The Forward Markets Commission has directed the commodity exchanges to create an investor protection fund at the earliest.An IPF is created to protect the interests of clients of trading members of an exchange, who may have been declared defaulters or expelled under the provisions the bourse.
Official sources said the Forward Contracts (Regulation) Act and contract guidelines of the FMC had provisions for the creation of the fund.
But no exchange has formed it, as there are issues with its creation as a trust and its tax treatment.
Exchanges had sought clarifications from the commodity markets regulator on this, they said.
FMC is expected to come out with a comprehensive guideline for the IPF creation.
"We are trying to widen the scope of IPF not only by making it responsible for compensating an investor in case of defaulting trading member but also make it a dispute resolution mechanism," they said.
While details are being worked out, the IPF may be created as a trust and managed by trustees appointed by the exchanges, according to them.
The fund will account for all fees and penalties collected
by the exchanges.
"Currently, there are no formal procedure for accounting of such funds and this creates a problem for standardised audit. With growing volumes in the market, such amounts are also going up," they said.
Besides, every trading member of an exchange shall contribute to the fund as specified by the bourse.
They said FMC was awaiting the amendment to the Forward Contracts (Regulation) Act.
In the existing ambit, it has stepped up surveillance of the futures market to protect investors and growth of the market.
It has decided to incorporate a market monitoring surveillance system, with inbuilt alerts on odd market deals, unaligned with predefined norms and rules.
It has started joint surveillance with the equity markets regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India.
To protect investors, earlier this year, FMC decided to make it mandatory for trading members/brokers of exchanges to issue physical contract notes.
While sending physical contract note for confirmation of every transaction is mandatory, it also relaxed the criteria.
Trading members can send electronic contract notes if the member is comfortable with such notes in written communication.
