The next hearing is on September 29.
The wait for the outcome of FPSB’s six-month long tussle with SEBI on its decision to grant in-principle approval to Institution for Mutual Fund Intermediaries (IMFI) just got longer.
Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) has adjourned the hearing on SRO appeal to September 29.
Financial Planning
Supervisory Foundation (FPSF) in its appeal has argued that the decision making
process adopted by SEBI in granting in-principle approval to IMFI was not fair
and just. It stated that neither did SEBI conduct any formal interview to
determine the most suitable applicant for SRO nor did it offer any substantive
reasoning regarding its decision to grant in-principle approval to act as SRO
to IMFI.
In its reply to Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT), the regulator had said that it gave equal and fair opportunity to all three applicants before taking a final decision.
SEBI argued that since only one group was to given SRO status the provision to grant hearing before rejection may be applicable to sectors where there is scope for multiple SROs. It said that SEBI’s decision to grant in-principle approval to IMFI as SRO was transparent, fair, equitable and based on uniform treatment to all applicants. It requested SAT to dismiss the appeal.
FPSF, a company promoted by FPSB had appealed against SEBI’s
decision to grant in-principle approval to AMFI promoted Institution for Mutual
Fund Intermediaries
(IMFI) as SRO. IMFI received an in-principle approval to set
up SRO on February 6, 2014. The third contender was Organization of
Financial Distributors (OFD) promoted by Financial Intermediaries Association
of India (FIAI), an association of national distributors.
