We live in an era of information overload. In financial services industry, there is also an overload of jargons. Various participants of the financial services industry are undertaking many investor education initiatives, but the efforts are clearly not enough. Also, because various people and entities are educating investors using content and means that are not standardized, it creates further confusion for the individual investors.

NISM’s InvestorFirst.in is an attempt to collaborate with all stakeholders of the industry (investors, regulators, stock exchanges, depositories, companies offering financial products & services, media, bloggers, neutral bodies etc.) and work together to impart knowledge and skills required for individuals to understand, select and effectively use financial products/services that meet their needs.

While each of the stakeholders will continue with their own efforts of investor education, NISM would like to be a knowledge partner and offer resources like educational content, tools, training etc. This will help in avoiding duplication of efforts required for content creation and create a standardized set of material and processes. This will not only aid in delivery of educational initiatives, it will also make it easier for investors to understand and apply what they have learnt in practice.

We are happy to see many business entities and individuals taking the mission of spreading financial literacy very seriously and we look forward to partner with them. But there is also an unfortunate truth where business entities hide the possible downside of certain financial products and use unfair selling practices that lead to confusion and mis-selling. Such efforts ultimately end up in financial crisis, mis-trust and give a bad name to the industry. This light-hearted cartoon strip portrays a very serious problem:

NISM is a not-for-profit institution established by SEBI with a vision to lead, catalyze and deliver educational initiatives. At InvestorFirst.in, as the name itself suggests, an investor’s interest will be ahead of everything else. For business entities also the objective should be no different.

Our website InvestorFirst.in is live now in public beta mode. We welcome your feedback and suggestions. We are keen to collaborate with like-minded people and organizations to create a nation of financially literate citizens. Let’s collaborate!