SEBI wants IPO forms short, simple
Monday, 19 July 2010
MUMBAI, July 18 (PTI): As part of efforts to attract more retail investors to the stock market, regulator SEBI is considering making applications forms simpler and shorter for public offers, including initial public offerings (IPOs).
Concerned over the lukewarm and ever-falling retail response to the primary market, SEBI is mulling over ways to win over small investors in this segment and one of the steps under consideration is a simpler investment process.
According to sources, the application forms currently being used for bidding in initial and follow-on public offers are unnecessarily long and ask the investors to fill in some details that can be done away with.
Besides, these forms run into 15-20 pages in most cases, although there are only 2-3 pages where particulars need to be filled in by the investors and the rest of the pages contain instructions, information about the company and the issue and details about bankers, registrars and bidding centres.
The various proposals currently being discussed by SEBI's Primary Market Advisory Committee include removing from these forms the details already available in the investors' demat and bank accounts.
These include the name of the investor's father or husband (depending on whether the investor is male or female), addresses, fax number and other contact details.
The move could cut down the columns needed to be filled by almost half, sources said.
Besides regulation and development of the primary market, this committee also advises SEBI on changes required to make the systems and procedures simpler and transparent.
Concerned over the lukewarm and ever-falling retail response to the primary market, SEBI is mulling over ways to win over small investors in this segment and one of the steps under consideration is a simpler investment process.
According to sources, the application forms currently being used for bidding in initial and follow-on public offers are unnecessarily long and ask the investors to fill in some details that can be done away with.
Besides, these forms run into 15-20 pages in most cases, although there are only 2-3 pages where particulars need to be filled in by the investors and the rest of the pages contain instructions, information about the company and the issue and details about bankers, registrars and bidding centres.
The various proposals currently being discussed by SEBI's Primary Market Advisory Committee include removing from these forms the details already available in the investors' demat and bank accounts.
These include the name of the investor's father or husband (depending on whether the investor is male or female), addresses, fax number and other contact details.
The move could cut down the columns needed to be filled by almost half, sources said.
Besides regulation and development of the primary market, this committee also advises SEBI on changes required to make the systems and procedures simpler and transparent.