SEBI has included mutual fund houses in the stringent SEBI Prohibition of Insider Trading regulations through a gazette notification. As per the new guidelines, any person who is connected with a fund house and comes into possession of unpublished, price-sensitive information shall not be permitted to trade in MF units wherein either the net asset value (NAV) of the scheme could get impacted or the interests of unit holders may be compromised. The list of people who will be considered insider is also given and include aside from the employees and board of directors of a fund house, sponsor and holding company, and so on, anyone who is part of the Association of Mutual Funds of India (AMFI; the MF industry’s trade body), an auditor, legal advisor, a consultant, a distributor and even a banker who’s connected with the fund house. If any of these officials has been connected with the fund house within two months prior to the unpublished, price-sensitive information surfacing, they would be considered as Insider. To make life a bit simpler for those outside the fund house, but may still be connected with the it and could come into possession of unpublished price-sensitive information, SEBI has demarcated fund house officials (also known as ‘designated person’; heads of fund houses, directors of fund houses and trustee companies, fund managers, risk officer, dealers, research analysts and so on) from outsiders like auditors, bankers, AMFI officials and so on.

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