SEBI’s move to regulate the usage of e-mail, internet and electronic means of communication by employees of market intermediaries, and to make the compliance officer liable, was commented upon recently by Umakanth here.
However, well-intentioned, SEBI’s move is not implementable, poses serious issues for the office of the compliance officer, and can have the unintended consequence of stifling sharing of knowledge. For example, if this blog-post is received in the inbox of any employee of the market intermediary, he would be committing an illegal act, if he were to forward that e-mail without getting his compliance officer to verify what I have said.
In a recent column, I have commented on issues posed by this development here.