CAS here to stay, liquidity will pick up, says Sebi Chief

Speaking on the sidelines of the Global Fintech Fest (GFF), Pandey said several global jurisdictions, including the US, Japan and Hong Kong, had experienced lower liquidity when CAS was first introduced, with liquidity improving over time.

“CAS is here to stay…the only question is of liquidity. Many market participants have told us about the rollout in other jurisdictions including the US, Japan, Hong Kong, and they have told that initially everywhere when CAS was brought, the liquidity was always an issue and it builds over time,” Pandey said.

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“The issue is can we just keep on waiting or we can have some temporary solutions to the issue,” he added.

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Pandey said Sebi would soon issue a consultation paper proposing changes to the CAS framework. The regulator introduced CAS on August 3, following which concerns were raised by market participants over the impact of the new mechanism on liquidity and settlement prices. However, the Sebi chairman said several market participants had also praised the implementation of CAS, particularly during events such as MSCI rebalancing.
“We have had several participants who have absolutely praised that implementation of CAS-that MSCI rebalancing and all have gone off very well. Technically the whole thing went off well,” he said.

“Now, there is a certain segment of the market that gets impacted because of the way we kept the settlement price as completely dependent,” Pandey said.