AI offers powerful tools for fraud detection, but has risks too: Sebi Chief

Mumbai: Tuhin Kanta Pandey, chairperson of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), Friday flagged risks posed by artificial intelligence (AI) in regulating the securities market.

"AI offers powerful tools for surveillance and fraud detection... But it also brings risks - opacity, bias, and concentration of technological power," Pandey said. "Regulation must therefore evolve from supervising institutions to supervising systems and technology."

The top boss at the regulatory body added that technology is reshaping markets faster than any rulebook. Algorithmic trading, digital platforms, and AI-driven decision-making are now part of everyday market functioning.

"We must address concentration and interconnectedness risks. Strengthen data governance and consent architectures. And manage the boundary between regulated finance and unregulated digital spaces," he said, speaking at the summit.

Sebi is, therefore, responding through supervisory technology (SupTech), and RegTech (regulatory technology), stronger cybersecurity frameworks, and improved data governance, Pandey said.

Adding that the regulator sets direction and guardrails after due consultations but the industry has to innovate responsibly.

SEBI has also set up a high- level expert working group to develop a short-term and a long-term strategic technology roadmap for the securities market ecosystem.

Talking about India's next regulatory frontier, he said that regulation can no longer be only reactive but must become anticipatory. "It must move with markets, not behind them."

"We need markets that are resilient by design, capable of navigating geo-fragmentation, technological shifts, and other emerging risks, while continuing to support growth and innovation," he said.

India's market capitalisation has grown more than four-fold in the last ten years, to over ₹4.7 lakh crore today. As a share of GDP, it has risen from around 81% in FY15 to 138% today.In FY25, equity and debt issues together amounted to about ₹14.3 lakh crore, while in FY26 from April to January, ₹11.6 lakh crore has been mobilised. In 2025, India led in IPO activity globally with a record number of IPOs and stood third in terms of IPO proceeds, he said.

The Sebi chief added that the ownership structure of listed companies is also changing. Individuals and mutual funds together now own around 21% of listed equity, compared to 13% in FY15. "This means the Indian household is no longer a peripheral participant. It is now central to the equity story of India," he said.

He further said that regulation has evolved over the years, it has moved from a framework that focused largely on entities to one that focuses on their activities and risks.

"We are moving from silo oversight to a more coordinated regulatory architecture. We are also moving from static rules to dynamic supervision," Pandey said.

"As markets scale, the quality of regulation becomes as important as the quantity of capital they attract."