Sebi comes out with investor charter

Market regulator Sebi on Wednesday came out with investor charter for investors in securities market which aims at protecting investors' interest.

The charter includes rights and responsibilities of investors and dos and don'ts of investing in securities market, as per a public notice.

The vision of the investor charter is "to protect the interests of investors by enabling them to understand the risks involved and invest in a fair, transparent, secure market, and to get services in a timely and efficient manner."

The rights include getting fair and equitable treatment, expecting redressal of investor grievances filed in SCORES in a time bound manner.

It also includes getting quality services from Sebi recognised market infrastructure institutions and Sebi registered intermediaries, regulated entities and asset management companies, as per the charter.

Sebi also laid out responsibilities, do's and don'ts of investors.

"Redressal of investor grievances is an important measure towards investor protection," Sebi said.

It added that Sebi now publishes a status report about the disposal of investor grievances received on SCORES portal on the website, on a monthly basis.

"A mechanism has been established whereby all Sebi regulated intermediaries/entities will have to disclose average time taken for redressal of investor grievances received by them, on their respective websites in a format specified by Sebi starting from January 2022," it said.

Sebi said it has put in place an alternate dispute redressal mechanism for grievances against brokers, depository participants at the level of stock exchanges and depositories.

Sebi is examining the prospect of establishing similar mechanism for various services provided by other registered intermediaries/ entities.