Sebi's proposals on investment advisors gets mixed response

Experts say big players can get away by simply creating separate divisions to sell and advise

The Securities and Exchange Board of India's (Sebi)'s latest proposals on selling of investment products has drawn mixed responses.

Last week, the markets regulator suggested that selling' and 'advising' would be kept at arm's length, besides asking the banks and other financial institutions to separate their advisory and distribution divisions.

To address any conflict of interest, Sebi has suggested that an investment adviser should only perform those functions for which he/she is entitled to a fee and not sell any mutual fund (MF) product. Those in the segment say such a move could impact big MF distributors.

"No large distributor would like to be called