The commercials will help educate people about the benefits of investing in mutual funds
Mumbai: The mutual fund industry’s trade body AMFI is in the process of getting SEBI approval to run television commercials to educate people about the benefits of investing in mutual funds. According to AMFI, the commercials will hit television screens across India by February onwards if things proceed according to plan.
“It will take probably a month to start. We are holding talks at various levels. We are in the process of getting SEBI approval,” said a senior AMFI official privy to the development.
The idea of running ad campaigns was mooted by the industry sometime back but has taken shape only recently.
AMFI is in the process of short listing an advertising agency which will be awarded the contract for conceptualizing the campaign. The campaign will be screened by the regulator before it goes on air.
“We have some corpus with us at the moment which we
will be using. We will also check whether Investor Protection Fund can be used in this endeavour,” said H N Sinor, chief executive,
AMFI.
The mutual fund industry is currently grappling with regulatory changes and shrinking retail investor base. An initiative like this will help tap a large pool of potential investors across cities and towns in India. “Client education is essential even in cities like Mumbai and I think it’s a great initiative,” said a sales head of a private mutual fund.
Fund officials indicate that the money for running these campaigns will be sourced from the unclaimed dividend accounts of asset management companies which are parked in Investor Education and Protection Fund. SEBI had put up a discussion paper on the Investor Protection Fund (IPF) in March 2008. The draft paper of Securities and Exchange Board of India (Investors Protection and Education Fund) Regulations, 2008 stipulates that the funds are meant to be used for investor education through media, conduct research and other investor awareness and empowerment activities. AMCs disclose ‘Unclaimed redemption proceeds’ and ‘Unclaimed Dividends’ in their balance sheets on a half yearly basis.
“It will be a good initiative to create awareness about what a mutual fund is and its benefits. They should advertise in regional channels too. There is a long way to go in creating awareness about mutual funds,” said Rajesh Jha, Co-founder and CEO, Jain Investments.
