The regional exchanges have invited bids from new participants through an auction process. As per the ICSE structure, a member of a regional exchange will be eligible to trade on the common trading platform of the 14 regional exchanges if he meets certain capital adequacy criteria laid down by SEBI. However, a member of the ICSE has to be a member of a regional exchange. The bids have been called for 10 new members per exchange over and above the existing members. The regional exchanges are using their tie up with the ICSE as selling point to get in these newmembers. The exchange has fixed May 15 as the last date for receipt of applications. The bidders are required to bid above the threshold price decided by each of the exchange which has been approved by SEBI. This threshold limit is anywhere between Rs 5 lakh to Rs 20 lakh for a card, depending on the size and prevalent trading volumes at the concerned exchange.

These new brokers will infuse fresh funds into the regional exchanges. Apart from individual members, ICSE is targeting a lot of corporate members on the main exchanges like BSE and NSE. These corporate members can become a member of a single regional exchange and in turn have an access to a national trading network through ICSE. ICSE has simultaneously started a preliminary process of getting the already existing members of the regional stock exchanges to join as traders on the ICSE. This will be finalised once the regulatory body clears the bye-laws.