‘Rules are clear’: Sebi chief’s sharp message to finfluencers

Sebi chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey has made it plain that India's market regulator is not going to leave any room for confusion when it comes to financial influencers, or colloquially the "finfluencers". Addressing proceedings of the 18th Mint BFSI Summit 2025, Pandey said Sebi’s rules on providing investment advice already contain a significant amount of clarity, and the current challenge is actually the galloping pace of misinformation on social media.

Pandey commenced the session with his keynote address and later joined a fireside chat on "Steering India Inc. through a regulatory lens." His comments came as India was witnessing government as well as regulatory crackdowns on unregistered market operators parading as 'educators'.

The Tough Stand of Sebi on Finfluencers

In its latest major step in this directed war against fraud and misinformation originating from finfluencers, the highest administrative set-up of the land!) SEBI barred Avadhut Sathe and his trading academy from participation in the securities market and seized ₹546.16 crore of the illegal gains for discharging unauthorized operations that are supposed to have gotten engagement by imparting some basic stock-market investments.

Sebi chairman Ajay Tyagi said, in response to a query seeking disclosure of some fresh rules to tackle the fraudulent activities that are really misleading, that the legal framework was strong enough as it stands. "There is no ambiguity. What constitutes an investment advice is already clear," he said.

Regarding the rise in custom-trading activities and other forms of market frauds in the pandemic time, he told finfluencers: “A large number of pump and dumps cases are found in which the finfluencers most directly play their hands..." In modern practice, Sebi has started seeing the stock volumes for surveillance of the public domain to get a hold of who among them is making statements and claims," he said, adding that a fiendish (strengthened) verification policy had been agreed upon for the finesse monitoring parameters for the chosen category of such active securities.

Balancing Social Media Risks with Fundamental Rights

Pandey was open and frank about the disruptive nature of social media.

“Enforcement cannot occur in fits and starts; it needs to be seamless, continuous, relentless and now. Social media needs constant surveillance and swift removal of misinformation,” he said.

Moreover, there must be respect for the freedoms.

"People have the right to learn and to express and to seek knowledge, but now we have improved enough to identify when someone crosses the line from education to illegal advise," said the secretary.

"Optimal Regulations"—Sebi's Evolving Stance

Pandey touched on Sebi, highlighting its changing approach towards regulation: "Optimal regulations."

Regulations must have a purpose and should not become some permanent burden designed to target a really small few.

"They must have review and sunset clauses, and overregulation hurts the broader ecosystem," he said.

At the same time, he sounded caution for excessive deregulation.

"We need to put some balance. However, market challenges primarily lead to the implementation of thoughtful rules-not a burst of regulations in 10 days or much shorter," Pandey said.

The future will much more rely on data analytics or a second sort of enhanced surveillance and better Frotmation of the regulations.

The 18th Mint BFSI Summit

Bringing together at this summit of BFSI 2025 were the leadership of banking, fintech, insurance, markets, and regulatory bodies on Central India's booming Babylonian financial landscape. The tagline was Finance's Next Frontier, which goes a long way to suggest how one ought to go about equipping oneself against emerging challenges and tighter regulations, and to leverage relationships with inherently digital platforms.