To crack down on black money being routed through illegal money pooling schemes, a joint task force of all financial regulators, including the RBI, IRDA, SEBI and PFRDA, is being set up to monitor all such schemes.
At present, money pools of under ₹100 crore are not scrutinised by SEBI. The latest move is aimed at preventing duping of investors by illegal collective investment schemes.
According to SEBI sources, the proposal has been mooted under the aegis of the Financial Intelligence Unit — India (FIU-IND), the central agency responsible for receiving, processing, analysing and disseminating information relating to suspect financial transactions.
A meeting has been convened in New Delhi on August 4 to discuss the way forward. It will be attended by officials of financial sector regulators, exchanges, depositories, custodians, clearing corporations, banks, insurers and pension funds.
“The idea is to set up a task force at the level of every financial regulator to identify and crack down on such illegal money pools, which, in turn, would get centralised at the level of FIU-IND,” said an official.
SEBI cautionMeanwhile, SEBI, in a statement on Wednesday, cautioned investors not to invest in schemes offered by entities barred from raising money or entities not registered with it.
The regulator stated that it had passed orders against 91 entities offering illegal collective investment schemes since January 2011. They include Saradha Realty, Alchemist Infra Realty, Rose Valley Hotels & Entertainment and HBN Dairies & Allied.