CA Online

EPFO to consider widening range of ETF investments tomorrow Retirement fund body EPFO trustees will consider tomorrow widening the range of equity linked schemes or exchange traded funds (ETFs) to maximise returns on its investments in stock markets. Besides, the Employees Provident Fund Organisation's (EPFO) board will also consider a proposal to give extension of six more months to its five fund managers SBI, ICICI Securities Primary Dealership, Reliance Capital, HSBC AMC and UTI AMC for managing its corpus, says agenda listed for the trustees meet scheduled tomorrow. The five fund managers were appointed for three years from April 1, 2015. They were given extension till June 30, 2018. Now, it has been proposed to give the five fund managers further extension till December 31, 2018 or till the time of appointment of new fund managers. The EPFO has been investing in ETFs and now wants to enhance its range to maximise returns on its investments in stock markets. Presently...

India Inc's foreign direct investment dips 63% to dollar 1.17 bn in May In May 2017, India Inc's foreign direct investment stood at dollar 3.12 billion Indian companies' investments into their overseas subsidiaries/joint ventures fell by 63 per cent to dollar 1.17 billion in May this year, according to RBI data.In May 2017, India Inc's foreign direct investment stood at dollar 3.12 billion.In April 2018, the outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) of Indian firms was dollar  3.56 billion. Of the total investment by domestic firms in overseas ventures in May 2018, dollar 374.18 million was in the form of equity infusion, dollar 162.96 million in loan and dollar 630.45 million as guarantee issuances, as per Reserve Bank data.Among the major companies that made investment in their overseas subsidiaries/joint ventures included Indiabulls Real Estate dollar 368.09 million, ONGC dollar 57.94 million, Tata Hitachi Construction Machinery dollar 26.62 million and Wadhaw...

We're not NRIs, Sebi told by PIO fund managers Across markets, fund managers who are persons of Indian origin (PIO) are reaching out to Sebi, asking the regulator to differentiate them from nonresident Indians (NRIs) who have been barred from running or controlling foreign portfolio investors (FPIs). Unlike NRIs who hold Indian passports, PIOs and individuals who have obtained the OCI (or, overseas citizenship of India) card from the Indian government are citizens of other countries. According to a Sebi rule announced in April 2018, NRIs can longer be‘beneficial owners’ of FPIs (which collectively comprise the largest group of public investors in the Indian stock market). However, in drafting the new rule, the regulator has included PIOs and persons enjoying OCI status in the same group with NRIs. While the regulation is aimed at curbing fund round-tripping and money laundering, it has impacted several individuals of Indian origin who were born and brought up abroad but a...

RBI issues draft guidelines on setting up board of management for cooperative banks RBI says the board of management will be responsible for credit, risk and liquidity management of the urban cooperative bank The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has come out with draft guidelines on constituting a board of management (BoM) in addition to the board of directors, for urban cooperative banks (UCBs), with the aim of strengthening the governance in these banks.The BoM will be responsible for credit, risk and liquidity management of the bank, RBI said in a circular released on Monday. “As UCBs are accepting public deposits, it is imperative that a separate mechanism be put in place to protect the interests of depositors. Accordingly, it is proposed to implement a Board of Management consisting of members with special knowledge and practical experience in banking to facilitate professional management and focused attention to banking related activities of UCBs,” said the circular.The move f...