How To Avoid Repossession

Repossession is generally used to refer to a financial institution taking back an object that was either used as collateral or rented or leased in a transaction. Note that repossession is a "self-help" type of action in which the party having right of ownership of the property in question takes the property back from the party having right of possession without invoking court proceedings.

Repossession is something that happens when you aren’t able to make your payments. If you can’t pay the bank for whatever loan you took out, and if you are missing payments to them, since they own your property they can come and take it back. The bank would be able to do repossession, which means that they can come in and take whatever you used their money to buy. This can be very bad for you, so you need to make sure that you know how to avoid repossession.

There are several things that you can do to avoid repossession and to make sure that your items remain your items. One of the best things that you can do is to make sure that you are always organized, so you know how much you are going to have to pay, and when each of these payments is going to have to be made. This is something that is very easy for you to do, and something that you should be in the habit of doing for all of the bills that you have to pay. Being organized can mean that you’ll never miss a payment due to forgetting about it. In addition, by being organized you will feel more in control of your finances and feel better overall.

The other most important thing that you can do is to talk to your lender and let them know about your situation. Whether you have lost your job or have just been laid off for an extended amount of time, let them know everything. A lender who is left in the dark about your financial situation thinks the worst whenever you do not make payments. A successful lender will be able to work out a repayment plan that you can afford. This type of adjustment will affect your credit score, but you will not have to worry about loosing your most valuable possession, your home. As soon as you are aware of the lower payment which needs to be made, you should begging making it as soon as possible. If you go too long without paying, they may take legal actions to repossess your home.

Repossession Calendar

The calendar below will help you remember what happens when property is repossessed, and what you can do to protect your property. Your creditor may notify you that he or she intends to repossess your property before doing so but is not required by law to warn you ahead of time. Your legal rights will vary depending upon whether your creditor gave you advance written notice of the repossession.

REPOSSESSION CALENDAR
TIME	EVENT
Day of repossession	Creditor takes back your secure purchase.
Within 3 days after repossession	If you did not receive advance written notice of the repossession, creditor must give you a written statement of the amount you are currently in default and the expenses of repossession and storage.
1 to 15 days after repossession	If you did not receive advance written notice of the repossession, you can get your item back by paying the amount in default (and correcting any other default) and paying the cost of repossession and storage. If you did receive advance written notice of the repossession, you may be able to get your item back by working out an agreement with the creditor which may require refinancing or paying off the full debt.
Before resale	The creditor must give you at least 10 days' written notice of the time and place of any public sale or the time after which a private sale may take place. You may still get your item back up to the date of resale by working out an agreement with the creditor which may require refinancing or paying off the full debt.
Day of Resale (16 days to 6 months after repossession)	Creditor sells the item that has been repossessed.
1 to 30 days after resale	Creditor gives you a written statement of how much the item sold for and how the proceeds of the sale were spent.

sneaky credit card tricks

Retroactive Rate Increase

This is the No. 1 practice credit card customers complain about. Even if you signed up for a low-interest card, many banks reserve the right to raise your card's interest rate at any time. They can charge you the new, higher rate not only on new charges but on your existing debt as well. It's a real bait and switch.

Tricks to Make You Pay Late

These come in many varieties. If you’re late you’ll pay a hefty fee and your interest rate may go up. Check each statement carefully and pay your bill as soon as it arrives.

Changing Due Dates – Your bill will not be due on the same day every month.

Early Due Dates – Bills may be due just a few days after you receive them.

Weekend Due Dates – If your due date is on the weekend and your payment arrives on the date, it
won’t be processed until Monday and you’ll be considered late.

Morning Due Times –Your payment may be due at 9am on the due date, not 5pm.

Tricky Interest Calculations

For some cards, you can pay interest on purchases from previous cycles.

Say you made a $100 purchase, but you only paid $90 of it off. Instead of being charged interest on the $10 remaining, the card company takes the opportunity to charge interest on the entire $100, because a portion of it was not paid in full.This is known as double cycle billing. Look for a card that uses the “Average Daily Balance” interest calculation method.

Retroactive Application of Higher Interest Rates

To make things worse, if your interest rate increases, they can apply the higher interest rate to the entire existing balance, not just to new charges.

Credit “Protection”

Services like this may sound good, but they’re usually useless. The fee for the service likely exceeds the minimum payments it would cover if you became sick or lost your job. Avoid add-on products like this.

