New Delhi: Markets regulator Sebi on Tuesday put in place a uniform policy to streamline the reconciliation process among intermediaries with regard to initial public offers as well as a new mechanism to compensate investors.
The new framework would address issues related to delay in receipt of mandate by investors for blocking of funds due to systemic issues at intermediaries and failure to unblock the funds in cases of partial allotment by the next working day from the finalisation of Basis of Allotment (BOA), Sebi said in a circular.
Among other issues that would be addressed are Self Certified Syndicate Bank (SCSB) blocking multiple amounts for the same Unified Payment Interface (UPI) application and SCSB blocking more amount in the investors account than the application amount. In order to ensure timely response with regard to IPO process, SCSBs would identify the nodal officer for IPO applications processed through UPI as a payment mechanism and submit the details to Sebi within seven working days.
For ease of reference, the details of nodal officers of SCSBs will be hosted on the Sebi Website. To ensure timely information to investors, SCSBs would send SMS alerts for mandate block and unblock.
For ease of doing business, sponsor banks would host a web portal for intermediaries from the date of IPO opening till the date of listing. It will have details of statistics of mandate blocks/ unblocks, performance of apps and UPI handles, down-time/ network latency (if any) across intermediaries and any such processes having an bearing on the IPO bidding process.
To avoid duplication, Sebi said the facility of re-initiation provided to syndicate members would preferably be allowed only once per bid/ batch and as deemed fit by the concerned stock exchange after bid closure time.
In respect of cancelled or withdrawn applications, the regulator said that Registrars To an Issue would have to submit the details of cancelled or withdrawn applications to SCSB's on a daily basis within 60 minutes of bid closure time.