Sebi asks bourses to put in place SOPs for dispute resolution on investor services by June 1

Capital markets regulator Sebi on Friday directed stock exchanges to put in place by June 1 standard operating procedures for the resolution of all disputes pertaining to investor services and their entitlements.

The bourses have been asked to come out with SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) for resolving disputes related to or emanating from investor services such as transfer/transmission of shares, demat/remat, issue of duplicate shares, transposition of holders, and investor entitlements like corporate benefits, dividend, bonus shares, rights entitlements, credit of securities in public issue, interest /coupon payments on securities.

According to a circular, in respect of disputes in these matters where Registrar and Share Transfer Agents (RTA) offer services to shareholders or investors on behalf of listed companies, the RTAs will continue to be subjected to the stock exchange arbitration mechanism.

Sebi's rule provides for dispute resolution under the stock exchange arbitration mechanism for contentions between a listed company and its shareholder or investor.