What experts want from SEBI chief UK Sinha

Better FPI participation, harmonising the remaining areas of conflict with fellow regulators, a look at the expense ratios of cities beyond the top-15 and restoring investor confidence top investors’ wish list to UK Sinha, Chairman, SEBI.

According to lawyer Tejesh Chitlangi, Partner, IC Legal, SEBI has done a fair job in liberalising the foreign investment regime. “Inflows vide participatory notes need greater regulatory oversight, as the current regime is amenable to misuse. SEBI also needs to harmonise its regulatory regime with other regulators, such as RBI and IRDA, on certain aspects where conflicts still exist.”

On restoration of investor confidence after default on debt by companies, Chitlangi felt, “Mutual funds need to be provided more incentives and at the same time the regulatory regime needs to be robust so that debt defaults in cases such as Amtek may be avoided and investors don’t lose faith.”

For NGS Ramesh, MD & CEO, Stock Holding Corporation of India, making the process of direct equity exposure into Indian markets for foreign HNIs better than the existing 6-10 weeks is high on his wish list. “It is a huge set of investors waiting to be tapped, besides being a stable source of fund inflow.”

Fund houses seem to be keenly watching the next few months on the policy front.

Says Vikaas Sachdeva of Edelweiss Mutual Fund: “The industry should be held accountable for expenses incurred on the beyond-15 cities front vis-à-vis the AUM garnered — given that 90 per cent of the expenses have already been done away with. Initial issue expenses of 6 per cent, removal of entry load and introduction of the direct plan, among others, are some of the expense reducing measures.

There are other issues requiring clarity as well.

According to Arun Kejriwal, Founder, KRIS Research, “Clarity on whether retail investors should take direct equity exposure or only go through the MF route is required. To ask retail to use only the mutual fund route is asking for too much.”

On the issue of concepts, such as abridged result tables and application forms, Kejriwal observed, “These steps are making people wonder whether SEBI has gone overboard by doing a 180 degree turn from being extremely strict to completely liberal.”