Last one year has been a good year for the mutual fund industry, both in terms of rise in overall assets as well as disciplined increase in retail participation through SIPs.
It is, in fact, heartening to see a gradual shift in investor's preferences from physical to financial investment assets. Much of the credit for this also goes to demonetisation and other reforms initiated by the government in recent years besides the investor-education initiatives being aggressively undertaken by fund houses across the industry. AMFI's 'Mutual Funds Sahi Hai' campaign has also hit the right chord with investors and has, in fact, turned out to be a big success in boosting acceptability of mutual funds as an alternative medium of investment.
Rising acceptance of digital mediums for initiating financial transactions has also given a leg-up to the industry today, with investors' beginning to realise the convenience of investing in mutual funds. On the service front, the fund houses today are much more proactive in disseminating any investment-related communication to investors, making the flow of information even more transparent.
These developments are also making it easier for intermediaries to explain the value proposition of mutual funds to their clients and we are, in fact, seeing early signs of mutual funds getting into the cadre of pull products than push products.
USP of investment strategy
Our investment strategy is purely guided by our proprietary investment process, which we have held onto ever since we launched our asset-management business 10 years ago. Strict adherence to a process-driven investment model has essentially disciplined our investment strategy, resulting in consistent performance outcomes, irrespective of market conditions.
Impact of SEBI's reclassification
The reclassification exercise of mutual funds schemes is a welcome move by the regulator and was much desired to streamline industry's product categorisation for the benefit of investors. For us, the categorisation exercise was very smooth and has, in fact, benefited us identify gaps in our product basket, which we have already begun to fill in.
Becoming more investor-friendly
We are committed to offering our investors best-in-class services and ensuring a satisfying investment experience. We endeavour to achieve the same by constantly synergising our pre-sale and post-sale investor services. We are aggressively investing in building our digital properties and in on-boarding and educating intermediaries. We have, in fact, this year taken our intermediary-education programme to the next level by launching Invesco's globally practised 'Invesco Consulting' programme in India.
This article was originally published on December 13, 2018.
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