SEBI regulatory changes and its' effects on distributors: Axis Mutual Fund

Abstract

The Mutual Fund industry has undergone rapid changes in the past 4 years. The industry watchdog, Securities and Exchange Board of India has imposed a completely new framework to revive the investment avenues and increase participation from Tier 2 cities. While the whole new set of rules has been planned to revive the lost interest, distributors of Mutual Funds feel that it has added to the difficulties and lost business and some of the new guidelines have turned the fund houses and distributors into allies and competitors at the same time. The report discusses about all the changes taken by SEBI and gives their justification for all the steps taken. To understand the regulations, the help of various circulars of SEBI have been considered. During the course of the project, various Distributors from all the sales channels viz. IFA, Banks and other NO's, Institutional investors and Axis Bank were interviewed. The report discusses and analyses their responses to SEBI's intent behind all the regulations. It also helps us understand the impact on business under new regulatory frameworks. Finally it discusses the common feedbacks of Distributors and further analyses the roadblocks and opportunities in future under new regulatory environment.