Press Release

Collective responsibility of regulators and market players to convert savers into investors – V S Sundaresan, Executive Director, SEBI

SEBI as a regulator must provide a level playing field for the Issuers, Intermediaries and investors

New Delhi, 24 August 2023: “Investors are the backbone of the entire financial system. In India, we all are good savers but a few steps behind as investors. It is the collective responsibility of the regulator, intermediaries and issuing companies to educate the savers and convert them into investors.” said Mr. V S Sundaresan, Executive Director, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) while speaking at the 5th National Conference on Investors protection, education and awareness organised by ASSOCHAM. 

“SEBI as a regulator must provide a level playing field for the Issuers, Intermediaries and investors. The last few years has seen a definite move from savings to investing but the pace is slow. We need to speed things up for the economy to grow and become a developed nation. The adoption of technology and systemic improvements many of the earlier existing problems has been eliminated. Adoption of technology is seven to eight times faster than the global average. The number of investors coming into the system has increased because they have realised that the process is reliable, sustainable and beneficial. Because of increased retail investors and institutional investments our dependence on FPI’s to sustain market momentum has decreased comparatively. The increased participation of Indian institutional investors has made the economy more resilient.” he said.

 “The type of products available in the system for an investor to choose from has grown. An investor can now choose an instrument as per his risk appetite. Awareness and education is important as it enables us to protect ourselves. We need to constantly engage with market participants and spread awareness. Without the confidence of investors, the market will not be able to sustain for the long run. The investor base is heavily skewed with a majority of investors constituting about 60% coming from Tier-I cities. We need to increase outreach to smaller cities to raise education and awareness and to highlight the available protection for investors. We are writing and re-writing rules to protect the investors. Investors must follow basic safety precautions like making nominations.” he added. 

Delivering the welcome address at the conference, Mr. Hitender Mehta, Senior Member - Managing Committee, ASSOCHAM and Managing Partner, Centrum Legal said, “Investors protection, education and awareness is an important topic that needs to be widely discussed and not just in metros. Investors irrespective of where they are located needs to be aware about their rights and they all need to be protected.” 

Speaking at the conference, Dr. Naresh Maheshwari, Chairman, Farsight Group said, “Investors must be aware of their rights and obligations, know the type of product they are investing in and the remedies available to them. Deterrence, detection and defence are basic tenets of investor protection. SEBI as a regulator has come up with a robust system of investor protection which needs to be widely disseminated.” 

In his address, Mr. Sameet Gambhir, Company Secretary, DCM Shriram Ltd. said, “Promoting investors protection, education and awareness is a noble cause as it is closely linked to financial literacy. We all have different objectives and financial literacy is the key. Today, most information is available in the internet and the key is to understand which information are relevant to you as an investor.” 

Speaking at the event, Mr. Feroze Azeez, Deputy CEO, Anand Rathi Wealth Limited said, “We have a lower perception of how much investor protection has happened in India than the global perspective of our protection. Investor protection and awareness is a means to an end. We calculated household savings at 670 lakh crore using data from RBI and other sources. The AUM of equity and mutual fund is lower than savings. If equity in a structured format is not going to be a part of India’s household savings, it will never beat inflation.” 

Addressing the conference, Mr. Nitin Jain, AVP, Resurgent India Limited said, “Investors looking at the Indian market with a long term growth perspective look at protection of money. A strong investor protection is a great confidence booster.” 

A knowledge paper on Safeguarding Investments: Investor protection and education, prepared in collaboration with Resurgent India was released at the Conference. Engaging discussions on the way forward for Investors Education and Protection and opportunities & challenges of Investing in Financial Markets where eminent personalities from the government, private and research sectors participated in the deliberations.