FII Investment in Government debt long term and corporate debt long term infra category: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), vide its circular dated June 25, 2012 decided to enhance the existing limit for investment by SEBI registered Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) in Government debt by a further amount of USD 5 billion taking the overall limit for FII investment in Government debt from USD 15 billion to USD 20 billion. Further it has decided that the conditions for the limit of USD 22 billion for FII investment in corporate debt long term infra category, including the sub-limit of USD 5 billion with one year lock-in/residual maturity requirement and USD 10 billion for non resident investment in IDFs (which are all within the overall limit of USD 25 billion for investment in infrastructure corporatebonds) to be changed as under:- The lock-in period for investments under this limit has been uniformly reduced to one year; and- The residual maturity of the instrument at the time of first purchase by an FII/eligible IDF investor would be at least fifteen months.
Redressal of complaints against Stock Exchanges (SEs) and Depositories through SEBI Complaints Redress System (SCORES): SEBI vide circular CIR/MRD/ICC/16/2012 dated 15th June, 2012 had announced that any complaint received by SEBI against SE’s and Depositories shall be electronically sent through SCORES. The pending complaints can be viewed at http://scores.gov.in/admin and the Action Taken Report (ATR) along with supporting documents has to be submitted electronically in SCORES. It has to be further noted that updation of action taken shall not be possible with physical ATRs. Hence, submission of physical ATR shall not be accepted for complaints lodged in SCORES.
Reporting of Offshore Derivative Instruments (ODIs)/ Participatory Notes (PNs) activity: SEBI vide circular CIR/IMD/FIIC/14/2012 dated 7th June, 2012 has revised the reporting timeliness with regard to Foreign Institutional Investors who issues Offshore Derivatives Instruments and Participatory Notes which are as follows: (a). FII’s issuing ODI’s/PN’s shall submit details of ODI/PN transaction report (Annexure A, B and C) along with the monthly summary report by 10th of every month for previous month’s ODI transactions. The first such report shall be submitted for the month of October 2012 by November 10, 2012. (b). The details of ODI/PN transaction report for month of December 2011 to April 2012 shall be submitted with six months lag. ( c). The details of ODI/PN transactions report for month of May 2012 to September 2012 shall be submitted along with report of October 2012 by November 10, 2012.
Revision in framework for Qualified Foreign Investor (QFI) investment in Equity Shares and Mutual Fund schemes: SEBI vide circular CIR/ IMD/ FII&C/ 13/ 2012 dated 7th June, 2012 has revised the definition of Qualified Foreign Investors (QFI). Qualified Foreign Investors (QFI) is the one who fulfills the following criteria: (i) Resident in a country that is a member of Financial Action Task Force (FATF) or a member of a group which is a member of FATF; and (ii) Resident in a country that is a signatory to IOSCO’s MMOU (Appendix A Signatories) or a signatory of a bilateral MOU with SEBI subject to certain conditions as mentioned in the circular.
