Sebi Sets One-Month Deadline for SCORES Registration

Market regulator Sebi today asked all listed firms to register themselves with its online complaint redressal system SCORES by September 14, after which the companies would be required to resolve all grievances within 30 days of their receipt.

The companies would also have to initiate action for redressal of investor grievances within seven days of receipt in the Sebi Complaints Redress System (SCORES), failing which the regulator can take necessary enforcement actions.

Sebi had launched this online system for handling investor grievances in June 2011.

In a circular issued today, Sebi said: "All companies whose securities are listed on stock exchanges, are hereby advised to obtain SCORES authentication by September 14, 2012."

"All companies against whom complaints are pending on SCORES, shall take appropriate necessary steps within 7 days of receipt of complaint by the concerned company through SCORES, so as to resolve the complaint within 30 days of receipt of complaint and also keep the complainant duly informed of the action taken thereon," Sebi said.

The regulator further said that "in case of failure to comply with the above, SEBI would be constrained to initiate enforcement actions as per the law as may be deemed appropriate."

Prior to SCORES, the companies were required to submit physical ATRs (Action Taken Reports) on the investor complaints forwarded by Sebi to them.

Among other benefits, SCORES provides a centralised database of all complaints, online movement of complaints to the concerned listed companies, online upload of Action Taken Reports (ATRs) by the concerned companies, and online viewing by investors of actions taken on the complaint and its current status.

Under this system, all the investor complaints are congregated electronically on SCORES platform, where the companies are required to view them and submit ATRs alongwith supporting documents electronically.

Failure on the part of the company to update the ATR in SCORES is treated as non-redressal of investor complaints, while submission of physical ATR is not accepted for complaints lodged in SCORES.

In case the complaints are processed by the Registrar to Issue and Share Transfer Agent (RTI/STA) on behalf of the company, the concerned company is required to inform Sebi about the same, so that the ATRs can be uploaded.

Economic Times, New Delhi, 14-08-2012