The next hearing is scheduled on November 07.
The wait for the outcome of FPSB’s tussle with SEBI on its decision to grant in-principle approval to Institution for Mutual Fund Intermediaries (IMFI) just got longer.
The Securities and appellate tribunal (SAT) has once again adjourned the hearing to November 07. The last hearing was on August 08 which was postponed 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.
