Our man, Sinha

Organisers and participants of the annual CII Mutual Fund Summit finally had a reason to smile. The last three years saw them looking the other way whenever the Sebi chief stood to deliver the keynote address. That’s because former chairman C B Bhave was direct in criticising the fund industry for ignoring investor interest. With U K Sinha in charge, fund industry representatives invited him to the event with high expectations. Sinha’s 30 minutes with the mike was more about giving the audience a “glimpse of Sebi thinking” related to disclosures, simplification of KYC and IPO forms, ASBA, etc. He did talk about mutual funds, but only in the context of incentivising and regulating distributors — sensitive issues to say the least and quite contrary to Bhave’s tirade against mis-selling and the industry’s high dependence on distributors. Not surprisingly, fund managers enjoyed the lunch for once.