Sebi acted swiftly in Jane Street case, no regulatory lapse, says former chair Madhabi Puri Buch

Buch’s term at the Sebi ended in February 2025 and Tuhin Kanta Pandey took over the reins on March 1, 2025.

“The interim order in the matter of Jane Street Group issued by Sebi on July 3, 2025 has clearly documented the sequence of events leading up to the issuance of the order,” she said. The chronology clearly shows that Sebi commenced an examination of the matter as early as April 2024 itself and took numerous steps including identification of the index manipulation, issuance of circulars and issuance of a caution letter to Jane Street to cease and desist from undertaking certain trading patterns between April 2024 and February 2025, Buch said.

Sebi had barred Jane Street, a US-based proprietary firm, from the markets last week and impounded Rs 4,843 crore of ‘unlawful’ gains for “manipulative” trading patterns in index futures.

According to Buch, during that period, Sebi constituted a multi-disciplinary team of officials to examine the matter comprehensively which led to the detailed findings which form the basis of the order. “It is extremely unfortunate that certain sections of the media are choosing to ignore these facts in plain sight and seeking to create a false narrative by implying that there was regulatory failure by the Sebi in the matter during that period and attributing false motives for the same,” Buch said.

“The order passed by Sebi speaks for itself. Right from April 2024, Sebi was seized of the matter relating to the Jane Street Group and took numerous steps to examine and investigate the extremely complex structures and strategies deployed by them and to verify and analyse the data,” she said.

In parallel, Sebi made various policy level interventions in October 2024 and also instructed NSE to issue a cease-and-desist letter to Jane Street in February 2025. “All of this is clearly articulated in the order of Sebi,” she said.