The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) established a framework for making an Application Supported by Blocked Amount (ASBA)-like facility accessible to investors for secondary market trading on Wednesday.

ASBA is an application that has an authorisation to freeze the application's funds in a bank account in exchange for subscribing to an initial public offering (IPO).

According to Sebi, the service is based on the blocking of money for secondary market trading via UPI (unified payments interface) and would be optional for both investors and stock brokers.

The framework was accepted by the SEBI board of directors at its meeting on Wednesday.

According to Sebi, the customer would continue to collect interest on his frozen money in his savings account until the sum is debited. There will be a direct settlement with the clearing corporation (CC) without going via the intermediaries' pool accounts, providing CC with client level settlement visibility and reducing the danger of co-mingling of customers' money and securities.

The Sebi board of directors established an alternate way for a diversified collection of organisations to become mutual fund sponsors (MF).

“Such entities, who otherwise may not have been eligible to be sponsors, include private equity funds, with requisite safeguards included in the proposal,” the market regulator said.

The framework was accepted by the SEBI board of directors at its meeting on Wednesday.

According to Sebi, the customer would continue to collect interest on his frozen money in his savings account until the sum is debited. There will be a direct settlement with the clearing corporation (CC) without going via the intermediaries' pool accounts, providing CC with client level settlement visibility and reducing the danger of co-mingling of customers' money and securities.

The Sebi board of directors established an alternate way for a diversified collection of organisations to become mutual fund sponsors (MF).

“Such entities, who otherwise may not have been eligible to be sponsors, include private equity funds, with requisite safeguards included in the proposal,” the market regulator said.

In order to bring more transparency and to ensure timely disclosure of material events or information by listed entities,the board approved a few amendments to Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements (LODR) Regulations.

It introduced a quantitative threshold for determining materiality of events and information.

The board authorised a tougher schedule for disclosure of material events/information for which a decision was made at the board of directors meeting (within 30 minutes) and which originate inside the listed firm (within 12 hours).

The regulator also announced the formation of a Corporate Debt Market Development Fund (CDMDF) in the form of an Alternative Investment Fund to serve as a backstop facility for the purchase of investment grade corporate debt securities during times of stress in order to instill confidence among corporate bond market participants. The fund will increase liquidity in the secondary market.