In a major relief to distributors, SEBI has asked fund houses to put pending commission of distributors in an escrow account, confirmed three sources privy to the development.
An escrow account is temporarily pass through account held by a third party during the process of a transaction between two or more parties. Distributors will get their pending commission once they complete all requirement due to which their commission was withheld. AMCs withhold commission including upfront commission for a number of reasons such as failed transactions, incomplete KYD, pending KYC, and so on.
A CEO of a mid-sized fund house requesting anonymity says this means distributors will be able to claim their pending commission even after August 20, 2019.
Another CEO said that since SEBI’s communication does not mention anything about the previous deadlines with respect to payment of pending commission to distributors, such an interpretation is right.
However, Cafemutual could not confirm if it should be considered as extension of deadline. It is better to expedite remediation of pending KYC cases.