Sebi has been very careful while nurturing the Indian mutual fund industry and after doing away with entry loads, that led to selling off the wrong products to retail investors, it has now stepped in to streamline and standardise the product offerings. The objective of the market regulator is to bring uniformity in the characteristics of similar schemes across mutual fund houses so that investors are able to evaluate various options before making investments.
The circular defines the broad categories within which MFs need to classify their existing funds. Schemes within each of these categories have been sub-categorised based on specific parameters with respect to asset allocation/ portfolio duration etc. For instance, equity schemes are categorised as large-cap, multi-cap, mid-cap, etc. with defined parameters for schemes in each category.