Brokers push Sebi to review proposed 100% levy on day trade peak margins

The Association of National Exchanges Members of India (ANMI) has urged regulatory authorities to reconsider the proposed 100% levy on the day trade peak margins as the margin is 300% of what should have been the actual levy.

ANMI in a letter to market regulator Sebi, expressed its opinion that there is a great disconnect between what is being collected from clients and what needs to be collected vis-a-vis the attendant risks arising in intraday trades. ANMI, however, reiterates that they are not against the collection of intraday margin levied on clients nor the levy of full margin on the Clearing members irrespective of the nature of the trade.

Sharing its data with the regulator, ANMI pointed out that the rate of overnight margins, levied on intraday trades are almost 3.33 times more than what is warranted based on the risks of the trade. It maintains that the ideal margin based on the attendant risks ideally should not exceed 33.33% of the SPAN margin.

In the current margining structure, the current levy of Peak margins is actually 300% of the margin which should have been actually levied,” said ANMI spokesperson. “The levy of margin being a high multiple on intraday trades is also causing effects elsewhere”

According to ANMI, the spike in peak margin will bring change in market behaviour by shifting from future to option buying and a shift in the mindset of people gravitating more towards options trading and moving away from Stock / Index Futures and Stock Options. They also pointed out that higher margins would also imply prolonged carry forward of loss-making trades giving a false sense of security. Due to the shift, hedging opportunities have seen a dip due to lower volumes in the capital markets and commodity markets have been greatly impacted.

ANMI’s concern over the peak margin issues rises as the deadline for the increase of the current margin of 50% to 75% from June 1, 2021 is closing in. Between December 2020 and February 2021, traders were supposed to maintain at least 25% of the peak margin. This margin was raised to 50% between March 2021 and May 2021 and is proposed to be raised to 75% between June 2021 and August 2021 and finally to 100% from September 1st onwards.

ANMI hopes that the regulating authorities will consider our suggestions and bring the peak margin back within the band of 25% to 33.33% from the current rate of 50%. We believe that the change will be a major boost for the industry in the current scenario

ANMI had requested an urgent virtual meeting (keeping in mind pandemic conditions) with policymakers concerned in SEBI to discuss the submission at length.