The mutual fund industry is planning to launch a series of investor awareness programmes in the country, in an attempt to improve retail penetration. A decision to this effect was taken at the board meeting of the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi) on Monday. ?Several industry issues were discussed. However, the main issue was about reaching out to investors in the rural and semi-urban areas,? said a board member who was present at the meeting, who did not want to be named.
Fund houses apparently have agreed to conduct at least 8-10 investor awareness programmes every month. The cost of such programmes will be borne by the fund itself, said a source. However, AP Kurian, chairman, Amfi did not want to comment on the issue. India?s top 20 cities contribute over 90% of the industry?s total assets under management (AUM), according to a KPMG report. The industry has attracted flak from market regulator Sebi for not improving the retail base of investors.
India?s largest MF Reliance Mutual Fund, already conducts around 75-100 awareness programmes every month. ?I would not call it an awareness programme. For us, it is like a ?work site presentation? where we give people basic knowledge of mutual funds and their benefits? said Sundeep Sikka, CEO of Reliance MF. He added that there is tremendous opportunity to distribute mutual funds in the rural and semi-urban areas.
Several market participants feel that small-sized fund houses may not be interested for the moment, especially when profits are a concern. ?I don?t think it will be compulsory for all fund houses,? said the CEO of a fund house. Recently, in an interview with FE, CEO of Amfi, HN Sinor had hinted at using Amfi?s corpus of over Rs 9 crore for conducting around 100 programmes in a year with two programmes every week across the country.