Unified Payments Interface as payment option for IPOs

 The board of Sebi cleared a proposal to introduce Unified Payments Interface (UPI) as an alternative payment option for retail investors buying shares in an IPO. To boost fund raising from markets, regulator Sebi has decided to reduce the time to list shares on stock exchange after initial public offerings to three days from six days.

Further, it has approved a framework to provide promoters a say in the price offered to shareholders of companies that are planning to delist from the bourses. Sebi chief Ajay Tyagi said the compression in post-issue timelines and the consequent early listing and trading of shares would benefit both issuers as well as investors.

“Issuers will have faster access to the capital raised thereby enhancing the ease of doing business and the investors will have early liquidity,” he added. With regard to UPI, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said that the mechanism would increase the efficiency of the existing system and curtail the need for manual intervention.