to be outsourced by Sebi include receiving complaints from investors, forwarding them to the concerned market entities and companies, tracking their status and conduct necessary follow-ups and preparation of periodic as well as ad-hoc reports on the investor grievances.

Besides, the agencies would also be responsible for entry of the complaints into Sebi’s computerised grievance redressal system with proper categorisation and codification, updation of the system with Action Taken Reports (ATRs) and keeping investors informed about progress on their complaints.

Sebi is putting in place this web-based centralised system, named Sebi Complaints Redress System (SCORES), for speedy redressal of grievances.

Besides reducing time gap between receipt and redressal of a complaint, the new system would also help in storage of the investor grievances, whose numbers have swelled to over 2.7 million since Sebi’s inception.

The new system would have a centralised tracking system for all grievances at various offices and divisions of Sebi.