Consumers have been complaining about these practices for years. In December, the Federal Reserve passed new rules that will help curb them, but those rules don't go into effect until July 2010.

The Obama administration and Congress may now be more likely to force the credit card industry to make swift changes, because these are the same banks receiving billions in government bailout funds and Americans are hurting right now.

Tax Gain/Loss Harvesting

Selling securities at a loss to offset a capital gains tax liability. Tax gain/loss harvesting is typically used to limit the recognition of short-term capital gains, which are normally taxed at higher federal income tax rates than long-term capital gains.
Also known as "tax-loss selling".

Tax-loss harvesting
Suppose you have an investment with a cost basis of $10,000, and its current value is $5000 (certainly possible given the stock market’s performance this year). Let’s assume that in two years from now, the value of your investment would return to $10,000. If you do nothing, you’ll have a $10K investment in 2010 and owe no taxes if you were to choose to sell it at that time.

If, instead, you sell your investment this month, wait 31 days, and then buy it back, you’ll be able to realize the $5000 loss on your 2008 tax return.

During those 31 days, you might choose to invest in a money market fund or some similar investment so that you don’t miss out on a possible upswing in the market during that 31-day period — more on that later. Assuming no significant market movements during the 31 days, you’ll still have a $5000 investment. In this case, what have you gained?

Offsetting capital gains
First, the $5000 loss on this year’s tax return can be used to offset any other capital gains you might have realized this year. If you don’t have any capital gains this year, then you can use the first $3000 worth of losses to avoid paying taxes on current-year income. Any amount over $3000 can be carried forward as capital losses towards your tax returns in future years. The losses can be carried forward indefinitely and used to offset $3k of income each year or to offset future capital gains.

But what about your investment, which used to have a cost basis of $10,000 and now has a cost basis of $5000? When you sell this investment at some point in the future, won’t it be a wash since you’ll have to pay taxes on an extra $5000 of investment gains? Although future tax rates are an unknown, we are making two assumptions here:

• The first is that capital gains tax rates will continue to be lower than income tax rates.
• The second is that we’d prefer to defer paying taxes (after all, isn’t this why we invest in 401(k) plans?).

Current capital gains tax rates are 0% for those people in the 10% and 15% income tax brackets. For people in the 25% and higher income tax brackets, capital gains are taxed at 15%.

If a person in the 25% tax bracket takes a capital loss of $5K this year, she can reduce this year’s taxable income by $3000 and next year’s taxable income by $2000. Disregarding state taxes for a moment, she would save $750 this year and $500 next year on federal taxes, for a total savings of $1250.

If she decides to sell her investment with a long-term gain of $5000 in 2010, she will pay $750 in capital gains taxes, for a net savings of $500. If she waits until retirement to sell the investment, which may be decades away, the current savings of $1250 may be compounded over a long period of time.

The waiting game
What should you do with your investments during the 31-day period before you can buy them back? One option is to simply let your cash sit in a money market fund. It will earn a guaranteed interest rate and will be safe from losses. The downside to this choice is that you may miss out on an upswing in the market. With the current levels of volatility in the market, bad timing could mean you’ll miss a significant rally.

Another option is to temporarily invest your money in a similar investment. For example, if your money is currently in the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index (VTSMX) you could swap over to the Vanguard 500 Index (VFINX) for 31 days, and then swap back. This way, you’ll still earn the same approximate market return that you would have earned had you done nothing.

The downside to this choice is that you may lose money during the 31-day period. Also, if the market does go up, you’ll have a short-term gain, and you’ll have to pay taxes on that gain.

Each investor needs to decide for herself which option makes sense for her particular situation and temperament. You may also choose to use this opportunity to change your portfolio if your current investments are not the ones you’d like to hold for the long term.

Playing by the rules
To make sure that your tax-loss harvesting meets IRS requirements, you must refrain from buying any shares of your investment, or a “substantially identical security”, for the 30 days before and the 30 days after selling it at a loss. This is known as the “wash-sale rule”, and it is the reason for waiting 31 days after selling your investment before buying it back. Make sure that you have not purchased any shares of the investment during the 30 days prior to selling as well.

A “substantially identical security” is a little bit of a grey area. It is certainly not allowed to sell shares of a particular stock and then buy back the same stock within the wash-sale time period. Selling shares of one S&P 500 fund and buying a different S&P 500 fund for 31 days is unlikely to cause an issue, but you’re probably better off swapping into funds with somewhat different holdings.

