The shutting down of these open-ended debt funds by FT has the implication of complete cessation of redemptions, dividends, and of course, new subscriptions. It has seriously aggrieved the investor community, particularly a vast number of senior citizens, who depended on funds such as these to setup SWPs, or dividend flows, so as to augment pension plans, which were already heavily impacted by the low interest rate regime in the recent times. There have been instances reported in the press of investors being dependent on withdrawals from these funds even for purchase of monthly prescription medicines. I myself am among these thousands of senior citizen investors who had pinned our faith on the prudence of FT's fund managers, and continue to be in state of despair and disbelief that this situation of severe financial shock has befallen us.

This is to place on record heartfelt thanks to CFMA to bring to focus the central objective - that of FT returning our capital. I wish our esteemed legal minds could examine and propose a simple 2-step process to redress our immediate concerns, to be enforced by SEBI or another entity:

1. FT to setup a special purpose Asset Holding Company (call it FTAHC, for now), and capitalize itself with a long term loan obtained from international sources (interest rates are as lower than 0.5% for long tenures today, and much lower than the 1.5% management fee FT used to charge us), using FT's current international standing.
2. SEBI or other responsible agency to set up and oversee a system and process by which, the present unit-holders can opt to sell all, part, or none of the units they own in these six wound up schemes to FTAHC. The units should be purchased by FTAHC at the price prevailing as on April 23, 2020, the day FT announced closure of the funds, or on the date of transaction, whichever is higher. The purchase process could be taken up fund-by-fund in a time-bound manner, say, over a period of 3-6 months.
   This will satisfy all unit holders - a) those who want out of the schemes so that they can manage their immediate and urgent financial needs, as well as; b) those who wish to wait until securities mature and provide better returns in the future, or even be compensated at a later date for any deviations from regulations, should some ever be revealed in future.
   On its part, FT should ideally be pleased with this arrangement, for it can redeem its reputation by acting on the promise of returning money to unit holders without eroding value. Its trustees and managers will have opportunities to manage the same portfolio, now purchased from those who sold their units, with the same elan they were managing it for us all, and therefore to the satisfaction of themselves. They may even make a nifty profit over the medium term! This may help reduce the exodus of investors from their other equity linked funds.
3. Once the unit holders in distress are out of the scene, all investigations into processes and/or people involved can begin in earnest to improve systems for the future.
   In conclusion, my humble request to CFMA would be to also give due precedence and priority to those of us unit holders, who want to redeem all our units and exit before the interventions and litigations by involved parties pose delays in getting back what little we have - we may not have lives that long.