India’s apex financial regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has organized tours and other research and other research assignments to other countries for its officials to learn more about cryptocurrencies and Initial Coin Offerings (ICO).
According to the SEBI’s 2017-18 annual report, the officials of the regulator have already undertaken “study tours” in particular to study cryptocurrency and ICOs at Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA), the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA).
SEBI disclosed that its officials undertook the “study tour” to enhance engagement with international partners and also to gain “deeper understanding of the systems and mechanisms,” the annual report stated. The report also reveals that SEBI in the past has benefitted a lot from these experiences and the knowledge transfer helps improve the processes within SEBI.
Last year, SEBI also organized a similar study tour which saw its officials travel to the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) in Hong Kong to study surveillance capabilities, mechanisms and responsibilities in those jurisdictions, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) USA to understand Early Warning systems, and also to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) UK to understand migration to fee-based advisory model.
The cryptocurrency is still new and regulations as is the regulatory approach towards it. By studying the approach of other countries, SEBI hopes to get a better understanding which will help drive its activities around the technology.
As reported earlier, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has formed a new unit to supervise and lead regulatory efforts in the areas of Blockchain, cryptocurrency and other emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Solomon Sunny is the market reporter for Smartereum, one of the global leaders in Ethereum, blockchain and currency news. He produces technical price updates on digital currencies and writes recent developments about blockchain.
