National Institute of Securities Markets (NISM) had organized a meet to discuss the topic of ‘Simplification of IPO Process & Common KYC Norms’. The event was held on Friday – March 9, 2012 at NISM’s new Testing Center at Nariman Point, Mumbai.

Mr. M L Soneji, Registrar and Officiating Director of NISM welcomed everyone and briefed about the role of NISM in capacity building and raising the quality of securities markets.

NISM is a public trust, established by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the regulator for securities markets in India. NISM seeks to add to market quality through educational initiatives. The School for Certification of Intermediaries (SCI) at NISM is engaged in developing certification examinations for professionals employed in various segments of the Indian securities markets. These examinations are being developed by NISM as mandated under SEBI (Certification of Associated Persons in the Securities Markets) Regulation, 2007.

Mr. Cyrus Khambata, Executive Vice President, CDSL spoke about what is KRA, why is KRA required, what are the benefits, pre-requisite and applicability. He also said that KRA will improve compliance levels and only one time KYC document collection will be required. For applicability of KRA he added, that all new client accounts has been opened from Jan 01, 2012.

Mr. Aliasgar S Mithwani, Deputy General Manager, SEBI spoke about single KYC form and about key features of uniform KYC which captures name,date,place of incorporation, PAN, registration no., status and date of commencement of business. He also added that SEBI vide circulars dated August 22, 2011 and October 05, 2011, revised the KYC requirements and made them uniform for the investors while opening account with any of the intermediaries in the securities markets.

The event was a part of NISM’s efforts towards education of intermediaries. The event was attended by several investors, securities markets professionals, management students and media professionals. Last but not the least the event ended with an interactive session between audience and the speakers.

NISM currently offers the following mandatory certification examinations:

1. NISM Series-I: Currency Derivatives Certification Examination
2. NISM Series-II-A: Registrars and Transfer Agents (Corporate) Certification Examination
3. NISM Series-II-B: Registrars and Transfer Agents (Mutual Fund) Certification Examination
4. NISM Series-IV: Interest Rate Derivatives Certification Examination
5. NISM Series-V-A: Mutual Funds Distributors Certification Examination
6. NISM Series-VI: Depository Operations Certification Examination
7. NISM Series-VII: Securities Operations and Risk Management Certification Examination (NISM Series-VII: SORM Examination)

Mr. Nitin Tike, SVP at NISM summarized the points discussed during the program and thanked all the participants.