The mutual fund industry has added 8,809 new distributors in FY 2015-16 as against 6,523 new ARN registrations in FY 2014-15, a healthy growth of 35%, shows a note sent to fund houses by AMFI.
Of these new registrations, 5,999 ARNs related to individual distributors while 156 and 368 are new cadre of distributors and corporates respectively. The industry added the maximum number of distributors (825) in February.
Sundeep Sikka, CEO, Reliance Mutual Fund attributed this growth to the growing acceptance of mutual funds among the investor community. “Due to increased awareness about mutual funds, many investors want to invest in mutual funds, especially through SIP route. If demand increases, there has to be a strong supply chain to cater to investors.” However, Sundeep says that the current base of distributors is small and the industry needs more distributors to increase penetration of mutual funds.
Kailash Kulkarni, CEO, L&T Mutual Fund is of the view that the growth in number of new distributors has come from B15 cities. “This is a good sign for the growth of the MF industry. The increased number of distributors will surely help industry expand its footprint. I think this growth has largely come from B15 cities as mutual funds have gained traction in such cities.”
Further, AMFI data shows that over 15,260 ARNs were renewed last fiscal. Of these, over 11,300 ARN renewals were from the individual category. In FY 2014-15, 12,300 ARNs were renewed.
As on March 2016, the mutual fund industry has over 1.45 lakh ARNs of which 71,000 are individual and 74,000 are employees.
All these distributors are KYD complaint ARN holders.
