Sebi asks Franklin Templeton MF to focus on returning investors' money at earliest

Capital markets regulator Sebi on Thursday asked Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund to focus on returning money to investors at the earliest after the troubled fund house closed six of its debt schemes with assets under management totalling more than Rs 25,000 crore.

Sebi also said "some mutual fund schemes" continued to invest in high risk and "opaque" debt securities despite the regulatory framework having been reviewed and amended for safeguarding investors' interest after credit risk events noticed since September 2018, which had led to challenges in the corporate bond market.

Incidentally, these regulatory changes were implemented after taking into account suggestions made by Sebi's Mutual Fund Advisory Committee, whose members at that time included Franklin Templeton AMC India President Sanjay Sapre, sources said.

"Some mutual fund schemes chose to have high concentrations of high risk, unlisted, opaque, bespoke, structured debt securities with low credit ratings and seem to have ...