Why didn't Sebi act sooner against Jane Street, asks Congress
'By operating simultaneously on the share market and the derivatives market, the American algo trading firm Jane Street earned lakhs of crores in profits, while the ordinary people lost their money. SEBI has confirmed that the manner in which they rigged the markets was completely illegal', said Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate.
Sebi on July 3 banned Jane Street, one of the world's largest quantitative trading firms, from India's securities markets for allegedly manipulating markets, in what was seen as a rare instance of such action against a foreign firm.
'Between January 2023 and March 2025, Jane Street earned Rs. 36,000 crores in Indian markets. 93% of ordinary retail investors in the futures market lost heavily. So how can you celebrate after you've only asked Jane Street to return a fraction of the profits?' she said.
Shrinate also criticised the market regulator for being late.
'In the derivatives market, where trades happen in a matter of seconds and milliseconds, it took SEBI four whole years to shut down Jane Street! This occurred despite numerous financial experts writing to SEBI in 2024 warning them about Jane Street's operations, she said.
She added that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has always been outspoken in warning the public about 'scams' on the stock market.
According to Sebi, Jane Street would buy large quantities of stocks and futures early in the day, thereby misleading other traders into believing that the market was rising. Later in the day, they'd aggressively sell these stocks, causing the index to crash.
Sebi has ordered the firm to return ₹4,800 crores that it acquired illegally using these methods.
According to Bloomberg news agency, a Sebi official said that the investigation would expand to include other major stock indices, including the Nifty 50 and Sensex, over the coming months.
Jane Street has disputed the findings. According to news agency Reuters, the firm told staff in an internal e-mail that it would contest the ban by India's financial regulator and added that its practices in question were 'basic index arbitrage trading'. The company said it was 'beyond disappointed' by what it called 'extremely inflammatory' accusations from Sebi.
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