Mutual funds in India

The first introduction of a mutual fund in India occurred in 1963, when the Government of India launched Unit Trust of India (UTI).^[1] UTI enjoyed a monopoly in the Indian mutual fund market until 1987, when a host of other government-controlled Indian financial companies established their own funds, including State Bank of India, Canara Bank, and Punjab National Bank. This market was made open to private players in 1993, as a result of the historic constitutional amendments brought forward by the then Congress-led government under the existing regime of Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization (LPG). The first private sector fund to operate in India was Kothari Pioneer, which later merged with Franklin Templeton. In 1996, SEBI, the regulator of mutual funds in India, formulated the Mutual Fund Regulation which is a comprehensive regulatory framework.^[2]

Mutual funds are an under tapped market in India

Deposit being available in the market^[3] less than 10% of Indian households have invested in mutual funds. A recent report on Mutual Fund Investments in India published by research and analytics firm, Boston Analytics, suggests investors are holding back from putting their money into mutual funds due to their perceived high risk and a lack of information on how mutual funds work.^[4] There are 46 Mutual Funds as of June 2013.^[5]

The primary reason for not investing appears to be correlated with city size. Among respondents with a high savings rate, close to 40% of those who live in metros and Tier I cities considered such investments to be very risky, whereas 33% of those in Tier II cities said they did not know how or where to invest in such assets.

Distribution

Mutual fund investments are sourced both from institutions (companies) and individuals. Since January 2013, institutional investors have moved to investing directly with the mutual funds since doing so saves on the expense ratio incurred. Individual investors are, however, served mostly by Investment advisor and banks. Since 2009, online platforms for investing in Mutual funds have also evolved.

Servicing

Larger Indian Mutual Fund Industry has benefited from outsourcing the activity of servicing their investors to two of the leading Registrar and Transfer Agents (RTAs) in India namely CAMS and Karvy. While CAMS commands close to 65% of the Assets servicing, rest is with Karvy. Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund services its investors through its own in-house RTA set up.

Both the RTAs have vibrant network of their local offices which enable the Mutual Fund Investors to transact locally. These touch points (or) Customer Service Centers (CSCs), provide a wide range of servicing including, financial transaction acceptance & processing, non financial changes, KYC fulfillment formalities, nomination registration, transmission of units apart from providing statement of accounts etc.

These two RTAs also provide most of the similar facilities in their respective websites which are very user friendly.

Average assets under management

Assets under management (AUM) is a financial term denoting the market value of all the funds being managed by a financial institution (a mutual fund, hedge fund, private equity firm, venture capital firm, or brokerage house) on behalf of its clients, investors, partners, depositors, etc.
The average assets under management of all mutual funds in India for the quarter Dec 2015 to Mar 2016 (in ₹ Lakh) is given below:^[6]

References