MUMBAI: In his first public comments on the Jane Street scam, markets regulator Tuhin Kanta Pandey said, “Sebi will not tolerate market manipulation at any cost.”
It can be recalled that Sebi, in an interim order issued in the early hours of Friday, banned New York-based proprietary trading giant Jane Street. The firm had reportedly made more money from trading than two other Wall Street giants—Citi and Bank of America—combined in 2024, pocketing a whopping $20.5 billion, of which more than a fifth, ₹36,502 crore, came from manipulating the Bank Nifty.
The order, issued by Whole Time Member Anantha Narayan, also directed the company to pay back Rs 4,843.5 crore to Sebi, which it deemed to have been illicitly earned.
“As I said earlier, surveillance is in place, and we have effectively increased the number of participants in surveillance both at the exchange level as well as the Sebi level,” Pandey told reporters on Saturday on the sidelines of an event, when asked about the Sebi ban on Jane Street for allegedly manipulating the Bank Nifty index through pump-and-dump trades.
The chairman further added, “This is basically a surveillance issue, and we are now tracking the markets more closely. We are looking at everything.”
“Market manipulation is not going to be tolerated at all—at any cost,” Pandey reiterated. He was speaking to reporters after addressing the Bombay Chartered Accountants Society in the evening.