BUY MFS VIA DIGITAL WALLET: SEBI

NEW DELHI: Markets regulator Sebi on Monday allowed investors to buy mutual fund schemes for up to Rs 50,000 through digital wallets, making it easier for them -- especially the young generation -- to purchase these instruments.

Besides, MF houses or asset management companies (AMCS) have been allowed to provide instant online access facility to resident individual investors in liquid schemes.

The move is part of the efforts to promote digital payments in the MF industry and channelise household savings into the capital market.

"MFS/AMCS shall ensure that total subscription through e-wallets for an investor is restricted to Rs 50,000 per mutual fund per financial year," the regulator said, adding that redemptions of such investments can be made only to the bank account of a unit holder.

The new facilities would come into force with immediate effect, Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said in a circular.

According to Sebi, e-wallet issuers would not be permitted to offer any incentive such as cash back, directly or indirectly, for investing in mutual fund scheme through them.

Besides, the e-wallet's balance loaded through cash or debit card or net banking can only be used for subscription to mutual funds schemes. Balance loaded through credit card, cash back, promotional schemes would not be allowed for subscription to MFS.

The limit of Rs 50,000 would be an umbrella limit for investment by an investor through e-wallet and/or cash, per mutual fund, Sebi said.

In case of Instant Access Facility, the withdrawal limit would be up to Rs 50,000 or 90 per cent of folio value, whichever is lower.

For providing such facility AMCS would not be allowed to borrow. Liquidity is to be provided out of the available funds from the scheme and AMCS to put in place a mechanism to meet the liquidity demands.

IAF facilitates credit of redemption proceeds in the bank account of the investor on the same day of redemption request. Sebi has asked fund houses to make make appropriate disclosures in the scheme related documents about IAF and ensure that no mis-selling is done on the pretext of instant availability of funds to the investors.

"Appropriate disclosures shall be made to the investors mentioning the scenarios under which IAF may be suspended and that IAF request would be processed as a normal redemption request in such circumstances," the regulator said.

As many as 42 fund houses together manage assets worth over Rs 19 lakh crore and mutual fund investor accounts are over 5.54 crore.

Mutual funds are investment vehicles made up of a pool of funds collected from a number of investors. The funds are invested in stocks, bonds and money market instruments, among others. NEW DELHI: Telecom regulator Trai is likely to resume from this month its independent drive tests to check call drops and service quality of operators, after a gap of more than five months.

"Independent drive tests are going to begin. Actually, there was some gap (problem) which has been removed...they should start probably from this month on," Trai Chairman R S Sharma told PTI.

While the telecom operators submit performance monitoring reports to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) regularly, the regulator also undertakes audit and assessment of service quality through independent agencies.

The agencies conduct sample 'drive tests' across various cities in the country, as part of audit and assessment of the operators' performance.

The independent drive tests are distinct from operator- assisted tests, Sharma said.

"We were doing drive tests in 11-12 cities, we will be doing it in more cities (this time). This will be different from the operator-assisted tests," he added.

The operator-assisted drive test captures real-time data to monitor the level of call drops and voice quality, similar to Trai's independent drive tests.

However, unlike independent drive tests that are conducted by the regulator itself, the 'operator-assisted' tests are conducted in co-ordination with telecom service providers.

The operator-assisted tests, a new concept, involves the telecom firms' equipment and costs, with the regulator monitoring and supervising the entire process.

That said, all drive tests – be it independent or operator-assisted tests – assess the performance of networks on various quality benchmarks, including call set-up success rate, call drop, blocked calls and Radio Frequency (RF) coverage.

The last round of independent drive tests were conducted by Trai in Amritsar, Delhi, Hyderabad, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Lucknow, Kanpur, Ahmedabad, Ranchi, Darjeeling, Sikkim and Trivandrum in 2016.

During the last few months that Trai did not undertake independent tests, the operator-assisted tests were conducted in cities including Mathura (Up-west circle), Jaisalmer, (Rajasthan), Ujjain (Madhya Pradesh) and Mangalore (Karnataka) and others.

Both the regulator and the Department of Telecom (DOT) have been keeping a vigil on service quality issues such as call drops and call failures through initiatives like drive tests and automated call system.

Last year, when instances of call drops spiked, the government and the regulator made a co-ordinated effort to tackle the issue through deliberations with the industry.

The Telecom Department has set up an IVRS or automated call system, which makes random calls to subscribers to check status of call drops. As part of efforts to keep the call quality in check, the Trai plans to roll-out, by the month-end, an app that will enable subscribers to rate the service quality of a phone call, once the call is complete. The data will, thereafter, be analysed by the regulator.