Date:November 12, 2008
Ref. No. MPML/PMS/193/2008
ASBA (Application Supported by Blocked Amounts)
The New Investor Friendly Way To Apply For IPO's.
In its tradition of constantly providing innovative and investor friendly services, Bombay Stock Exchange Ltd. (BSE) has developed an interface for the banks to participate in the ASBA (Application Supported by Blocked Amounts) process. This new initiative is in the area of IPO payments as proposed by the capital markets regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
The objective of introducing ASBA is to ensure that the investor's funds leave his bank account only upon allocation of shares in public issues.
The ASBA process also ensures that only the requisite amounts of funds are debited to the investor's bank account on allotment of shares. In this mechanism, the need for refunds is completely obviated.
Using this interface the banks, participating in the IPO process would be able to upload the bids with respect to their customers, into the electronic book of BSE. The interface facilitates not only the controlling branch but also the designated branches of the banks to directly upload the bids into the electronic book at BSE. The ASBA application has been successfully tested with eleven banks.
Thanks & regards
PMS department