Website – A strong focal for investor awareness - MMJC

1. Background:

Securities and Exchange Board of India (‘SEBI’) and Stock Exchanges have been penalizing and warning Listed Entities to maintain a functional website and contents in accordance with Regulation 46 and Regulation 62 of SEBI (Listing Obligation and Disclosure Requirements) Regulation, 2015 (‘SEBI (LODR) Regulations) for Equity Listed and Non-Convertible Securities Listed Entities respectively.

Information hosted on the websites of Listed Companies that have listed their Equity as well as Debt, was generally incomprehensible for investors and the stock exchange due to the information overload.

Additionally, it was cumbersome to locate disclosures necessitated under respective regulations of SEBI (LODR) Regulations as the same may not be located in one place along with proper indexing. It was also observed by SEBI and stock exchanges that the listed entities might not disclose the last amended date of policies uploaded on the website in all cases

2. Steps taken By NSE earlier:

To tackle this issue, the National Stock Exchange (‘NSE’) has vide its circular dated July 01, 2022, and July 04, 2022, titled ‘Advisory under Regulation 46 and 62 of SEBI (Listing Obligation and Disclosure Requirements) Regulation, 2015’ had asked listed entities to create separate sections for each website disclosure as is required under Regulation 46 and Regulation 62. It also mandated disclosure of last amended date of policies uploaded on the website with the updated policies.

In furtherance to the above, NSE had released another circular dated July 11, 2022, titled ‘Release of a new module for filing of information required under Regulation 46 and 62 of SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015 on NEAPS (NSE Electronic Application Processing System).’ which mandated separate and exact disclosure of URLs against each line item mentioned under Regulation 46 and Regulation 62 of SEBI (LODR) Regulations by July 18, 2022. This deadline was extended to August 31, 2022 due to representation made by Listed Entities on account of time constraints and technological lacunas.

3. Steps taken BSE now:

Now in furtherance to the above Bombay Stock Exchange (‘BSE’) vide its circular dt: February 09, 2023, has released a similar module.  BSE also now wants listed entities (who have listed either their equity shares or any non-convertible securities on BSE) to upload exact links for website disclosure as are already been provided to NSE. Path for uploading same is as follows:

The path for uploading the modules is mentioned below:

• Equity-listed Companies

• Submission of information / disclosure: Listing Center > Listing Compliance > Corporate Announcement> compliances> Reg.46 website Link

• Debt/CP listed Companies

• Submission of information / disclosure: Listing Center > Listing Compliance > Corporate Announcement> compliances> Reg. 62 website Link

The deadline for filing the information required Regulation 46 & 62 of SEBI (LODR) Regulations is February 20, 2023.