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Over 100 Senior Officers of SEBI Oppose Mandatory Public Asset Disclosure Fearing Speculation and Unwanted Attention: ET
Moneylife Digital Team 02 December 2025
Investor Interest
Senior officials at Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) are resisting a proposed rule that would require them to publicly disclose their assets and liabilities, citing privacy concerns and fears of speculation about their personal finances, The Economic Times (ET) has reported, quoting multiple people familiar with the matter.
 
According to ET, more than 100 officers, including several in senior management positions, have raised formal objections—some individually and others through employees’ associations—warning that mandatory public declarations could expose them to unwanted attention, intrusive scrutiny, and family pressures, including from relatives seeking financial support.
 
A panel chaired by former chief vigilance commissioner (CVC) Pratyush Sinha has recommended that officials at the rank of chief general manager (CGM) and above make their assets and liabilities public to strengthen transparency and accountability within India’s capital markets regulator. The SEBI board is expected to take up these recommendations at its meeting scheduled for 17 December 2025, ET reported.
 
One person cited by the newspaper says there is 'significant discontent' internally. Officers are willing to disclose such information within the organisation, the person says, but saw no justification for making their financial details available to the public at large. Another source told ET that “no other Indian regulator requires such public disclosures,” arguing that forcing SEBI officials to do so could result in disproportionate scrutiny compared with their peers in other oversight bodies.
 
SEBI did not respond to ET’s emailed queries, the newspaper says.
 
At present, SEBI’s executive board members—including the chairperson—must internally disclose any personal or financial interests that might lead to conflicts. These disclosures, however, are kept confidential and maintained either by the board secretary or by the organisation’s human resources (HR) systems. Non-executive board members who represent the Union ministries of finance and corporate affairs ministry or Reserve Bank of India (RBI) are not required to furnish additional disclosures if their parent organisations already mandate such filings.
 
The ET report also notes that practices differ across jurisdictions. In the UK, for example, the financial conduct authority (FCA) keeps board-level disclosures confidential with its ethics office but does release limited information publicly, such as board members’ and their families’ directorships and holdings in regulated entities.
 
The Sinha committee, constituted in March, was tasked with reviewing conflict-of-interest regulations and strengthening norms governing disclosures of officials’ properties, investments and liabilities. The issue gained urgency after SEBI chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey’s predecessor, Madhabi Puri Buch, faced conflict-of-interest allegations that both she and the market regulator emphatically denied.
 
With the internal pushback now out in the open through the ET report, the regulator’s board faces a contentious debate: whether public disclosure of senior officials’ assets is necessary to reinforce SEBI’s credibility, or whether it risks compromising the privacy and safety of those charged with policing India’s capital markets.
 
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Comments
angelo.extross
4 days ago
The Senior Officers of SEBI seem to be one ahead of our politicians, who have to file their Assets Disclosure when standing for election. If the SEBI officials are given their way, why should the politicians not follow?
Reply
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