SEBI held a meeting with independent trustees of mutual funds at Mumbai today. Ajay Tyagi, Chairman, Madhabi Puri Buch, Whole Time Member and other senior SEBI officials attended the meeting. More than 80 independent trustees participated in the meeting.
In a TV byte after his meeting with AMCs trustees, SEBI Chairman Ajay Tyagi has said that the market regulator will discuss the commission structure of distributors with AMFI next month.
Tyagi said that the market regulator did not have discussion on distributor commission with trustees. He said that the industry has taken a lot of reforms to rationalize Total Expense Ratio (TER) and commission structure and some proposals on these issues are under consideration.
Earlier this month, SEBI has asked AMFI to ensure adherence to the best practices circular in letter and spirit. In fact, the market regulator has asked AMFI to chalk out a roadmap to ensure that fund houses adhere to the best practices circular.
Talking about the meeting with trustees of AMCs, he said, “Mutual fund is a very good story. In fact, the AUM of the MF industry has doubled in the last four years. This is very significant industry, almost 20% of the banking industry. To sustain this growth, there is a need to have a good governance system in place. The role of trustees being critical, it was considered important to reach out to the independent trustees of mutual funds, to interact with them, sensitize them on the significant role played by them and seek their feedback.”
Sources privy to this meeting told Cafemutual that SEBI has asked trustees to increase their involvement in the corporate governance practices of AMCs. Also, the market regulator highlighted 25 irregularities that they found during inspection carried out between April 1, 2014 and March 31, 2016. Cafemutual has done stories on these irregularities. Click on operational irregularities and non compliance with investment norms to know more about these irregularities.
Apart from the interactive session, discussions were held on issues like role of trustees, investor relations, technological advancements, etc.