Investor fund swells but payouts rare

Expenditure from the IEPF dropped from ₹11.9 cr in FY23 to ₹2.8 cr in FY24, even as its balance doubled to ₹533 cr

- Neha Joshi

India's special fund to compensate investors harmed by securities violations has seen its corpus balloon over the years, but it has rarely been deployed.

Expenditure from the Investor Education and Protection Fund (IEPF) dropped from ₹11.9 crore in FY23 to ₹2.8 crore in FY24, according to the annual report of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) for 2023-24. That's when the number of awareness drives and educational campaigns has increased.

The fund's balance doubled from ₹240.2 crore at the close of FY23 to over ₹533 crore as of March 2024. Constituted by an executive order in 2007 and formalized under the Sebi (IPEF) Regulations, 2009, to serve investor interests, it started with just ₹10 crore.

The trend is mirrored at stock exchange protection funds (to protect against broker defaults), which climbed to ₹2,793 crore by FY24 as spending declined. Depository-led investor protection funds also rose to ₹127 crore.