Deepak Parekh, the outspoken chairman of HDFC, frustrated at the failure of capital markets regulator in taking disciplinary actions against erring companies, once made the famous remark that it was all bark and no bite by the securities regulator. The comment was made during the tenure of M Damodaran, who was known for blasting the hell out of corporates and market intermediaries through public speeches.

Damodaran’s successor at the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), Chandrasekhar Bhaskar Bhave, whose tenure at Sebi comes to an end next month, in contrast, is a quiet man. He has also resisted repeated prodding by TV anchors, to come ‘live’ and talk up the markets when prices plunged.

Bark, he may not have, but bite he certainly did. Three years of Bhave’s term has seen one of the most eventful periods in the history of the securities regulator — perhaps GV Ramakrishna’s term was more eventful after the first chairman of statutory Sebi took on the powerful brokers lobby of Bombay Stock Exchange.

Bhave, 60, took on the high and mighty without fear or favour, be it Anil Ambani’s Reliance group or Subroto Roy’s Sahara group; acted against HDFC’s mutual fund arm for front running charges, brought to light nexus between companies and brokers in the price rigging charges against firms such as Ackruti City, Welspun Gujarat and Murli Industries.

But, Bhave’s term will also be remembered for countless investor-oriented reforms he has done in the capital markets. Most noted would be a new system, which allowed investors to apply for public issues with their money remaining in their accounts till they get share allotment. He also brought institutional investors on par with retail investors by asking the former to pay upfront the entire 100 per cent at the application stage itself – up from a nominal 10 per cent earlier.

Similarly, his term also saw the first Indian depository receipts (IDR) issue, though the concept was first floated more than over a decade.

Bhave, who, at National Securities Depository, before joining Sebi, spread the concept of paperless shareholdings in the demat form, also waged the battle on behalf of retail investors against corporates’ practice of allotting preferential shares to themselves. Sebi hiked the advance payment to be made by promoters in preferential allotments from 10 per cent to 25 per cent, and said they would have to forfeit the advance amount if they did not subscribe to the issue.

Bhave’s term also had a fair share of controversies. The tiff between Sebi and insurance regulator Irda over Unit-linked insurance policies and the ban on entry loads for mutual funds generated quite a lot of bad publicity for the 1975-batch IAS officer.

Another criticism against the outgoing Sebi boss is that he favoured National Stock Exchange (NSE) by stopping the entry of MCX-SX into the stock exchange business. But to be fair to him, Bhave was just playing by the rules, which clearly stated that no single investor, other than financial institutions and banks, should not own more than 5 per cent stake.

Bhave’s term also increase in trading hours by 55 minutes in the morning, including pre-open session. The pre-open session, in fact, will most probably end the sight of markets hitting circuit breaker within seconds of opening.

Bhave is also a great listener, which helps him in frame policies in a better fashion. Hinesh Doshi, a member of Sebi’s secondary markets advisory committee, says the Sebi boss attends all the committee’s meetings from start to finish just listening and taking notes.

Once when asked by this correspondent if gets sleepless nights due to the strong actions taken against powerful corporates or brokers, he said once he steps out of office, he is able to ‘switch off’ from office matters.

Bhave is also not a media darling, after he convinced the Press Council of India to make it mandatory for media houses to make private treaty disclosures if a news report featured companies in the treaty to help investors take the right decisions.

When he steps out of the Sebi headquarters on February 17, there may not be any ‘policy change’ award waiting for him. You may also not find him lecturing investors and corporates on capital markets and corporate governance. But, on a quiet evening, you may find him enjoying a drama or a musical at NCPA.