SEBI Revamps Quarterly Reporting Format For AIFs To Streamline Compliance

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has overhauled the quarterly reporting format for Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) to streamline compliance. 

In a circular issued on Thursday (September 14), the market regulator said that it has issued a revised format for quarterly reporting by AIFs to build uniform compliance standards and ease compliance reporting for regulatory and developmental purposes.

“In order to enable the AIF industry to have uniform compliance standards, ease compliance reporting and for regulatory and developmental purposes, the existing quarterly reporting format has been reviewed… and the revised format has been prepared,” the SEBI said in the circular. 

The circular was issued by the SEBI in the under Section 11(1) of the SEBI Act, 1992 to protect the interest of investors and to promote the development of the securities market.

The new format was prepared in consultation with industry bodies Indian Venture and Alternate Capital Association (IVCA) and Equalifi. The market regulator further added that, henceforth, all quarterly reports will have to be submitted online by AIFs in the new format on the SEBI Intermediary Portal. The report has to be submitted within 15 days of the end of each quarter.  

At the outset, the industry bodies will conduct a trial run to streamline the process of filing quarterly reports for the June 2023 quarter, which has to be submitted by October 14. The deadline for furnishing quarterly reports for the quarter ending September 2023 has been set for November 15. Afterwards, all such reports will have to be filed in the new format within 15 days of the end of the quarter. 

SEBI has also directed industry associations to handhold all AIFs in understanding, clarifying or resolving any issues related to the timely and accurate filing of reports. It also said that the reporting format will be periodically reviewed by industry bodies in consultation with the regulator. 

“To keep pace with the fast-changing landscape of (the) AIF industry and for policy and supervision purposes, the aforesaid reporting format shall be reviewed periodically by association / any AIF Standard Setting Forum in consultation with SEBI,” the circular added. 

This comes more than a month after the markets watchdog trimmed the validity period of approval granted to AIFs and venture capital (VC) funds to make foreign investments to four months.

Alongside, SEBI has also ramped up its focus on the local startup ecosystem and has cracked the whip on partnerships between finfluencers (financial influencers), and regulated entities. It has also been keeping an eye on upstream investors (or LPs) in AIFs and has directed the trustees of such funds to find out the proportion of ‘high-risk’ clients and non-profit organisations in each VC fund.