Mutual Fund: Banking Awareness

Mutual fund

Mutual fund is a combined investment. the group of investors invest in Securities for a short period. UTI AMC is the oldest mutual fund company in India. There is a fund manager to decides the investments of funds. Profit or loss is equally distributed in investors.

A mutual fund is an investment vehicle made up of a pool of funds collected from many investors for the purpose of investing in securities such as stocks, bonds, money market instruments and similar assets. Mutual funds are operated by money managers, who invest the fund's capital and attempt to produce capital gains and income for the fund's investors. A mutual fund's portfolio is structured and maintained to match the investment objectives stated in its prospectus.

Types of Mutual funds

Index fund: It is a fund for the investors who do not need a direct call for a share.

Diversified scheme:  This fund is for those who do not want to invest in a special sector.

Open ended and close ended fund: Close ended funds can not issue a new unit except bonus. One can enter or exit in open ended fund anytime.

Growth fund: Maximum benefit can be obtained by these funds. There is more rick in these funds due to high profit margin.

Value fund: These funds prefers security. It's aim is to secure invested money.

Equity Funds: Equity funds invest most of the money that they gather from investors into equity shares. These are high risk schemes and investors can also make losses, since most of the money is parked into shares. These types of schemes are suitable for investors with an appetite for risk. Read more articles on Equity Funds. 

Debt Funds: Debt funds invest most of their money into debt schemes including corporate debt, debt issued by banks, gilts and government securities. These types of funds are suitable for investors who are not willing to take risks. Returns are almost assured in these types of schemes. Read more articles about Debt funds 

Balanced funds: Balanced funds invest their money in equity as well as debt. They generally tend to skew the money more into equity then debt. The objective in the end is again to earn superior returns. Of course, they might alter their investment pattern based on market conditions. Read More articles on Balanced funds. 

Money Market Mutual Funds: Money market mutual funds are also called Liquid funds. They invest a bulk of their money in safer short-term instruments like Certificates of Deposit, Treasury and Commercial Paper. Most of the investment is for a smaller duration. 

Gilt Funds: Gilt Funds are perhaps the most secure instruments that are around. They invest bulk of their money in government securities. Since they have backing of the government they are considered the safest mutual fund units around.

Mutual fund in India

The mutual fund industry in India started in 1963 with the formation of Unit Trust of India (UTI) at the initiative of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Government of India. The objective then was to attract small investors and introduce them to market investments. Since then, the history of mutual funds in India can be broadly divided into six distinct phases.

Phase I (1964-87): Growth Of UTI:

In 1963, UTI was established by an Act of Parliament. As it was the only entity offering mutual funds in India, it had a monopoly. Operationally, UTI was set up by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), but was later delinked from the RBI. The first scheme, and for long one of the largest launched by UTI, was Unit Scheme 1964.

Later in the 1970s and 80s, UTI started innovating and offering different schemes to suit the needs of different classes of investors. Unit Linked Insurance Plan (ULIP) was launched in 1971. The first Indian offshore fund, India Fund was launched in August 1986. In absolute terms, the investible funds corpus of UTI was about Rs 600 crores in 1984. By 1987-88, the assets under management (AUM) of UTI had grown 10 times to Rs 6,700 crores.

Phase II (1987-93): Entry of Public Sector Funds:

The year 1987 marked the entry of other public sector mutual funds. With the opening up of the economy, many public sector banks and institutions were allowed to establish mutual funds. The State Bank of India established the first non-UTI Mutual Fund, SBI Mutual Fund in November 1987. This was followed by Canbank Mutual Fund,LIC Mutual Fund, Indian Bank Mutual Fund, Bank of India Mutual Fund, GIC Mutual Fund and PNB Mutual Fund. From 1987-88 to 1992-93, the AUM increased from Rs 6,700 crores to Rs 47,004 crores, nearly seven times. During this period, investors showed a marked interest in mutual funds, allocating a larger part of their savings to investments in the funds.

Phase III (1993-96): Emergence of Private Funds:

A new era in the mutual fund industry began in 1993 with the permission granted for the entry of private sector funds. This gave the Indian investors a broader choice of 'fund families' and increasing competition to the existing public sector funds. Quite significantly foreign fund management companies were also allowed to operate mutual funds, most of them coming into India through their joint ventures with Indian promoters.

The private funds have brought in with them latest product innovations, investment management techniques and investor-servicing technologies. During the year 1993-94, five private sector fund houses launched their schemes followed by six others in 1994-95.

Phase IV (1996-99): Growth And SEBI Regulation:

Since 1996, the mutual fund industry scaled newer heights in terms of mobilization of funds and number of players. Deregulation and liberalization of the Indian economy had introduced competition and provided impetus to the growth of the industry.

A comprehensive set of regulations for all mutual funds operating in India was introduced with SEBI (Mutual Fund) Regulations, 1996. These regulations set uniform standards for all funds. Erstwhile UTI voluntarily adopted SEBI guidelines for its new schemes. Similarly, the budget of the Union government in 1999 took a big step in exempting all mutual fund dividends from income tax in the hands of the investors. During this phase, both SEBI and Association of Mutual Funds of India (AMFI) launched Investor Awareness Programme aimed at educating the investors about investing through MFs.

Phase V (1999-2004): Emergence of a Large and Uniform Industry:

The year 1999 marked the beginning of a new phase in the history of the mutual fund industry in India, a phase of significant growth in terms of both amount mobilized from investors and assets under management. In February 2003, the UTI Act was repealed. UTI no longer has a special legal status as a trust established by an act of Parliament. Instead it has adopted the same structure as any other fund in India - a trust and an AMC.

UTI Mutual Fund is the present name of the erstwhile Unit Trust of India (UTI). While UTI functioned under a separate law of the Indian Parliament earlier, UTI Mutual Fund is now under the SEBI's (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996 like all other mutual funds in India.

The emergence of a uniform industry with the same structure, operations and regulations make it easier for distributors and investors to deal with any fund house. Between 1999 and 2005 the size of the industry has doubled in terms of AUM which have gone from above Rs 68,000 crores to over Rs 1,50,000 crores.

Phase VI (From 2004 Onward): Consolidation and Growth:

The industry has lately witnessed a spate of mergers and acquisitions, most recent ones being the acquisition of schemes of Allianz Mutual Fund by Birla Sun Life, PNB Mutual Fund by Principal, among others. At the same time, more international players continue to enter India including Fidelity, one of the largest funds in the world.