While the SEBI initiative on Clause 49 is welcome, SEBI must follow this up by swift implementation of the database on corporate disclosures which allows investors to access this information online whenever they need to research a potential investment decision. To do this, chairman CB Bhave will have to examine how and why SEBI bungled on the official database EDIFAR (Electronic Data...

Many account holders of ICICI Bank are agitated with its decision to double the minimum quarterly average balance from Rs5,000 to Rs10,000 and to encourage those customers who do not want to maintain this balance, to close their accounts within 60 days. With this, the Bank is signalling that it no longer wants to chase growth in terms of number of accounts and will focus on customer net-worth...

Over the past two years of its existence, MoneyLIFE has strongly flagged the issue of brokers asking investors to sign a Power of Attorney (PoA) giving them access to the investors’ depository participant (DP) account. Active investors do sign such a PoA as a matter of convenience and to avoid constantly signing DP instruction slips to meet the T+2 settlement norms. But that is a conscious...