Points to note while using Credit Cards

Technically speaking, a credit card is an unsecured loan. This means that unlike a secured loan, which is advanced by a bank/financial institution against a security like property for instance, a credit card is offered without any security.

The major benefit of a credit card is convenience. The issuer is willing to give you a loan. As a customer, you should use credit cards only for short-term gaps in your ability to purchase goods or services. Ultimately, you have to pay the loan amount back. And if you don’t have the money, then you will pay heavily for it in late fees and charges, which could often be more than you originally spent on the card.

Terms and conditions

Every card will come with terms and conditions. These will specify your rights and obligations towards the issuer of the card. Always read the fine print carefully. Once you start using your card it is assumed that you have read and accepted all the terms and conditions. So read and clarify what you must, before using your card.

Annual fees

Earlier it was common practice for banks to waive annual fees for the first and second year and not beyond this. However, as the market has become more competitive, a lot of credit card companies are doing away with the annual fees completely and are issuing life time free cards. So, shop around to see which is the best card that you can get at the cheapest fees.

Understand your billing cycle

A billing cycle is the period between two statement dates and is normally a period of 30 days. While using your card to buy big ticket items, time your purchase in such a way that you get a longer credit period. For instance, you could use your card to make a purchase at the beginning of your billing cycle. This way you get more time to pay back the issuer because you will not get a bill for at least a few weeks. In case you have more than one card ensure that the statement dates and payment due dates fall on different dates, so that your payments are not due on the same date.

Minimum payment due

The minimum payment due every month is generally 3% to 5 % of your total amount due, but that does not mean that you should pay only this small amount. It is strongly advisable to pay the entire outstanding amount due in one go in order to avoid carrying forward of your balance. The moment you start carrying forward your balance you will have to pay an interest on the unpaid amount. The interest charged could be as high as 40% which is almost double the rate any other lender will charge. This is where you have to be judicious and pay off as soon as possible to avoid credit card debt.

Late payment fees

Late payment fees are charged as penalty for not paying the minimum amount due, on time. The penalty levied is 30% to 35% of your minimum amount due. Default in paying your minimum balance can also lead to discontinuance of the card and will hurt your credit rating.

Service tax

Service tax is the tax levied by the card issuer for using their services which is 12.36%.

Cash advance limit

Credit card companies often allow cash withdrawals from an ATM up to a certain limit. The limit can vary from person to person depending upon their individual profile. Use this facility only in emergencies as interest is charged from the date of withdrawal itself. You might find it cheaper to take a personal loan, as these loans are cheaper than credit card debt.

Balance transfer charges

Today banks are wooing customers with the 0% interest balance transfer facility. Balance transfer is the transfer of outstanding debts on one card to another lesser used card or a new one for a nominal interest or 0 interest. What you must know is that this offer is valid only for the introductory period of 3 to 6 months. After this period, the interest will revert to the previous rate that you were paying. Free balance transfers is a trick that card issuers use to get you to switch your cards to them, by offering you a short-term benefit. In the long-term, you are still liable to paying off your outstanding amount, and no amount of balance transfer can save you from credit card debt.

Rewards schemes

All credit card issuers have numerous reward schemes to promote card usage among customers. Each time you spend a certain amount of money, you accumulate some points. These points can be redeemed in return for discounts, products etc. Be cautious and don’t spend on unnecessary products just to gain points. Similarly read the fine print before going in for any cash back offers during festival times. Please be aware that you will not be able to redeem your points as conveniently as you think. Often discounts are available over a limited period of time, or on a first come first service basis.

A word of caution

Be careful when using your card. If you notice anything suspicious, inform your card issuer so they can monitor activity on your card. Under no circumstances should you share your card with someone who you do not trust. Please do not share the security code on the back of your card with anyone. Above all, pay all your dues on time. This is the best way to use your credit cards.

By exercising caution you can make the most of your credit cards. Happy swiping!

The buy-and-don't-worry portfolio

If the past few bearish months have you almost afraid to look at your portfolio day after day, here's a solution: Don't.

Truth is, even in the best of times, most investors have neither the time nor inclination to monitor their stocks daily or even weekly. The good news is that you don't need to; investing is a long-term game.

Of course, you might also be worried about the damage you could suffer while you looked away. If you're in that boat, I've devised a strategy for finding stocks likely to do well over the next few months no matter which way the market heads.

