AMFI to promote MFs in its debt avatar

Kolkata: Buoyed by the grand success of the campaign ‘Mutual Fund Sahi Hai,’ the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) looks all set to launch a new commercial focusing on the debt products of MFs. The tagline could be like “FD jaisa lagta hai’ comparing the MF debt products with fixed deposit in terms of returns and the risk involve in it. So far,

AMFI

has focused on equity aspect of MFs in its series of campaigns, where the debt aspect was not in the forefront. But with the volatile market, the debt product could well be a good choice for retail investors, feels AMFI.

AMFI deputy CEO of AMFI Balkrishna Kini disclosed this during an interactive session on mutual funds here recently organised by Ticker Plant in association with Bengal National Chamber of Commerce & Industry (BNCCI).

Kini pointed out that it is now planning to promote mutual fund debt products as well. “There will be new campaign including TV commercial on debt products soon. The motto is to popularise the MF debt products among retail investors. We are also trying to make MFs from push to pull product,” he said.

Unlike the equity products of mutual funds, the debt products are predominantly institutional, where retail participation is minimal. “So far, the debt products is a tool of treasury management,” he added.

According to him, AMFI has also got an approval from Sebi for appointing brand ambassador for MF campaigns. However, he pointed out that it is yet to take a call on that.

Arindam Saha, joint CEO and director of Ticker Plant, also feels that there is a need to promote debt products as well. “When the market is volatile and uncertain pure debt funds or at least hybrid funds are better options. However, people may have to scale down their expectations, still investors can achieve more than FD related returns. Such calculations and understanding requires analytical software supports. A back office software like Ticker Wealth not only helps entrepreneurs in MF products distributions but can also provide MF related analytics,” he added.

Earlier, Kini added that the systametic investment plan (SIP) has reached Rs 8,000 crore mark per month. “This is the power of retail. We are getting Rs 96,000 crore yearly from SIP, which is retail money. Now, long-term retail money is coming which would help to stabilise the market and the dependence on foreign institutional investors will also go down,” he added.

Recalling the massive growth of MF industry in the last one decade, he added that from just Rs 3.25 lakh crore industry in 2007, MF crossed Rs 10 lakh crore mark in June 2014. “For the next Rs 10 lakh asset under management (AUM), it took only two years. By August 2016, it became Rs 20 lakh crore. We are really bullish about the future of the industry here,” he added.


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