mumbai the board of markets regulator sebi on tuesday agreed to change the buyback process to make it more investorfriendly and introduced a new category of brokers with enhanced riskmitigating measures sebi will also introduce a new platform to invest in direct plans of mutual funds it changed rules that would enhance the board governance structure of market infrastructure institutions miisthe sebi board agreed to phase out the process of buyback through the stock exchange route and move to a method where shares are directly offered to a company called the tender offer route the sebi board said that under the new process companies will be allowed to increase the buyback price up to a day before the record date these amendments aim to streamline the process of buyback create a level playing field for investors and promote ease of doing business sebi said a detailed circular from the regulator will give the operational details for the changed buyback systemto reduce market risks the sebi board introduced a new category of brokers qualified stock brokers qsbs that handle a very large number of clients very large amounts of funds of such clients and very large trading volumes if such brokers fail it could potentially cause widespread impact on investors along with reputational damage to the indian securities market to mitigate such risks qsbs would need to comply with enhanced riskmanagement practicesrequirements there would also be enhanced monitoring of such qsbs by sebimiis the regulator saidto give a fillip to the direct plans of mutual funds sebi allowed launching a separate online platform for investing in these schemes only financial advisers and brokers would be allowed on this platform the regulator saidthe board said that public interest directors on the boards of miis like stock exchanges depositories and clearing corporations should come with experience relevant to these bodies it added that every three years the working of all miis should be evaluated by an independent agency it said that no employee of the mii will be permitted to simultaneously be an employee of a subsidiary of the mii a normal practice under current regulationshowever the sebi board did not allow a committee recommendation that had proposed that at least twothirds of board members of an mii should be independent directors who would also be public interest representatives sebi said that a sharper code of conduct will be applicable to the mii the governing board directors key management personnel kmps and committee members further board members and kmps will be held accountable if they are aware of wrongdoings and do not appropriately report the same the sebi release saidthe changes come on the heels of the recent revelations about the wrongdoings by two former mds of nse chitra ramkrishna and ravi narain these regulatory changes are expected to bring in greater transparency and accountability in the functioning of miis the circular notedto reduce risks and inconvenience to investors in case of a technical glitch with their brokers sebis board