Page 24 - Banking Finance April 2023

MUTUAL FUND

lowed in marketing units, funds and BSE Sensex TRI. Ashish Naik will man- try body Association of Mutual Funds
serious deficiencies in services provided age the fund. of India (AMFI) to ask fund houses to
by distributors, among others. refrain from this practice and remove
The minimum investment amount is
promotional material such as adver-
Rs. 5,000 and in multiples of Re 1. The
tisements, illustrations, pamphlets,
IDFC MF to be rebranded new fund will track the S&P BSE
and brochures that make these claims.
Sensex TRI benchmark and endeavor to
as Bandhan MF
generate alpha by investing in domes-
The Bandhan Financial Holdings-led tic equity ETFs based on the fund India markets regulator al-
consortium is set to launch a new
manager's top down investment view. lows private equity firms
brand identity for IDFC Mutual Fund,
ETFs are soon becoming one of the
a statement said. to own mutual fund com-
most popular vehicles of investing in
As a result, the fund house's schemes panies
passive strategies as they replicate the
will be renamed, with the word India's markets regulator on Wednes-
portfolio of the underlying index while
Bandhan' replacing 'IDFC' in each of day decided to tweak rules governing
trading in bite sized units on an ex-
them. its 39.46 trillion rupees ($480.52 bil-
change at market determined prices.
lion) mutual fund industry, allowing
The new brand logo will also be un-
The investment objective of the Axis
private equity firms to back Asset
veiled, closely resembling the Bandhan
S&P BSE Sensex ETF is to provide re-
Bank logo, but with additional colours Management Companies(AMCs).
turns before expenses that correspond
and styling, the statement said. The Securities and Exchange Board of
to the total returns of the S&P BSE
India (SEBI) said a private equity firm
Regulators had objected to the use of Sensex TRI Index subject to tracking
or its manager should have at least five
Bandhan Bank logo for mutual fund errors.
years of experience managing funds
operations.
According to the fund house, the
and investing in the financial sector,
IDFC Asset Management Company was Scheme endeavors to invest in stocks
and should have managed committed
acquired by the consortium, which forming part of the underlying index in
and drawndown capital of not less than
comprises Bandhan Financial Holdings the same ratio as per the index to the
50 billion rupees on the date of appli-
Limited, GIC, and ChrysCapital. extent possible. Essentially, 95% to cation.
100% of the investments will be made
Bandhan holds 60% of the acquired Currently India only allows financial
in equity instruments covered by S&P
entity, with control of operations, services firms and corporates to back
BSE Sensex TRI and the remaining in
while the other two will hold 20% each an AMC. SEBI also prescribed more
Debt and Money Market investments.
in the AMC. disclosures around environment, social
To that extent follows a passive invest-
and governance (ESG) issues.
BFHL will be the sponsor of the mutual
ment strategy, except to the extent of
fund. The underlying investment strat- India's markets regulator will adopt "a
meeting liquidity and expense require-
egy, processes, and team will remain principles-based, rather than prescrip-
ments.
the same, so investors can benefit tive," approach in its first set of rules
from the same high-quality investment for rating a company on environment,
Sebi asks MFs to remove
approach that the fund house is re- social and governance (ESG) issues, it
puted for, the statement said. ads that 'mislead' inves- said in a statement.
It also announced enhanced disclosures
tors on returns
Axis Mutual Fund launches The Securities and Exchange Board of by ESG ratings providers for mutual
funds investing on those metrics and
Axis S&P BSE Sensex ETF India (Sebi) has asked mutual funds to for listed companies, while mandating
remove all advertisements or illustra-
Axis Mutual Fund has announced the that 65% of assets of ESG focused
tions that mislead investors on returns.
launch of their New Fund Offer of Axis mutual fund schemes should be in
S&P BSE Sensex ETF, an open-ended In a letter dated March 3, the capital companies which make comprehensive
Exchange Traded Fund tracking S&P markets regulator directed the indus- related disclosures.
BANKING FINANCE | APRIL | 2023 | 21