Exchanges to launch options in currency derivatives soon

"Exchanges have applied to us and we are expecting to take a decision on actually allowing exchanges to launch options in currency derivatives very soon," Bhave said addressing a seminar on 'Investor Protection and Market Development' here.

Introduction of currency derivatives in stock exchanges was a subject pending for long. "We were able to evolve a joint regulatory mechanism. We will go step by step. Initially futures was introduced, then Rupee-Dollar, Rupee-Pound and Rupee-Euro was introduced," he said.

On the Mutual Fund Industry, he said it was undergoing "tremendous transformation". The entry load ban was introduced from August 1, 2009. He said Rs 63,000 crore was collected by the mutual fund industry during August 2009 to July 2010 in equity schemes.

Profits of the Asset Management Companies(AMC) put together had gone up three times during 2009-10 compared to 2008-09. The profits of AMC, which was Rs 243 crore in 2008-09, touched Rs 870 crore in 2009-10. This was an opportunity for the AMCs to adjust to the new environment, he said.

Some AMCs are training their personnel to adjust to the new environment, some are not, he said, adding, unfortunately some wasted lot of time trying to scuttle this move.
The investors have Rs 1200 crore extra in the hands in one year when the industry is saying their collections are down. In earlier years, money used to be collected in newly launched schemes, now money is being collected in existing schemes, he said, adding existing schemes are gathering weight compared to new schemes. So new schemes launches have come down.

In retail applications, 18-20 per cent persons apply through ASBA. This percentage will increase and there is need for investor education in this area. We are talking to merchant bankers on the glitches in the system. We need to improve. "We want to collect sufficient data on ASBAR to see how much money investors have saved by way of interest," he said.