Capital market regulator SEBI is trying to put responsibility on the trustees of mutual funds
Mumbai: Capital market regulator SEBI is trying to put responsibility on the trustees of mutual funds. “The trustees have an important role to play in mutual funds. In order to engage trustees a little more, we have embarked on a three level engagement with trustees. We are running workshops once every four months with the help of NISM. We have set up a collegium of mutual fund trustees. This is an informal networking initiative for trustees to meet with SEBI directly. It’s also an opportunity for trustees to interact and learn from each other,” K N Vaidyanathan, Executive Director, SEBI at a recent ICRA mutual fund award show.
The trustees are entrusted with the power to oversee the activities of an asset management company. The performance and compliance of SEBI rules are also looked after by them.
Promote liquid funds
Vaidyanthan urged fund houses to offer simple products and sell liquid funds to retail investors. “To get people comfortable with mutual funds, you start a bank deposit like product and upgrade to bank deposit plus. Over time you will have more money coming into equity. The safest product which is liquid fund is not sold to retail investors,” he said.
Liquid funds constitute 14% or Rs 88,681 crore of the entire Rs 6.26 lakh crore assets managed by the mutual fund industry. Companies and institutions park their money in such schemes.
