Sebi warns investors against unrealistic returns

New Delhi: Sebi chief Ajay Tyagi on Sunday said the decision to implement T+1 settlement cycle in a phased manner beginning February 2022 will go a long way in protecting investors' interest.

Apart from this, the capital markets regulator has taken a number of regulatory measures in the recent past towards investor protection, he said at a function at the India International Trade Fair (IITF). These measures included introduction of upfront margin framework, risk-o-meter, e-KYC and protection of client collateral through pledge-repledge mechanism, he added.

The Sebi chairman also warned gullible investors against unrealistic returns in the securities market. "Many a times, undesirable elements take advantage of the gullible investors by making promises that are too good to be true," Tyagi said adding that investors should be cautious of such offerings. He, further, said that investors need to be cognizant of the risks involved in the financial product they are investing in and of their risk taking ability. "If they are not able to assess the suitability of a particular financial product, it might be wiser to remain away from it than going the wrong way," he added.

"The decision to implement T+1 (trade plus one) settlement in a phased manner beginning February 2022 will go a long way in protecting investors' interest," Tyagi said.

T+1 means that market trade-related settlements will need to be cleared within one day of the actual transactions taking place.

Currently, trades on the Indian stock exchanges are settled in two working days after the transaction is done (T+2). The stock exchanges-- NSE and BSE-- earlier this month announced that they will implement the T+1 settlement cycle in a phased manner starting February 25, with the bottom 100 stocks in terms of market value. Thereafter, 500 stocks will be added based on the same market value criteria from the last Friday of March and so on every following month. The announcement came after Sebi in September permitted stock exchanges to introduce T+1 settlement cycle from January 1, 2022, on any of the securities available in the equity segment.

Tyagi noted that participation of retail investors in securities markets has seen a significant rise especially in the last two years, which is evident from the increase in number of demat accounts, mutual fund folios and the number of systematic investment plans (SIPs). In 2019-20, on an average, 4 lakh new demat accounts were opened every month which increased to over 26 lakh per month in the current financial year. When it comes to number of mutual fund folios, in the beginning of 2019-20, total number of folios were 8.25 crore, which increased to 11.44 crore as of October 2021, Tyagi said. With regard to SIP, while on an average around 52 lakh SIPs were added during the last two financial years, already around 75 lakh have been added during the first six months of the ongoing financial year, he added. With significant increase in participation of retail investors, especially first -time investors, Sebi chairman believes that handholding in terms of making them aware of the nuances of securities market is essential.