Thanks to automation and improved processes and systems put in place by AMCs for data capturing, investor complaints against fund houses dropped by 7% from 29,853 in FY14-15 to 27,711 in FY15-16, shows a Cafemutual analysis of AMFI data of 38 fund houses.
Increased focus towards grievance redressal helped as many as 22 fund houses witness a decline in investor complaints.
Bhalchandra Joshi, Chief Service Delivery & Operations Excellence, Reliance Mutual Fund says that the drop in investor complaints is due to a number of factors. According to him, fund houses are providing many options like mobile app, websites, etc. to investors to update/modify their information. Also, he says that there is an increased preference for online transactions which is helping fund houses reduce paperwork and thereby the errors. “We are continuously working on improving our process which has helped us reduce errors. The digital medium processes have high levels of accuracy which in turn contributes to reduction in overall complaints. Investors have also become proactive in providing the correct information to fund houses to avoid any problems in future. We process three crore transactions a year and have 50 lakh customers. So the number of complaints which we get is quite minuscule. In our case, the ratio of investor complaints to total number of folios is 0.02 %,” says Joshi.
However, among the top 10 fund houses, Franklin Templeton, ICICI Pru, SBI and Birla Sun Life MF saw an increase in complaints. Many of these complaints were related to data correction in investor details. Similarly, On the other hand, HDFC, UTI, Reliance, IDFC, Kotak and DSPBR witnessed a drop in complaints from investors.
Gaurav Nagori, Vice President and Head of Client Response and Operations, DSP BlackRock Investment Managers says that his fund house trains distributors on form filling and data capturing. “Apart from other training, we also train our distributors on form filling. We have provided a sample filled form which shows the correct method of providing information. Also, if the handwriting is not legible, we call investors to get the correct data. This has helped us reduce investor complaints.”
Investor complaints can also be a function of the investor base. Generally, larger the investor base higher is the number of complaints received by such fund house.
But 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 and non-updation of changes viz. address, PAN, bank details, nomination, etc.
“Fund houses send a/c statements to investors but sometimes it may land in spam. But it is not really AMC’s mistake. Also, some things are not in our control and investors perceive that the R&T or AMC is at fault. For instance, SIP mandates can get rejected due to signature mismatch,” observes Gaurav.
Fund officials say that error in data capturing happen at three levels – investor, distributor and R&T. Mumbai based RIA, Jayant Vidwans says, “Data entry errors happen because some investors handwriting in not legible. Some alphabets are often confused when written in capital. For instance, H is confused for N when written in capital. Also, the data is captured centrally at some other states where R&Ts are located so the employees are not familiar with the addresses in Mumbai. They end up making data entry. For instance, they can confuse Goregaon with George Town in Chennai.”
Nevertheless, fund officials say that adoption of technology, automation and increased focus on customer service has helped the industry minimize errors. As more investors take the online route to investing, these complaints are likely to go down further, say fund officials.
