In a kind of surrender to the mutual fund industry SEBI has asked amfi to reconsider becoming a SRO for the mutual fund industry.

This is a fantastic joke because it is like asking the Life Council to be a SRO for the life insurance industry. Amfi is NOT A mutual fund voice or body. It is a club of mutual fund manufacturers. It leans towards the big boys and if it becomes a SRO (which it has smartly refused till now, but may accept it happily NOW) all decisions will ultimately be favoring Hdfc, Uti, Reliance, ICici, ….size, size…will pull the rules to its favor. Of course the 2% load will come back, the 1% trail fees will be restored….and of course all of us will keep saying ‘we are here to protect the small investor’ . Nice words hopefully some of it will be true someday in the next 300-500 years.

If sebi is really serious the rules of amfi should be changed to allow distributors, r&t agents, custodians, banks, ifas, …all stake holders to become members, collect reasonable fees (sebi mandates that distributors should pay rent to amfi for renewing their registration – and the distributors have no clue about what they get in return).

So sebi’s attempt to try to convert one more rent seeking body to become a SRO will meet with reasonable response (the industry will be happy to get rid of sebi as a micro-manager).

So here is the breaking news for 24th..AMFI agrees to become a SRO.. ha ha ha..Mera Bharat Mahan.