Investor complaints against top ten fund houses rise 10% in FY 2016-17

An analysis of investor complaints shows that the number of complaints lodged against top ten fund houses (in terms of AUM) rose 10% in FY 2016-2017. These fund houses received overs 23,000 complaints in 2016-2017 as against 21,000 according to AMFI data.

Investor complaints is a function of the investor base. Generally, larger the investor base higher is the number of complaints received by such fund house. SEBI data shows that the mutual fund industry has added 77 lakh folios in FY 2016-17. The retail folios (across all categories) increased from 4.76 crore in March 2016 to 5.55 crore in March 2017.

AMFI data shows that many of these complaints were related to data correction in investor details and non-updation of changes viz. address, PAN, bank details, nomination, etc.

Among the top ten fund houses, SBI MF saw the highest rise in investor complaints last fiscal. Investor complaints grew 338% to 6,924 complaints in FY 2016-2017.

ICICI Prudential MF followed SBI MF with 4,648 complaints. The fund house witnessed an increase of marginal 2% in Investor complaints.

Not all top fund houses witnessed an increase in investor complaints. Among the top 10 fund houses, Franklin Templeton MF saw a 53% drop in investor grievances last fiscal.  The fund house witnessed just 2,626 complaints in FY 2016-17 as against 5,529 complaints in FY 2015-16. In the preceding fiscal, the fund house had registered the highest number of complaints among the top ten fund houses. 

The other fund houses that reported a decrease in investor complaints are UTI Mutual Fund, HDFC Mutual Fund and Reliance Mutual Fund.

But all these fund houses were quick in resolving customer complaints. AMFI data shows that majority of the complaints were resolved within 30 days and many of these complaints were related to errors in investor details, discrepancies in account statements.

Complaints received and the number of folios of the top ten fund houses

Source: AMFI