Mutual Funds approach SEBI with 48 proposals till date

Mutual fund houses have filed draft papers to launch 48 New Fund Offers (NFO) with Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) during 2016 till date. Using these schemes mutual fund houses try to tap increasing demand from retail investors. The houses are also looking for overseas stock exchanges for investment.

Out of 48 new proposals, some of the new themes for mutual fund houses are hybrid, equity, debt, retirement and fixed maturity plan (FMP). During the month of June, there were about eight new schemes related filed draft papers with market regulator SEBI. During year 2015, total of 191 draft papers were filed with SEBI.

Interestingly, many mutual fund companies submitted papers with the SEBI for launching plans with Hindi names. Hence investors in rural areas understand the objectives of the schemes in a better manner. The fund houses are trying to grab rural market which has more traction.

Earlier, fund houses used old tradition, English names for mutual fund investment schemes.Some of the schemes by Mahindra Mutual Fund and Reliance Mutual Fund are 'Bal Vikas Yojana', a scheme aimed at saving for children's future, Kar Bachat Yojana, a tax saving fund, 'Bachat Yojana' and 'Nivesh Lakshya', both fixed income schemes.

According to the data from Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI), equity funds witnessed net inflow of Rs 4721 crore during May.