Sebi reviews trading capacity norms for exchanges and clearing corporations

Mumbai: The Securities and Exchange Board of India or Sebi, on Thursday reviewed the norms for the capacity of exchanges and their clearing corporations to handle trading work load and directed them to have an installed capacity of at least 1.5 times (1.5x) their projected peak load.

Exchanges trading in equity derivatives and currency derivatives need to calculate the projected peak load for the succeeding 60 days based on the per-second peak load trend of the past 180 days, the market regulator said.

“All systems in trading, clearing and settlement ecosystem shall be considered in this process including all technical components such as network, hardware, software, etc., and shall be adequately sized to meet the capacity requirements. In case the actual capacity utilisation exceeds 75% of the installed capacity, immediate action shall be taken to enhance the capacity,” Sebi said in a circular.

As per the norms, the per-half-hour capacity of the computers and the network should be at least 4 to 5 times the anticipated peak load in any half hour, or of the actual peak load seen in any half-hour during the preceding six months.

Stock exchanges and clearing corporations have been directed to comply with the new norms within three months.