MCCI Mutual Fund Forum 2019 “Indian Mutual Fund Industry-Coming of Age”

Merchants’ Chamber of Commerce & Industry organized MCCI Mutual Fund Forum 2019 titled “Indian Mutual Fund Industry – Coming of Age” today at Hotel Lalit Great Eastern, Kolkata. The objective of the Forum was to bring together key Policy Makers & Industry Leaders from the Financial sector to enable meaningful deliberations to address critical issues in Indian Mutual Fund Industry & to find out the future roadmap for the sector.

The Forum was addressed by Shri Balkrishna Kini, Deputy CEO, Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) – as the Guest of Honour; Shri Ashutosh Bishnoi, MD & CEO, Mahindra Asset Management Co. Pvt. Ltd.; Shri Prem Khatri, Founder & CEO, CAFEMUTUAL; Shri Saugata Chatterjee, Co–Chief Business Officer, Reliance Nippon Life Asset Management Limited.; Shri S K Bagaria, Mentor, ASK CIRCLE and other eminent personalities.

The topics of the Forum were :

• Inaugural Theme : Vision 2025 for the Mutual Fund Industry: Opportunities & Constraints
• Panel Discussion Session : Innovations in Product & Distribution : Role in Shaping a Future–Ready Asset Management Industry”

Dwelling on the Inaugural Theme, Shri Balkrishna Kini spoke on deepening of Indian bond market and on reducing dependence on Indian banking system. He pointed out that according to the Vision, by 2025, the Investor Base would increase to 5 cr. from 2 cr., registering a 2.5 times rise; Assets Under Management (AUM) would double to Rs 50 Trillion from Rs. 25 Trillion and number of Mutual Find Distributors to rise from 1 lakh to 5 lakhs registering a 5 times increase. On the issue of reaching out to new & potential customers, he mentioned that the 62% of inflows of AUM are concentrated in top 5 cities, and 72% in top 5 states. He noted that the principal challenges have been low financial literacy, Preference for non-financial assets like Land & Gold, Preference for bank deposits for assured return products, Low physical presence of AMCs as compared to banks and Low Commission structure of Mutual Funds vis–a–vis insurance products.

Shri Ashutosh Bishnoi spoke on creation of confidence in equity sector and to dispense advice to move households from dead physical assets to earning assets.

Shri Prem Khatri dwelt on the emotional aspects of investing in Mutual Fund and the crucial role played by MF distributors in helping the investors.

Shri Saugata Chatterjee charted out the success mantra of acquiring one new client per day, skilling of personnel and large scale digitization.

Shri S K Bagaria stressed on simple products and widening of distribution reach.

Earlier, in his Welcome Address, Shri Vishal Jhajharia, President of the Chamber, said that the Mutual Fund industry has a long way to go in terms of reaching out more to investors across the country and it is now imperative for each segment within the Mutual Fund houses to be proactive in exercising self-restraint, have better self-regulation and ensure better risk management to take the MF industry to the next level of growth and development. He felt that there is no doubt that technology will play the most important role in increasing the size of the MF industry, and technology has now become a critical aspect of each and every element of Mutual Fund operations– be it transaction processing, fund management, customer service or distribution.