SEBI chief at CII Summit: ‘On our way towards making ₹250 SIP a reality’

SEBI Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch, speaking during CII's Financing 3.0 Summit Preparing for Viksit Bharat, said the ₹250 per month systematic investment plan could soon be a reality. She said that Aditya Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund is working towards launching a ₹250 per month SIP, which will be the first by any mutual fund house.

"We have been working very closely to make sure that's viable for them. It can be offered but if it's not viable, it will not get the traction. So I think the industry AMFI and leaders in the industry have come forward and we are well on our way towards making a ₹250 SIP a reality in our country," says the SEBI chief. She says this will enable a low cost of onboarding and servicing by leveraging technology. “People are shocked globally when I say roughly $3 a month."

“Imagine with less than $3 a month, people will be able to participate in the wealth creation of our nation and that is our path towards a 'Viksit Bharat'," says the SEBI chairperson.

She also says the inclusion agenda is important for the regulator and the financial sector as a whole. “If we were to look forward and say what will the market ecosystem look like going forward, and therefore, what is it that regulation must look like, and what should be the process by which the regulator operates? The first and most important piece is tomorrow is going to be about larger than larger scale. Because that's the strength of our country and we want to leverage, drive and that's what's going to become a reality.”

To fuel to scale, the response and the expectation that the regulator will have, both from itself and the industry, is the technology deployment. "It has already started happening. A large part of our market ecosystem is now pioneering and leading in terms of technology globally. There is no other place on this globe where a lot of technology that we have today is present anywhere else.”

She underscored the need to adopt technology to manage effectively. “The second dimension that’s going to drive the market ecosystem is complexity,” says Buch. She says a variety of asset classes, products, and participants are already being offered in the market. "The number of different and distinct SEBI deals is growing. We constituted an ease-of-doing-business working group and found that to address our stakeholders, we needed 16 of them. I am sure by next year, we'll need 20 of them, so the complexity of what's happening in the market ecosystem is driven by 'the right product for the right person'."

She says gone were the days there used to be “only two or three asset classes”. “When we have needs of such vast variety of stakeholders, it is incumbent upon the regulator to facilitate new products and new assets classes all the time to serve those needs, not in a simplistic one-size-fits-all, but to be able to create a large number of products and services which suit the needs of each segment.”

She underscored that “complexity” will test the regulator’s efficiency. "There is no other way of doing the regulator business, other than to co-create. So this is out of sheer necessity. There is no way that without adequate consultation and co-creation, the regulator can come up with sensible rules, products and services,” she adds.