Equity MFs lose Rs 1,365 cr in April

The ghost of redemption in equity schemes is back to haunt the domestic fund industry after a gap of five months. The current financial year started on a poor note as the fund market witnessed Rs 1,365 crore of net outflow from its equity category including the equity-linked saving schemes (ELSS). Such large redemption was last seen in October 2010.

On the contrary, all other asset classes — income, GILT, Gold ETFs amid others — saw a robust inflow of funds taking the overall fund flow to 184,331 crore. The redemption in pure equity schemes stood at Rs 1,076 crore while from ELSS Rs 289 crore were redeemed.

“During the month the benchmark index was above 19,000 which triggered redemption. This was coupled up with no fresh money coming into the equity as they got diverted to other asset classes such as fixed maturity plans (FMPs) and Gold ETFs,” says Karan Datta, national sales head at Axis Mutual Fund.

Source: http://www.businessstandard.com/india/news/equity-mfs-lose-rs-1365-cr-in-april/434633/

Sebi to outsource investor helpline to third-party call centre

Market regulator Sebi has decided to outsource its investor helpline service to a third-party call centre, where at least 500 agents would be required to attend to investors’ calls on issues like IPOs and trading.

The decision to outsource its investor helpline comes within weeks of Sebi deciding to rope in third-party agencies for processing and maintenance of investor grievances.

Faced with the Herculean task of handling lakhs of investor complaints, Sebi in March last week had decided to outsource such activities to help it resolve the investor complaints on a fast-track basis.

Now, Sebi has decided to empanel a third-party call centre to run its nationwide toll-free investor helpline, where the investors’ calls would be initially attended to between 9.30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays, an official said.

The timings and hours might be extended further after three months.

Incidentally, Sebi is in the process of finalising a set of regulations for outsourcing of work by various market intermediaries such as brokers, mutual funds and investment bankers. The regulator is said to be against outsourcing of the market entities’ core and investor-sensitive activities.

The investor helpline call centre would be required to attend investors’ calls on matters like procedure for lodging complaints, opening of trading accounts, complaint status and assistance in issues like transfer and transmission of shares, IPOs, etc.

Besides, the call centre would also need to provide guidance on status of companies on whether they are unlisted, sick, vanished or delisted, matters pertaining to other regulators that are not under the Sebi purview.

The agency would also require to record and track the calls, inform the Sebi about status of processing of calls, but would not provide legal opinions and investment advice.

Sebi wants the call centre agency to have at least five years of experience in BPO business and an authorisation from the telecom ministry for running a call centre.

Besides other necessary infrastructure and experience, Sebi also wants the company to have a minimum of 500-seat operation capacity for one shift and a 1,500-seat capacity for three-shift operations, with equal number of call centre agents working on its roll.

Sebi wants the agency to provide the call centre service from Mumbai and provide space for one of its offices in its premises.

On the previously proposed outsourcing of investor grievance processing and maintenance work, the activities to be outsourced by Sebi include receipt of complaints, forwarding them to the concerned market entities and companies, tracking their status and conduct follow-ups.

Besides, the agencies would also be responsible for entry of the complaints into Sebi’s computerised grievance redressal system with proper categorisation and codification, updation of the system with Action Taken Reports (ATRs) and keeping investors informed about progress on their complaints.

Sebi is putting in place this web-based centralised system, named Sebi Complaints Redress System (SCORES), for speedy redressal of grievances.

Sebi’s existing investor grievance redressal mechanism lacks a centralised database and the resolution of the complaints often gets delayed due to physical movement of files from one desk to the another across its various offices.

Besides reducing time gap between receipt and redressal of a complaint, the new system would also help in storage of the investor grievances, whose numbers have swelled to over 2.7 million since Sebi’s inception.

Sebi received more than 32,300 investor complaints in 2009-10, while the numbers are even higher at over 39,600 in the first nine months of the current fiscal.

The new system would have a centralised tracking system for all grievances at various offices and divisions of Sebi.

Currently, the list of investor grievances are maintained at various divisions and regional offices of Sebi.

Sebi has told the prospective agencies to be empanelled by it for handing investor grievances to dedicate at least 10 skilled persons for the job initially and wants them to have prior experience in handling registrar and transfer activities, depository services or investor matters.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/business/markets/article1993525.ece

IDFC MF Announces Change in Key Personnel

IDFC Mutual Fund has ceased Mr. Vikram Limaye to be a Director & Chairman from the Board of IDFC AMC Trustee Company Limited and appointed as a Director on the Board of IDFC Asset Management Company Limited with effect from 27 April 2011.

Source: http://www.adityabirlamoney.com/news/474075/10/22,24/Mutual-Funds-Reports/IDFC-MF-Announces-Change-in-Key-Personnel

Mr. Sanjay Sinha Elected as Director on the AMFI Board

Mr. Sanjay Sinha, CEO of L&T Mutual Fund has been elected as a Director on the Board of AMFI (Association for Mutual Funds in India) at the Special General Membership Meeting held on 26 April 2011. His tenure will continue until the next Annual General Meeting is held.

AMFI is the apex body of all the registered Asset Management Companies in India and was incorporated on 22 August 1995 as a non-profit organization. As of now, all the 43 Asset Management Companies that are registered with SEBI are its members. AMFI is an important body in the mutual fund industry and has played significant role in shaping the industry. It has been set up with an objective to promote and protect the interests of mutual funds and their unit holders, and to maintain high professional and ethical standards in the mutual fund industry.

As a member of the Board of Directors of AMFI, Mr. Sinha's responsibility will be to recommend best practices to be followed by AMCs. The Board will interact and represent to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the Government and Reserve Bank of India on all matters concerning the Mutual Fund industry.

Mr. Sanjay Sinha is an Honours Graduate in Economics from University of Delhi and a Post Graduate from IIM Kolkata. He has a rich experience of over 21 years in the mutual fund industry and has managed assets worth over Rs. 35,000 Crores during his prior assignments. Funds managed by him have won various awards and accolades for performance.

Source: http://www.adityabirlamoney.com/news/474015/10/22,24/Mutual-Funds-Reports/Mr-Sanjay-Sinha-Elected-as-Director-on-the-AMFI-Board