AMFI's move to waive off ARN fee has received
a positive response from people.
As per information available on AMFI's website, around 1200 people have applied
with AMFI for an ARN license till March 2013. In a bid to attract more
distributors, AMFI had waived off ARN fee from February till June 2013 which
was further extended till September 2013.
Distributors registering for the first time
under the category of senior citizens and individuals are not required to pay
any fee for getting an ARN license. Senior citizens is a person who has
attained age of 50 years as on May 31, 2010 with 10 years experience in the
securities market as on May 31, 2010 and/or a person who has at least 10 years
experience in distribution in mutual fund products as on May 31, 2010.
The ARN fee is also exempted for the new cadre of distributors. AMFI says that
200 applications under the new cadre of distributor category were received till
March 2013. Industry officials say that the number of new cadre of distributor
registrations has gone up substantially now. However, these distributors are
only allowed to sell a limited range of products like index schemes, FMPs and
diversified equity schemes.
Distributors registering under the 'individuals' category have to obtain NISM Series V-A: Mutual Fund Distributors Certification Examination'. Senior citizens have to pass CPE while the new cadre of distributors have to obtain NISM-Series-V-B: Mutual Fund Foundation Certification Examination or attend one day CPE.
As on March 2013, 89985 ARNs are registered with AMFI; of these, 52194 are individual ARNs, 3918 are corporate and 37791 are corporate employees.
AMFI had raised ARN fee from Rs 500 to Rs 5000 in June 2010 for the individual category which was subsequently brought down to Rs 3000 from November 2012.
