NSE asks for data to track F&O traders' locations during pandemic

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

NSE) has asked more than 15 brokers, including some of the leading intermediaries, for a slew of information to track the locations from where equity derivative orders were placed between January 2020 and March 2022 — the pandemic months when there was an unusual surge in futures and options trade volumes and on-boarding of new clients by most brokerages. The member brokers have been directed to share the know-your-customer (KYC) details and ledgers of their clients, ID of devices used to put the trade orders, IP addresses as well as the media access control (or MAC) addresses which is an unique identifier for every laptop and mobile handset manufactured, two people aware of the communique from the bourse told ET.

«It is evident that exchange authorities want to know the locations of the traders. Maybe they are examining whether sub-brokers of franchisees in remote locations had accessed user IDs and passwords of a large number of unrelated investors for derivative trades.

In such cases, we won't know whether such trades were unauthorised unless there are complaints by actual investors. Also, the exchange could be looking into whether orders were placed from outside the country,» said chief technology officer of a large brokerage.Focus on Unauthorised Strategies Each broker has been given a set of clients on whom the information has to be shared.

The exchange surveillance department had sought the information, largely related to local clients, last Friday, sources confirmed. The F&O volumes on NSE surged nearly 737% between January 2020 and March 2022.

The average daily F&O volumes were ₹140.25 lakh crore in March 2022 against ₹16.75 lakh crore in January 2020. «From the unique nature of the queries, it seems the focus