These are not rockets. You won't find the next Google (GOOG, news, msgs) in this bunch. But they are profitable, low-debt, dividend-paying moderate-growth stocks selected for their low risk. You can buy stocks like these, run away until the market looks safer and not worry too much about what you'll find when you return. Call it a buy-and-hide portfolio.

Here's how it works, starting with earnings growth:

Growth still matters

No matter which way the economy is heading, stocks that grow earnings usually perform best. However, companies with fast earnings growth require constant attention because they almost always get hit when growth slows. Worse, this market is especially tough on stocks that disappoint.

Instead of entering that fray, I'll stick with the slower growers that most investors tend to ignore. These are stocks expected to record at least 5% earnings growth this year, not the 20% to 30% that many growth investors love. Checking analysts' earnings forecasts is the best way to pinpoint these moderate growers.

Investment strategies for 2009

Depending on how you choose to look at it, 2009 could either be the harbinger of more bad news or offer a plethora of opportunities.

While an economic slowdown, turbulent market conditions and job/pay cuts will, no doubt, test your resilience, opportunities may come knocking in the form of correction in realty prices, lower interest rates on loans and attractive valuations of blue-chip stocks.

To capitalise on the opportunities and tackle the challenges during the year, you need to stick to an investment strategy based on your long-term goals and risk profile. Here are a few guidelines to help you frame one:


25 To 30-Year-Old Singletons

Irrespective of the age bracket you belong to, health insurance should figure prominently in your must-have list.

The need for life insurance for this category, however, will arise only if you have dependents. "In addition, you need to create a contingency fund, because this year, increments will be hard to come by, and the sword of job cuts will continue to hang over employees’ heads," points out certified financial planner Amar Pandit.

While this piece of advice will be applicable to all classes of investors, youngsters who have just started their careers need to take it seriously as unlike other age groups, they may not have the luxury of existing investments to cushion the impact of tough times. Also, you will need to be thrifty when it comes to spending on consumption needs.

You should strive to save around 40% of your income and direct most of it towards investments — mainly equities. "Although the asset allocation depends upon one’s risk profile and other needs, generally speaking, youngsters can take advantage of their youth and relatively fewer financial responsibilities to take on more risk and participate in long-term capital appreciation," says Kartik Varma, co-founder, iTrust.in, a financial planning firm.


30 To 45-Year-Olds with Kids

The major long-term goals for this category are buying a house, funding children’s education and providing for retirement. "If you are planning to buy a house, it’s better to wait for six months as prices are likely to correct further by 25%.

If you do decide to buy one, ensure that you don’t overstretch yourself. For instance, if a 2BHK flat fits into your budget, don’t go for a 3BHK assuming that you will be able to manage the EMI payout," cautions Mr Pandit.

If your take-home salary is Rs 1,00,000 per month, the EMI outflow should account for less than Rs 30,000-40,000. Also, go for a joint home loan with your spouse, if possible. Not only will it enhance the loan amount you are eligible for, it will also maximise the tax benefits under Section 80C on the interest amount repaid.

"For children’s education, one can consider child unit-linked insurance plans (Ulip) or high-growth equity funds," advises Dhruv Agarwala, co-founder, iTrust.in. The longer investment horizon (assuming that the funds will be required after 8-10 years) makes equities a viable option. The equity-to-debt ratio for the purpose could be 75:25.

Same will also hold true for retirement planning. At this age, retirement will be nearly 15 years away, which means you can invest in equities. Investment in public provident fund (PPF) is also advisable - apart from being a safe avenue, it also offers a return of 8% per annum. "You can consider real estate too, but only after parking substantial funds in equities, debt and gold," adds Mr Pandit.

Besides, you shouldn’t forget life insurance, which is an important tool for providing for dependents in the event of an untimely demise, especially in uncertain times like these.

Senior Citizens

While health insurance is an important instrument for all age brackets, for senior citizens, it is simply indispensable.

"However, if you do not have a pre-existing policy, you may find it difficult to obtain a suitable one at this juncture. In such cases, you should create a corpus dedicated to meeting your healthcare expenses. Fixed deposits and money market funds, which offer the dual benefit of safety and liquidity, should make up this reserve," says Mr Varma.

These instruments can also provide for your other short-term needs. This apart, 9% senior citizens’ savings scheme and post-office time deposits that promise safety as well as regular income should form part of your portfolio.

