The latest AMFI data shows that the industry has 2.07 crore unique investors in March 2020 as against 1.28 crore unique investors in March 2017, an addition of 80 lakh new investors over the last three years.
The data collected has taken into account PANs/PEKRNs (PAN Exempted KYC Registration Number) of all unit holders or their guardians in case of minor unit holders.
As on March 2020, the industry has 2.03 unique investors with PAN and 4.57 lakh unique investors without PAN.
The industry has also added 9.10 lakh new folios in March 2020 raising the total folio count to 8.97 crore as against 8.25 crore a year ago.
NS Venkatesh, AMFI CEO attributed this to the investor awareness campaign. “The industry’s initiatives like ‘Mutual Fund Sahi Hai’ and ‘Jan Nivesh’ have increased popularity of mutual funds across the country. In addition, attractive performance of mutual funds over other asset classes and handholding by distributors has brought more investors to the mutual fund fold,” he added.
Seconding his views, Sunil Subramaniam, MD & CEO, Sundaram MF said, “MF distributors have played a crucial role in making mutual funds popular among investors, especially the SIP concept in India. Many investors have achieved their financial goals due to mutual funds with the help of distributors. In addition, ease of transactions through digital technology has contributed to the attractiveness of the industry.”
Ashutosh Bishnoi, MD & CEO Mahindra MF believes that the industry will witness a surge in the number of new investors in the next 10 years. “We believe this number could be 800 lakhs in the next 10 years...may be even more. Investors have realized that forced savings via SIP is the surest way to create wealth...irrespective of the market cycles,” he said.
