DIRECT ENTRY FOR HEDGE FUNDS

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the capital markets regulator, has for the first time directly invited hedge funds to register with it and participate in the Indian stock markets without the cover of participatory notes. Participatory notes are often seen as tools for money laundering and there have been numerous calls, including from the Reserve Bank of India, to curtail them. The detailed norms for hedge funds entry are being finalized. It is widely estimated that 48 per cent of the $50 billion investment by Foreign Institutional Investors in the Indian markets has come through offshore participatory notes.