Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi) is likely to ask market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to extend the deadline for complying with Know Your Client (KYC) norms. In December 2009, Sebi had made it compulsory for all fund houses to collect all the investor-related documents including power of attorney and KYC documents from the distributor. Distributors were given time till April 1, 2010 to provide all the required documents to the fund houses.
AP Kurian, Chairman of Amfi said: “We are working with all the participants (including Sebi) and will take another 2-4 weeks to comply with the KYC norms”. It’s a huge task to provide all the mutual fund investor details, he added. However, some market participants feel that it will take at least three months to compile all data.
Achal Kumar Gupta, MD of SBI Mutual Fund said, “We are still in the process of getting all details of investors from the distributors. Some distributors have already provided us the details, while some are still pending.”
An official from a leading broking house said: “All major offline transactions details have been provided to the fund houses. But some data of online investors are yet to be given and I don’t think it will help getting just 2-4 more weeks to comply with the norms”. He added that it will require at least three more months.
Surajit Misra, executive vice-president and national head-Mutual Funds at Bajaj Capital said: “We have already submitted all the necessary information to the fund houses”.
Sebi in its recent circular had stated that, if distributors fail to provide the information (related to KYC), then trustees of mutual funds need not pay commission to distributors.