‘The Future for Facilitators is Advisory'

Deven Choksey is the name which scripted the rise of stock brokerage business into the wealth management practice in India. The promoter of KR Choksey Group and the managing director of the KR Choksey Shares and Securities Private Limited has spent over three decades in the Indian capital market. In an interaction with Jyotika Sood, Choksey talks about the changing financial landscape of the country and the role of facilitators in this evolving financial ecosystem. Excerpts from the interview:

- Jyotika Sood

How important is the army of facilitators like distributors, brokers, agents and advisors for India’s financial ecosystem?

The distributors, agents and financial advisors – they all play one common role that is connecting financial product to the end investor or customer. From that perspective, their role has always been undermined. They play a very significant role in picking the financial product and taking it to the end customer. Unfortunately, they work in a hybrid mode. In a hybrid mode, they operate both conventional and digital system.

In my view, the time has come when all the financial products need to be distributed using the mechanism like exchange collection platforms so that the intermediary job is possibly more qualified towards the advisory to the endcustomer. The backend part of the activity is looked after by the exchange mechanism. That is definitely the need of the hour now.