Many senior citizens are risk-averse and it’s better to stay that way in 2009. However, if you have surplus funds and additional income streams like rent or pension, you can consider equity and balanced funds to provide for capital appreciation. "What you should completely avoid is life insurance, especially Ulips. "We’ve seen 55-year-old individuals buying Ulips, which, apart from being expensive, are simply not required at this age," says Mr Pandit.

courtesy:TOI

EMERGENCY MEASURES DURING THE CURRENT CRISIS WITH A POTENTIAL IMPACT ON INVESTMENT

How do policy responses during the current crisis compare with earlier decades? Emergency measures can be divided into three categories: restrictions on new foreign investments, including on foreign takeovers of local firms; discrimination against existing foreign investment; and impediments to outward investment by local firms. Each one will be considered in turn.

Policies towards inward investment
Many emergency measures are still evolving, but so far there is little evidence of growing restrictions on inward investment or of rising hostility towards any particular category of investor. Some governments and businesses have actively courted sovereign wealth fund (SWF) investors from the Middle East or Asia,and OECD and partner countries have welcomed investments from SWFs as a positive force for development and global financial stability. Ministers representing 35 recipient countries have adopted a Declaration to express their commitment to preserve and expand an open international investment environment for SWFs. In spite of this welcoming policy stance, SWFs have generally been reluctant to
take on the role of “investor of last resort”. Some SWFs have acquired large stakes in major banks such as Citigroup and Barclays but otherwise their forays into Europe or North America have been limited both by the substantial paper losses they have already incurred on existing foreign asset holdings and by the declines in oil prices and export earnings which are the two traditional sources of funds for SWFs.

Discrimination against foreign-owned firms
Emergency measures include i.a. rescue packages and subsidies to key industries, loan guarantees to stimulate demand for consumer durables and “buy national” provisions in stimulus packages. Apart from the implications for trade policies from these measures, there is a potential risk of discrimination against foreign-owned firms or “transplants” in national economies, should they not benefit from the same measures or under the same conditions. Non-eligibility for capital assistance for financial institutions incorporated under national law but controlled by foreigners would be an example. These same issues could arise in any sector receiving government assistance, but much of the policy discussion has tended to focus on the automotive sector.

Automotive sector
Like steel in earlier decades, the automobile industry is characterised by substantial policy-related exit barriers in many countries – the relative importance of the sector within some national economies is such that governments and electorates take the view that firms in this sector are “too big to fail”. Even before the crisis, it was estimated that global capacity in this sector exceeded demand by 25%. Moreover, consumers have opted to forego purchases of new cars during the crisis, and as a result the sector has been one of the most adversely affected.
Many governments have developed policy responses to assist the sector, including in the United
States, France, Germany, Canada, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Italy, Russia, China and Brazil.
Absent a full survey of stimulus measures across countries in this sector, this aid appears, in most cases, to be offered to both foreign- and domestically-owned producers. Indeed, in some countries almost all production is already foreign-owned. The aim is to preserve domestic employment at all costs, regardless of the ownership of the firm. Nevertheless, there is a risk that targeted interventions discriminate against “transplants” either de jure or de facto as a result of conditions attached. Government measures have generally been to offer loan guarantees to stimulate demand and funds to develop greener car technologies,
but some have offered direct cash injections as an alternative to bankruptcy. Of the countries listed above, only Russia has sharply raised tariffs.
Government bailouts may affect the pattern of the capacity reduction that is, in any case, inevitable in the sector by influencing which firms reduce capacity and by how much. This, in turn, influences all aspects of sectoral operations, including international investment flows. Although such policies may, over the medium term, succeed in supporting the market positions of weaker firms, they also “risk delaying necessary structural adjustment to new circumstances and creating costly dependence on public support.” The experience in steel suggests that using public funds to shield non-competitive producers from market pressures does not create “champions” that are durably viable in markets.

Greater government involvement in the operations and investment decisions of firms
Even if governments refrain from further restrictions on inward investment and provide assistance to all firms in a sector indiscriminately, there are issues for future global integration which arise from the enhanced financial and ownership role of national and provincial governments in domestic firms.
Government involvement in key industries is a broad issue with manifold implications. Of most interest in the context of international investment and the scope for further integration is how this involvement will influence the international investments and operational behaviour of firms.
At a time of rising unemployment will firms receiving assistance face political pressure to favour
domestic over foreign production to serve the local market? Will takeovers of these firms by foreign competitors also be resisted out of fear that post-acquisition rationalisation will reduce domestic employment? Will these firms be allowed to fail in the future if it implies that their market share will be recuperated by foreign-owned transplants?
These questions are not only hypothetical. In past crises, there has been pressure to keep capital at home, and outward investment has sometimes been seen as exporting jobs. This notion was prominent in the 1970s but has also reappeared more recently in the context of outsourcing and industrial “hollowing out”. Will the government‟s financial leverage in these companies and sometimes even a direct ownership share give greater weight to these fears in policy discussions?

