The Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) today adjourned the hearing in the matter of appointment of an self-regulatory authority by the market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).
The tribunal will next near the matter in March.
SAT hears appeals against decisions of the stock market regulator.
Sebi had invited applications for the establishment of a self-regulatory organisation (SRO) that would supervise mutual fund distributors.
Applicants included the Organisation of Financial Distributors, promoted by Financial Intermediaries Association of India. The Financial Standards Planning Board, a financial planning body, had also applied by similarly creating the Financial Planning Supervisory Foundation (FPSF).
The regulator subsequently approved the application of Institute of Mutual Funds Intermediaries (Imfi) to act as SRO. The Association of Mutual Funds of India (Amfi) had set up IMFI. AMFI is an industry body for mutual funds.
The Financial Standards Planning Board appealed against the move. It said that IMFI had been set up after the application deadline and was thus ineligible for consideration.
A source said that another objection was that allowing IMFI to be SRO would mean that product distributors would be regulated by a body which the manufacturers of the product had set up. A source from the other side refuted this, saying that the SRO board has sufficient representation from the regulator to ensure that there is no manufacturer domination.
