IPF woefully insufficient, Sebi looking at increasing corpus: Tyagi

Sebi chairman Ajay Tyagi on Wednesday said the investor protection fund is "woefully insufficient" and the capital markets regulator will soon be increasing the corpus after consultation with exchanges.

Sebi chairman Ajay Tyagi on Wednesday said the investor protection fund is "woefully insufficient" and the capital markets regulator will soon be increasing the corpus after consultation with exchanges. The fund is a corpus set up by exchanges to compensate claims of investors against brokers who have defaulted or have failed to pay.

"I agree that IPF is woefully insufficient and we have examined it and we will be soon taking action in consultation with exchanges to increase the IPF," Tyagi said at an event organised by industry lobby CII. Tyagi made it clear that Sebi will not allow the low corpus in the IPF as a criteria for delaying the declaration of a broker default.

Sebi has reviewed broker defaults in the recent past in detail and will soon be taking corrective actions, Tyagi added. Meanwhile, replying to a question from banker Uday Kotak, Tyagi sought help from industry on the "contentious" issue of promoter reclassification under the listing obligations and disclosure requirements (LODR) which has been under discussion for a long time.

He also backed the suggestion for the need to encourage delivery-based cash markets and also on the need to be more flexible on the capital adequacy front for brokers..