MF industry has added over 3.43 lakh unique investors since March

Although the last couple of months have been like a nightmare for most industries, one positive thing that happened to the mutual fund industry is the addition of new investors. 

As per AMFI’s latest monthly data, the industry added 3.43 lakh unique investors between March and July. 

The data has identified the number of unique investors by taking into account PANs/PEKRNs (PAN Exempted KYC Registration Number) of all unit holders or their guardians in case of minor unit holders.

As on July 2020, the MF industry has 2.11 crore unique investors in total, out of which 2.06 crore unique investors have PAN.  Moreover, the industry added 5.64 lakh new folios in July 2020 taking the total folio count to 9.15 crore. In July itself, the industry added close to 1 lakh new investors.

Ajit Menon, CEO, PGIM India Mutual Fund points out that many new investors have opened demat and mutual fund accounts during lockdown. “In my view, individuals have been saving  money incurred on travel, eating out and so on. Also, people have started exploring investment opportunities other than bank FDs like mutual funds for better returns.”

Kailash Kulkarni, CEO, L&T MF believes that MF industry has a long way to go in terms of number of investors. He said, “Out of 1.3 billion India’s population, the industry has only 2.1 crore unique investors. I believe we will continue to add more investors once things get better.”