Six months after a Rs 400-crore fraud was detected in its Gurgaon branch, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday rapped Citibank for the episode. RBI slapped a fine of Rs 25 lakh on the bank for breaching various guidelines and instructions related to know-your-customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering guidelines. Though the amount is […]
Big savers will have to pay more to invest in the New Pension Scheme (NPS) if the government accepts the recommendations of an expert panel chaired by former Sebi chairman GN Bajpai . To improve the incentive for sellers and protect small savers, the panel has recommended a charge of 0.5% on every transaction instead […]
Life insurance companies and agents are looking at life beyond strict regulatory guidelines. Lending a helping hand are ‘riders’, that is, the add-ons with the base policy. Since last September, when the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda) capped distribution costs of unit-linked insurance plans (Ulips), the number of policies with riders being sold had […]
Abolition of entry load on mutual fund schemes was one of the best decisions by the regulator in favour of investors, says Kavasseri Narayanan Vaidyanathan , an executive director at Sebi in charge of mutual funds whose term ended on Thursday. Mutual funds should decide on incentives for distributors , in stead of middlemen dictating […]
Complaints registered with mutual fund houses saw a sharp drop of 74 per cent in fiscal 2010-11 owing mainly due to changes in the classification of complaints. The total number of complaints at the end of the 2009-10 fiscal was 3.9 lakh; this declined to 1.02 lakh in 2010-11. For example, if an investor applies […]
Indian investors would soon be able to trade US equities — that too without having to keep awake all night or having to buy dollars. The National Stock Exchange (NSE) has received the Securities and Exchange Board of India’s (SEBI) nod to start trading S&P 500 and Dow index futures. That would give an opportunity […]
The finance ministry has decided to allow foreign direct investment (FDI) in proprietary trading, despite the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) opposition. RBI feels allowing foreign companies into this business may affect financial stability. The ministry, however, felt since foreign companies were willing to invest their own money, they should be allowed to do proprietary […]
In an attempt to manage the volatile capital flows, the finance ministry today allowed foreign individuals to invest up to $10 billion in domestic mutual funds. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) will notify the rules by August 1. The move was announced in the Budget. At present, besides resident Indians, only foreign […]
Corporate treasuries with large cash reserves have started allocating money to equity funds as they expect stocks to perform well over the next two years, fund industry sources said. The past two months have seen several cash-rich companies increasing their exposure to stocks through investments in equity mutual funds. Corporates such as ITC, Hindustan Zinc, […]
New business premium income of life insurers declined in the first two months of the current fiscal as stringent regulations on sale of Unit-Linked Insurance Plans (Ulips) continued to weigh on the industry. Life insurers’ income from selling new po LIC )ies declined 12.3% year-on-year in April-May to Rs 12,253 crore, according to data from […]
