OIAE – Investor Awareness Division
MINUTES OF THE 28th MEETING OF THE INVESTORS’ ASSOCIATIONS HELD ON December 21, 2012, 11.00 A.M. AT SEBI BHAVAN, MUMBAI The list of participants is enclosed (Annexure A) and agenda as Annexure B. Chairman, SEBI welcomed the representatives of Investors’ Associations (IAs) to the meeting. Chairman also briefed the meeting about various initiatives recently taken by SEBI. While reviewing the agenda for the meeting, Chairman urged IAs to bring on table more specific issues and suggestions, so that more productive meetings can take place. Apart from the agenda items, IAs had raised the following issues: A. House Keeping Issues: i. Increase in Reimbursement for Investor Programs conducted by IAs up to Rs 50,000/- per program. ii. Provision for advance up to 75% of expenses for conducting Investor Programs. iii. Considering IAs members eligible for being empanelled as Resource Person (RP) iv. IAs representation in various Committee and sub-committee formed by SEBI on rotational basis. v. Associating with more IAs in future Remarks: Guidelines on pt. (i), (ii), (iii) and (v) will be finalised within 30 days. Regarding IAs representation in various committees and sub-committees, it was already a practice and any deviations may be brought to notice of SEBI. B. Policy changes within existing laws: i. IAs suggested that there should be “mandatory 100% electronic transmission of dividend”. ii. IPO Grading should be made available on the top of the application form prominently. iii. Abridged Prospectus format may be revised with more relevant information and as annexure and in different color codes. iv. On the issue of “Valuation Reports pertaining to Mergers and Acquisitions”, IAs suggested that the valuation reports pertaining to mergers and acquisitions to be made public on Exchanges, Company and SEBI website. Remarks: Exchanges and concerned divisions were asked to examine the issues raised.
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OIAE – Investor Awareness Division
C. How acts and laws are deficient: i.
ii.
IAs raised serious concerns regarding CIS schemes run across the various parts of the nation and the large amount of money involved in it, which may be deflected towards capital market through SEBI initiative. Nationwide survey on CIS schemes run across various part of our country and schemes being organised as ‘stock related schemes.
Remarks: SEBI has raised this issue with the Government/Ministry and SEBI is a member of the co-ordination committee setup by a state government as per direction of ministry. Even in the judicial process, the lengthy process, non-clarity regarding area of jurisdiction, lack of specification regarding the type of schemes etc. acts as road blocks. IAs were requested to report cases of CIS in their locality to SEBI Head office, Regional Office or Local Office. The role of IAs to spread awareness regarding same through Investor Awareness in their areas (covering rural and semi urban areas) was reiterated. D. Policy imperative for bringing more retail investors: i. Decline in Retail investor’s participation in Securities market. ii. Safety net provisions for Retail investor’s iii. Accepting “Aadhaar Card” instead of PAN card for retail investors. iv. ‘Brain Storming session on increasing retail investors participation’ with IAs, Exchanges, Depositories, Trade Bodies etc. Remark: ‘Safety Net’ provisions for investors have already been taken up by SEBI. As regards ‘Aadhaar card’, concerned division may examine the issue. Also, IAs were asked to come up with more specific issues related to declining retail investor’s participation, so that issue can be discuss in detail. It was informed that SEBI wants “issues to be raised and discuss in free and fair manner, and SEBI is sensitive to issues raised at this platforms by IAs. Item 1: Minutes of the 27th meeting held on July 05, 2012 and Action Taken Report thereon were taken on record. Item No. 2 Video Recording of Arbitration Mechanism The issue was placed in the meeting on the request of Voice Society Investor Association vide letter dated 06/06/2012 by Shri Ashim Sanyal, COO & Secretary, Voice Society. However the matter was not taken up by concerned IA, hence was deferred for next IA meeting. -2-
OIAE – Investor Awareness Division
Item No. 3 Application of Regulation 69 of the SEBI (Collective Investment Scheme) Regulations, 1999 Item No. 4 Penalty on audit firms and compensation to small investors Item No. 5 Penalty structure for brokers and sub brokers (authorized persons) not to be identical Item No. 6 Considering establishment of uniform listing agreement for all exchanges Item No. 7 Issues relating to independent directors. Item No. 8 Redressal of investor complaints Item No. 9 Any other item with permission of Chair Item No. 3 to 9 were discussed during the meeting and it was assured that respective departments of SEBI would look into these items. The meeting concluded with CGM Shri Gyan Bhushan thanking the IAs for their active participation and valuable suggestions. Elusive
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