As 2017 ends and we look back, we can say with reasonable confidence that mutual funds have finally arrived.

 The Assets Under Management of the total MF industry grew from about Rs. 16.5 lakh crores at the beginning of 2017 to close to Rs. 23 lakh crores at the end of 2017.

The industry has grown in excess of 22% over the last 5 years and if it continues the trend then in 2018, it will go beyond Rs. 26 lakh crores in size.

Look at it another way. Mutual Fund assets are now more than 18% of the banking industry size. In just a few years, it is expected to reach 30% of the banking industry.

Another important fact is that there is a whole new set of customers now trusting their money with mutual funds.

What are the reasons for this impressive growth?

Several reasons and within them the most important one is the “Mutual Funds Sahi Campaign”, driven under the aegis of AMFI.

The campaign resulted in huge confidence building amongst the general public bringing several first time investors to MFs.

The distributors and advisers did a brilliant job in handholding these investors and helping them understand and invest in mutual funds.

Of course, the environment too became favourable in the past year when investors shunned traditional assets such as Gold and Real Estate and looked to mutual funds to invest their capital.

How do we intend to support this growth further?

There is a bunch of initiatives that we are taking to ensure that Mutual funds continue to be a sought after investment option for existing as well as new investors.

One, we will carry forward the good job done with “Mutual Funds Sahi Hai” campaign. In fact, it will be strengthened further.

Two, we will focus more on investor education and helping them understand asset allocation, goal based investing to encourage long term investing.

Three, to achieve the above we will build industry strength of over 5 lakh distributors / advisors in the next 5 years. Distributors play a key role in connecting the investors with mutual funds. Of course, this also leads to self-driven entrepreneurs and provides jobs to lakhs of people.

Finally, we will leverage technology to go to the next level in terms of penetration. The industry will collectively move towards embracing its Fintech platform Mutual Fund Utilities to work in this area.

The momentum needs to continue. All that we need to do is to support it with the right intention and initiatives. Hopefully, 2018 will be the year when mutual funds will be a mainstream investment option. As savers go to banks with confidence, similarly, they will come to mutual funds to park their earnings for long-term wealth creation.

Mutual Fund investments are subject to market risks, read all scheme related documents carefully.