The number of investor grievances drop significantly in 2011 compared to last year on account of low transaction volumes and fewer NFOs
Mumbai: A slump in new fund offers and a decline in folios which translated in lower transaction volumes have resulted in mutual funds receiving fewer complaints from investors in 2011 compared to last year. According to data put up on the AMFI website, the industry received close to one lakh investor grievances in 2010-11 compared to 3.94 lakh complaints in 2009-10.
“The volumes were not as high as last year. There were some anomalies in classifying customer requests which were categorized as errors. That’s why the complaints went up,” said the CEO of a leading fund house.
According to fund officials, maximum complaints pour in during new fund launches due to limitations of processing time and with the decline in NFOs, the number of complaints has gone down. The fall in investor complaints is also attributed to loss of folios. The industry has lost more than 7 lakh folios in 2011.
This view is echoed by Karan Dutta, National Sales Head, Axis MF. “Many of the NFOs now are of FMPs which typically get fewer investors. Also, since they offer somewhat more stable returns, there are fewer complaints. All said, the customer service level of this industry is better than any other industry.”
The maximum number of complaints (35,427) were spotted in the ‘others’ category. The industry received 19,279 complaints pertaining to errors in account statements followed by 15,780 grievances on non-updation of account details like address, PAN, bank details, nomination, etc.
Technology too seems to have contributed in reduction of investor complaints. “The industry has strengthened investor service mechanism by investing in better technology. A lot of investors are now providing their email ids. Also, there is a rise in online investments. The industry has improved data capturing and customer services functions, said Kalpen Parekh, Deputy CEO, IDFC MF.
The data on complaints received by fund houses like Fidelity, Peerless and Pramerica were not available yet.
