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Majority of top fund houses said that they have started recruiting new distributors under apprentice MFD program.
Under this initiative, fund houses can have exclusive partnership with an individual MFD and pay them a monthly stipend of up to Rs.15,000 for the first 12 months. During this period, fund houses will be responsible for training and development of the individual MFDs.
While most fund houses whom Cafemutual spoke to said that they have recruited nearly 50 MFDs each, they have been devising plan to increase the number of such distributors. A senior MF official told Cafemutual that his fund house has been targeting insurance agents and deposit agents. Another top official said that his fund house has been reaching out to people who have taken voluntary retirement in small cities and towns to recruit them as apprentice MFD.
Sharing his fund house’s approach, the national head of a leading MF official said that his fund house has identified a few geographies to carry out this activity. “We have been doing interviews in these locations to understand interest and commitment of candidates. We have propagated this initiative as a way for people to generate alternative income. In fact, we have recruited close to 50 MFDs and another 50 will be appearing for NISM examination by the end of November.”
He told cafemutual that the industry has set a target of recruiting 3000 new MFDs.
Meanwhile, two of the top 10 fund houses said that they either did not get any breakthrough or recruited less than 10 MFDs so far. “It is difficult for us to recruit new people as it takes time and resources.”
This internship plan is introduced under a regulatory sandbox project approved by SEBI to increase the number of individual MFDs in the country.
