Sebi hiring agency to study millennials' savings, investment behaviour

Sebi is looking to appoint an agency to conduct a digital survey of investors which will help the markets regulator in gauging financial savings and investment behaviour of millennials.

In addition, the regulator plans to conduct a study on household investors to determine their risk profile and relate it to their investment behaviour as well as to find out mutual fund investors' behaviour and investment patterns.

In separate notices, Sebi has invited Expression of Interest (EOI) from agencies to conduct a pan-India digital survey of investors and a survey of household investors.

The regulator is seeking to appoint agencies having extensive experience in conducting online survey, preparing questionnaires, data collection, computing, analysis and report writing, among others.

Further, the tabulation of information and studies is to be done at state level as well as national level.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said that final analysed reports should be submitted within 6 months and 12 months from the date of signing the contract for digital and household surveys, respectively.

The digital survey of investors, conducted among the investing as well as the non-investing individuals, will assess the financial savings and investment behaviour of millennials. The proposed survey will be conducted online and will have pan India coverage.

Through this, the regulator plans to find out awareness among them about financial planning, financial markets, financial products and risk-returns profile of the different investment products.

Also, Sebi will study the perception of this new generation about market integrity and transparency. It will also help the regulator in finding out issues and challenges faced by millennials in making right investment and their demands and ways to improve their participation in the securities market.

With regard to household survey, Sebi said it will help it in understanding the socio-economic characteristics of households participants, estimating the concentration and distribution of investor households in the securities market.

Among others, it also help the regulator to determine investors' participation in different segments of securities markets -- equity cash, debt, equity derivatives, currency derivatives, interest rate derivatives and commodity derivatives and to find out the reasons for non-investment in securities market and also response to public and private issues of equity and debt securities.