'Stateless' investors own equity mutual funds worth Rs 23,000 crore

People who do not belong to any of the Indian states or Union territories own a significant amount of investment in equity mutual funds in the country, according to data published by the MF sector.Investments classified as originating from 'others' in the state-wise declaration of assets under management (AUM) totalled Rs 23,118 crore or nearly seven per cent of total equity assets of the sector at the end of April.   Financial Astrology

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), which made the monthly state-wise assets disclosure mandatory for funds in March 2014, had described a format, which included all the states and Union territories. It also had a footnote that required funds to add any new state or territory formed to the list according to alphabetical order. Accordingly, including Telangana, formed in June 2014, India has 29 states and seven Union territories.  Personal Numerology 
Data experts question the logic of presence of such a huge amount in 'others', when all 36 geographic divisions have been enumerated separately. The anomaly points to possible chinks in the data gathering and Know Your Customer (KYC) processes followed by the sector, as the name of the state and PIN code are important fields in any KYC format, they say. Four out of the 42 MFs did not have any asset under this category. Of the rest, all but one registered growth in assets in the 'other' states. The assets in this category grew by 80 per cent in the past year in line with sector growth rate, riding on the equity rally.      Indian stock market astrology prediction

"It could be a data entry issue. But, that in turn means there is a KYC problem to the extent that the prescribed mandatory procedures are not being strictly adhered to," said Pranav Haldea, managing director, Prime Database. He added this was not an issue of 'clubbing' of states with lesser assets, as the Sebi format itself listed out all the states and territories.  Sensex Astrology 

While distributors had little clue about these 'stateless' investors, asset managers attributed this large number to incomplete applications by investors, legacy accounts and data classification issues at the registrar and transfer agents' (RTA) end. Many fund houses also said a significant portion of funds they classified as 'others' came from non-resident Indians and foreign portfolio investors (FPI). Business Standard reached out to seven fund houses, including the five which accounted for about Rs 18,000 crore or 80 per cent of equity assets under the 'others' category. The responses were very different from each other.  Share Market Astrology