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The Financial Stability and Development Council of India, a body chaired by the country’s Union finance minister, has proposed that a panel of financial regulators be formed to develop a new stewardship code for investors, said two people with direct knowledge of the matter who wish to remain anonymous.
The proposed committee, comprising officials of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), the Insurance Regulatory Development Authority of India (Irda) and the Pension Fund Regulatory Development Authority, will formulate the code, a set of guidelines first adopted by the UK’s Financial Reporting Council in 2010.
Similar codes have been implemented by other nations and since its implementation in the UK, eight other countries, including Malaysia, Japan and Taiwan, have implemented stewardship measures. Singapore and South Korea have set up working groups to develop their own.
The proposals included higher disclosure standards for institutional investors such as pension funds, insurance companies and mutual funds, said the second person. The option of abstaining from voting can also be used under certain circumstances.
India urgently needs a stewardship code, according to many experts familiar with the matter.
