Mutual Fund industry is likely to touch 1 crore SIP accounts in the coming months. As on March 31 2016, the MF industry has crossed 98.50 lakh SIP folios, shows a note sent to fund houses by AMFI.
The MF industry had 73 lakh SIP accounts in March 2015.
While the MF industry has added 47.93 SIP accounts in FY 2015-16, close to 22.50 lakh SIP accounts were discontinued. Overall, the MF industry has witnessed a net addition of 25.48 lakh SIP accounts in FY 2015-16 as against 15.03 lakh in FY2014-15, a massive growth of 70% in SIP accounts.
In a press conference, A Balasubramanian, CEO, Birla Sunlife MF and Deputy Chairman of AMFI said that the average ticket size of these SIP accounts has grown from Rs.2200 in FY 2014-15 to Rs.3400 in FY 2015-16. A rough calculation shows that the industry is currently receiving gross inflows of over 3200 crore each month from SIPs.
Balasubramanian attributes this growth to increased awareness about mutual funds, spectacular performance of MF schemes over long term and lackluster performance of other asset classes like gold and real estate. He said, “People have understood the power of compounding they get in mutual funds by investing through SIPs. Also, IFAs have played an important role in creating awareness about benefits of SIPs.” He said that his fund house has been receiving monthly gross inflows of close to Rs.280 crore through SIPs.
Swarup Mohanty, CEO, Mirae Asset MF seconds Bala’s view and points out that a lot of large investors who typically invested in mutual funds through lumpsum route, have now started investing through SIP via STP route. “Not only did the retail investors invest through SIPs, large investors have started putting their money in liquid funds to invest in equity funds through SIP via STP route considering the volatile nature of equity market. Also, a lot of banks have started promoting SIPs in a big way.”
Mohanty further said, “There is a general consensus about benefits of SIP investments among investors. All credit goes to IFAs who helped spread the cause of SIPs.”
