Expense Account, Mint Now that the dust has settled over last week’s announcements by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and the merits or otherwise of the hike in mutual fund costs have been chewed over, two issues have emerged that still need a comment. One, that Indian funds are the most expensive...
Expense Account, Mint Last week, Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) chairman U.K. Sinha, speaking at the Confederation of Indian Industry Mutual Fund Summit, said something that took many of us by surprise. It is not often that a capital markets regulator speaks about the performance of products, the lack of it and how...
Expense Account, Mint At some point I decided that to get a real flavour of what a mutual fund investor goes through, I need to stop using my agent and begin on my own. That was some time back, but the lessons from then still are sharp. And each time I facilitate somebody into using...
Expense Account, Mint When U.K. Sinha took over as the capital markets regulator in February 2011, there was a pervasive expectation that the upfront commissions embedded in the price of a mutual fund would be back. His UTI Mutual Fund (UTIMF) and Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi) stints were taken as an indication...
Expense Account, Mint What do you expect your mutual fund to do? It is worth asking and answering this question as we carry out Mint Money’s biannual exercise of examining Mint50—the portfolio of investment-worthy funds that the Mint Money team curates. A quick word on why we do this. Indian households have a high savings rate but most...
Expense Account, Mint If 2012 is the year in which the world will end, 2011 was the year in which the world prepared to end. We heard that the euro zone break up may take Europe back to the fall of the Roman empire. That the sins of bowing to Wall Street will make the...
Expense Account, Mint Sometimes a committee leaks a proposal it is considering to test reaction in stories and comments. Or sometimes it is a dissenter to what is being discussed who will leak a proposal or a decision to get public opinion against what is being proposed. Either of the two must have happened last...
Expense Account, Mint There is a hilarious mail exchange a friend forwarded me between him and his portfolio management scheme (PMS) “relationship manager”. Friend invests money five years ago and forgets about it. 2011 tax time approaches and he pulls out the PMS to see how it did. Where did my Rs 8 lakh reach...
Expense Account, Mint For an industry waiting with bated breath for the new regulator to indicate which way the wind will blow, the two-page circular uploaded on the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) website on 9 March 2011 (http://bit.ly/fMcM0o) quickly became the most emailed and forwarded document. Through the circular, Sebi has allowed...
Expense Account, Mint Iknew theoretically that large finance firms—banks, financial product manufacturers and financial advisory firms—move to countries with lax regulation. But I am seeing this happen real time right now. In the next two years, I expect large boat-loads of suits to wash up on the Indian coast. They’ll all be escaping from rules...