Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) whole-time member Ashwani Bhatia has raised concerns over the regulator’s recent changes to futures and options (F&O) trading.

He said that even though India has the largest volume of F&O in the world, “that is a crown we should not wear.”

He urged investors to stop viewing finance and operations as a “national pastime” and make serious investments that contribute to wealth creation.

Bhatia’s remarks come amid growing protests by investors against SEBI’s stricter regulations. The market regulator recently tightened rules to strengthen market stability and investor protection.

One of the key changes concerns

increase position limits for trading members (TM) in index futures and options contracts. Previously, TMs could hold positions worth up to ₹500 crore or 15% of the total open interest (OI), which is the total number of contracts outstanding in the market.

The new limit increases this cap to ₹7,500 crore or 15% of the total OI, whichever is higher. This adjustment aims to promote responsible business practices.

The updated rules apply to both proprietary transactions (in which firms invest their own money) and client transactions, in which firms act on behalf of their clients.

SEBI has also introduced a stricter framework for stock index derivatives, which includes increasing the minimum contract size and making it mandatory to collect options premiums in advance.

Additional measures announced by SEBI include:

• Intraday monitoring of position limits
• Removal of calendar spread benefits on expiration day
• Rationalization of weekly index derivatives
• Enhanced extreme risk coverage

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