Sebi moots swing pricing mechanism for debt MFs

New Delhi: Sebi on Monday proposed introducing swing pricing mechanism for open-ended mutual fund (MF) debt schemes as part of efforts to ensure fairness in treatment of investors, especially during times of market dislocation.

The regulator has suggested partial swing during normal times and a mandatory full swing during times of market dislocation. The suggestion is aimed at ensuring fairness in treatment of entering, exiting and existing investors in mutual fund schemes, particularly during market dislocation, Sebi said in a consultation paper.

Generally, swing pricing refers to a process for adjusting a fund's net asset value to effectively pass on transaction costs stemming from net capital activity to the investors concerned. In a liquidity-challenged environment, quoted bid/ask spreads and overall trading cost can widen and may not be representative of the executed prices that can be achieved in the market. A proposal is to mandate swing pricing for high risk open ended debt schemes during market dislocation as they carry high risk securities compared to other schemes which possibly have higher costs of liquidation. "Mandating swing pricing during market dislocation will lead to better predictability, transparency and effectiveness of the said mechanism," Sebi said.

In subsequent phases, Sebi will examine the applicability of swing pricing mechanism to equity schemes, hybrid schemes, solution oriented schemes and other schemes. Swing pricing should be made applicable to all unitholders with an exemption for redemptions up to Rs 2 lakh for all unitholders and up to Rs 5 lakh for senior citizens at a mutual fund level. This is in order to keep retail investors and senior citizens insulated from the applicability of swing pricing to a certain extent. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has sought comments from public on the proposed framework till August 20. Stressing on the need for swing pricing in India, Sebi said the mechanism is required to address issues related to costs of bid-offer spread and transaction costs, particularly arising during market dislocation in the mutual fund industry or in the underlying bond market.