Intuition vs. MBA Analysis

As illustrated by Tim Berry

Entrepreneur Meets MBA

You can look up Philippe Kahn in Wikipedia if you want. He started Borland International on his own and took it from zero to $60+ million per year and an IPO in less than four years. Borland has been bought and sold several times over since then. Philippe has built some other companies, he’s become famous and wealthy and he’s earned it.

I was a co-founder of Borland International, one of four members of the original board when it was founded. I had been recommended to Philippe as a business plan consultant and he had needed a business plan. We met, we worked together, and things clicked. When he offered to give me stock and asked me to join the board as the company started, I agreed.

That was in 1983. I was 35 years old but I was also a recent MBA, only 2 years out of Stanford. Philippe had far more to teach me about business than I realized. Not that he wasn’t schooled — he had a good degree in math from France — but he wasn’t MBA-schooled. And I, on the other hand, trusted analysis first and intuition later.

So as Philippe guided Borland from start-up to success, we disagreed repeatedly as he chose business strategies that defied schooling and analysis, and, over and over, he was right, and the MBA analysis was wrong. Never have I made so much money while being so often wrong.

Take pricing as an example. Turbo Pascal, which was line for line, pound for pound, one of the best software products ever made, fell into our lap in October of 1983. [Side note: that's a good story, you can read it in Fire and the Valley, and I intend to tell it in this blog, but not now]. That was just a few months after the JRT scandal, in which somebody brought out a $30 Pascal package to compete against the $450 mainstream offering, only to go broke after charging a lot of credit cards that weren’t refunded. Furthermore, my MBA analysis pointed out, with the leader at $450 per unit there was no reason to go cheap. Too cheap would hurt credibility, I said. And we were brand new, we didn’t have working capital to handle volume.

Philippe, however, politely ignored my logic and set Turbo Pascal at $49.95 per unit. And he was so right, I was so wrong, if I hadn’t had equity to console me it would have hurt a lot. The pricing move was brilliant, that plus some very gutsy marketing got Turbo Pascal’s wings up and soaring very fast, and Borland International never looked back.

I have a second example: Quattro Pro. Philippe aimed his competing product squarely at the industry leader in 1985 and published the first "Lotus 1-2-3 compatible" PC spreadsheet. I said it was crazy to take on Lotus at that point in our history, Philippe did anyhow, and, once again, he was right and I was wrong. And again, because I was a shareholder, I benefited.

I keep this story not because I like to chronicle mistakes (although I don’t mind doing that, it doesn’t hurt and it seems useful to others) but because I think this illustrates something that happens all too often. A good educated guess often trumps classic analysis.

–Tim

Why invest in Indian capital markets?

• Business Week says that of 100 emerging market firms which are rapidly globalising 21 are Indian firms.
• Economists project India to become the third largest economy in the world by 2040.
• Indian capital market regulator has acquired international credibility in the least possible time.
• India has a disclosure based regime of regulation.
• Disclosure and Investor Protection guidelines available.
• India’s accounting standards are closer to international standards .
• India has a well laid down legal framework.
• India has T+2 rolling settlement as opposed to T+3 in NYSE.
• In India the transactions are totally electronic on a real time basis.
• India has several protective safeguards for the retail investor such as grading system of public offering, retail quota at 25 per cent etc.
• SEBI has made corporate governance guidelines mandatory for listed companies
• Mutual funds are permitted to invest overseas up to $3 billion
• Margin trading is in vogue
• Corporatisation and demutualization of stock exchanges on card - foreign participation in bourses permitted.
• As an integral part of risk management trading and exposure limits, var margins and mark to market margins are in vogue.
• Clearing houses and corporations with novation in place.
• Almost 100 per cent risk free electronic settlement through depository system .
• SEBI has a surveillance and enforcement system in place.
• India to become a regional hub for bond trading once a free financial zone is set up.
• India to set up a world class National Institute for Securities Markets with 7 business schools under its fold .