INDIA REMAINED coupled with the ongoing global financial crisis albeit the extent of losses was small as compared to other nations where a lot of financial institutions collapsed. India, the favourite destination for foreign money witnessed an unusual concept ‘flight to safety’ which resulted in sharp depreciation of mutual funds’ assets under managements (AUMs).
Some mutual funds defaulted in payments too but the timely action by Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) along with Reserve Bank of India (RBI) helped Indian mutual fund industry in achieving new heights in terms of AUM. Currently, the whole industry AUM stands at Rs 7.63 lakh crore with 38 pillars supporting the base. Many players entered the bandwagon witnessing the high growth rate year after year. SEBI announced a series of regulations in 2009, to protect the interests of investors and improve the liquidity conditions.
SEBI started the year prohibiting the declaration of indicative portfolios and indicative yields in Fixed Maturity Plans (FMPs) by mutual fund and its distributors. It also directed liquid fund schemes to purchase debt and money market securities with maturity of up to 91 days only effective from May 01, 2009. It also directed all mutual fund players to discontinue the nomenclature of ‘liquid plus schemes’ as it gives a wrong impression of added liquidity. The above regulations were directed by SEBI witnessing the serious liquid crisis in Oct 2008. Investment in Liquid Fund schemes with papers with maturity up to 91 days only has drastically reduced the returns from seven to eight per cent to 2.5 to three per cent compounded annually. This has resulted in mass redemption from liquid fund schemes.
In India, mutual fund investment is a push-strategy rather than a pull strategy as mutual fund distributors sell the products in lieu of high upfront commissions paid from investors’ investments. The SEBI announced the most awaited decision of the Indian mutual fund history where it directed the mutual fund houses to scrap all entry loads effective from August 1, 2009, and empowered the distributors and independent financial advisors (IFAs) to negotiate the commission for the services rendered. The retail investors welcomed the ruling while the distributors and IFAs opposed the decision as their earnings were at stake. Indian investors are not comfortable in writing another cheque for distributors.
The above ruling created a stir in mutual fund inflows in equity category and the investment dropped drastically month after month. Some large mutual fund houses dig their profits to incentivise the distributors and IFAs while it became a question of survival for small mutual fund players. Fund houses reacted by increasing the exit loads which were also later regulated by SEBI putting a cap up to one per cent for all redemptions within one year and no exit loads beyond one year. To some extent, fund houses started pushing Portfolio Management Services (PMS) where it earns a fixed return in lieu of services rendered.
The cautious approach by SEBI in regulating Indian mutual fund industry and empowering the investors with improved investment conditions resulted in an increase in total assets under Indian Mutual Fund houses. However, the equity schemes continued to witness the lackluster in terms of investments.
Come to November 30, 2009. The retail investors have found another opportunity in terms of investments. Mutual funds units are now allowed to trade through registered brokers of recognised stock exchanges and National Stock Exchange (NSE) has already provided an online trading platform to all brokers. Thus, the need for enhancing the reach of mutual fund schemes to more towns and cities will be addressed through this channel. The existing secondary market set up in 1500 towns and cities will provide another opportunity to retail investors to invest in mutual funds. To some extent, the issue of holding multiple statements of accounts would be taken care and all the mutual fund units would be in dematerialised form.
But the question remains- are we ready to swallow too many regulations in such a short span of time? May be or may not be. SEBI could have been slow in introducing the exemption of entry loads in a phased manner so that it could give some time to IFAs to settle with their new business environments. As per ICRA Online Report, the average maturity period for equity stands at two to three years much lower than its fundamental rule of five to ten years. Equity has always been termed as a long term investment product but the recent ruling of allowing mutual fund units may result in increased churning of mutual fund investments.
Moreover, the transaction charges as levied by brokers stands at 0.3-0.5 per cent for retail investors on either side trading, thus, making it 0.6 to one per cent on both side transactions. Apart from this, the brokers may charge an additional fee for recommending mutual fund scheme to investors. Thus, the whole concept of zero entry-load vanishes and moreover, the churning will also increase putting an extra onus in terms of increased fund management charges as portfolio turnover ratio will increase. Mutual fund houses will also benefit in terms of frequent exit loads being charged from investors.
No doubt, SEBI rulings will help retail investors with improved investment environment but it should also monitor the other anomalies as mentioned above. Investors must have some reasons to smile and become an informed and disciplined player.
4.75 / 4 votes 
