Approach your fund house first for grievance redressal

Most investors are ignorant of or not fully aware of an effective redressal mechanism for their investments. This is one of the least thought off or spoken about subjects when it comes to investments. Let us look at the grievance redressal system for mutual fund investments.

Broadly speaking, as an investor, you can at first can get your grievances addressed by contacting your Asset Management Company (AMC) itself. If you are not satisfied you can escalate the matter to the regulatory body – Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

First approach your fund house

AMCs have a systematic redressal system in place, for example, as the first step it is always better to get in touch with their respective investor contact centre via a call or email. In case, you are not comfortable with the online facility, you can walk in to the nearest branch or office of the AMC.

Further, if the complaint is not addressed within a reasonable time-frame, then you can contact the Investor Relations Officer, post which at the next level you can reach out to a senior management official within the fund house. For instance, it could be the senior vice president in charge of operations. You will need to check with the fund house as to who is the concerned official.

If your grievance remains unresolved after this, then typically there are three levels as part of grievance redressal mechanism.

At level 1, you can get in touch with the compliance officer, who will raise your grievance internally. In case of an unsatisfactory response, at level 2, you can seek a resolution for your grievance by reaching out to the fund house's MD & CEO. Post which, if your grievance still remains unresolved, you can always seek a remedy through the regulator.

How to lodge a complaint with Sebi

Most investor complaints are related to discrepancies in statement of accounts, dividend not received, correction in PAN or contact details. These normally get resolved at the AMC's end itself. However, if the matter needs to be escalated to Sebi, then following is the procedure:

You as an aggrieved investor can approach Sebi regarding your unresolved grievances through its centralised web-based system 'SCORES'. You will have to first register yourself on the 'SCORES' website by providing some of your mandatory credentials such as – name, email, address, PAN and contact number. Following which you can log a complaint by selecting the appropriate scheme details and provide details of the complaint filed with the respective fund house. However, in case, you had not filed any complaint with the fund house and directly sought assistance from Sebi redressal system, you will have to provide a reason for the same.

Once you have provided the required information, a complaint registration number will be allotted to you, which will help you track the status online and do the required follow-up. Meanwhile, the redressal system 'SCORES' will forward the complaint to the concerned fund house for resolution. The concerned fund house has to respond to the complaint in writing and within 30 days file an Action Taken Report (ATR) on 'SCORES'. Failure to file the ATR within in the limited time will be deemed as non-redressal of investor grievance.

It is only after the fund house resolves the grievance and files an ATR, the complaint is closed. The concerned investor is intimated by email.

HOW TO RESOLVE YOUR COMPLAINT

• If you go to the regulator you have to provide details of the complaint filed with the fund house
   
• In case you had not filed a complaint with the fund house and directly sought assistance from the regulator, you will have to provide a reason for the same
   
• Investors can register complaint with Sebi through its centralised web-based system 'SCORES'

The author is Executive Director & Chief Marketing Officer (Domestic Business) of SBI Mutual Fund