SEBI Floats Additional Commission For MF Distributors To Bring In Women Investors

The Securities and Exchange Board of India is set to incentivise mutual fund distributors to boost gender inclusion by promoting financial awareness and investments among women, as per a release on Friday.

An additional commission will be paid to distributors for attracting new women investors. This incentive will be calculated and paid in a similar way to the existing B-30 incentive, which encourages mutual fund inflows from beyond the top 30 cities.

Distributors will now also get incentives when they bring in new investors from smaller towns that are beyond the top 30 cities. The incentive will be capped at 1% of the first investment or SIP for one year, up to Rs 2,000 per investor. This incentive will also apply for new women investors.

This incentive follows other developments in the meeting including relaxing the minimum public shareholding norms for big companies going for an initial public offering.

The regulator has made changes in the MPS for only large cap companies while maintaining the existing provisions for companies with market cap below Rs 50,000 crore.

SEBI has also allowed classifying Real Estate Investment Trust as equity instruments, while retaining the hybrid classification for the Infrastructure Investment Trusts.

The regulator has also made changes to the Foreign Portfolio Investors rules to make it easier for investors in International Financial Services Centres to operate. Earlier, only certain Alternative Investment Funds in IFSCs with Indian sponsors could register as FPIs. Now, even retail schemes in IFSCs with Indian sponsors can do so.