SEBI to focus on cost incurred by mutual fund investor

India's market regulator on Tuesday said it will focus on the cost to a mutual fund investor as part of its customer protection measures.

Speaking at the CII Mutual Fund Summit here, Securities and Exchange Board of India chairman U.K.Sinha said consumer protection is one of the prime focus areas of SEBI and cost to investor will be an important aspect of the future course of action.

The finance ministry has also set-up a Financial Stability Development Council to take into account the cost structures, he said at the event organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

Sinha said that the mutual fund industry has helped in countering the volatility caused by the investments pattern of foreign portfolio investors and brought macroeconomic stability to Indian markets.

He further stated that the government's decision of allowing the Employees Provident Fund (EPFO) to invest in mutual fund schemes is a great achievement.

Sinha also urged the industry to think of medium to long-term measures for its sustainable growth, and also now focus on how equitably they are serving the requirements of the customers.

In the last three years, measures like reduction in transaction charges, introduction of consolidated account statements, availability of mutual fund units in demat form, fungibility of total expense ratio, encouraging voting by asset managers to protect interest of minority share holders, addition disclosure of distributors, tax clarity on offshore funds, recent announcement in the budget over tax clarity for scheme mergers and many more were implemented, he said.