F&O Norms Great Effort By Regulator, Well Distributed Market Access Big Opportunity: Ujjwal Jain

The tightening of regulations for futures and options trading in the market is a great effort by the regulator, said Ujjwal Jain, chief executive officer of Share.Market. Regulators work with those who focus on the interest of traders and investors, he added.

"Our intent is to enable and empower investors...If your intent is towards the end consumer, regulators work with you," said Jain at the NDTV Profit Conclave in Mumbai, on Tuesday. The current regulations, as well as those that will be coming in phases going forward, will be important for the market in the long term, he said.

"Regulation is the first call of duty...The principle-to-principle trust that the SEBI has built is brilliant," said Jain.

In 2024, the Securities and Exchange Board of India introduced F&O regulations, with focus on investor protection, market stability and risk management. Among the norms, the regulator raised the entry barrier, while making the space more expensive for retail investors.

While people have realised that long-term investment in equity will have better wealth-creation probability than other assets, access to knowledge and research is still lacking, Jain said. "Our next focus area is how we provide access to knowledge and research," he said, adding that artificial intelligence will assist in increasing access to markets.

"Distribution platforms will be hybrid in nature...AI will help increase this access to markets."

"Looking at the last 10 years of Indian capital markets, access to market has been well served...to put things into perspective, since launch, Share.Market has already reached about 99% of pin codes of India," he said.

However, he highlighted that from an overall market point of view, there's a lot of room to grow, as there is under-penetration in some pockets of the market while over-penetration in others.

According to Jain, 18% of their total assets under management comes from B30 cities.

"SEBI norms allowed the ability to onboard customers on a DIY basis. We have cracked that in scale. 18% of assets under management came from B30 cities," said Jain.

"Well distributed access to markets is a big opportunity," he added.