I-Sec, 19 others seek Sebi nod to act as investment adviser

As per the new guildlines, any individual or company seeking to advise investors will need to be registered with Sebi for such activities

At least 20 entities, including those from ICICI and Edelweiss groups, have sought Sebi's approval to act as investment advisers to meet a mandatory regulatory requirement for offering any kind of investment advice.

According to new guidelines issued by the capital markets regulator earlier this year, any individual or company seeking to advise investors would need to be registered with Sebi for such activities.

As per the latest information available with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), 20 applications were pending with it for registration as investment advisers as on July 31, 2013.

However, as many as 15 of these applications contained "incomplete information" and Sebi has sought further details from them. The other five applications were "being processed," as on July 31.

The regulator issued guidelines in May about how to seek registration as investment advisers, rules for which were notified after month-long consultation process to tackle the menace of investors being duped by fraudulent entities offering misleading advice.

The norms require the investment advisers to submit various details about their activities, including disclosure of issues that could result in conflict of interests, among others.

The entities seeking Sebi's registration as Investment Advisers include ICICI Securities, Edelweiss Investment Adviser Ltd, S P Tulsian Advisory Services, RGAM Corporation, IFMR Advisory Services, DSIJ and Shepherd's Hill Capital Advisors.

Others include LogicTree Capital Advisors, Valuefy Solutions and SenSage Financial Services, Principal Retirement Advisors and Vivekam Financial Services, as also individuals like Manjeet Singh Vohra and Mitresh Ravindra Joshi.

Under new guidelines, investment advisers banks, non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and corporates would have to segregate their investment advisory services from other activities as part of Sebi's efforts to ensure more transparency.