SEBI's Singh: MFDs Are Investors' Behavioural Anchor — SkimNews
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- Amarjeet Singh, SEBI Whole-Time Member, said at the NJ Partners Business Training 2026 (organized by NJ Group with FICCI on 13 August) that mutual fund distributors act as a "behavioural anchor" during market volatility, helping investors avoid impulsive stops to SIPs or chasing recent winners.
- India's mutual fund industry now holds around ₹85 lakh crore in AUM, having crossed ₹10 lakh crore in 2014 — more than eightfold growth in little over a decade — with SIP assets now accounting for over 21% of total industry assets.
- SIP holding behaviour diverges sharply by channel: 34% of SIP assets in regular plans have been held for more than five years, compared with just 20% in direct plans, underscoring the stickiness that distributor handholding brings.
- B-30 cities now account for almost 19% of total mutual fund AUM, up from around 16% five years ago, as distributors help expand participation in smaller towns and among first-time investors.
- SEBI, in consultation with NISM, has simplified the certification framework for Specialized Investment Funds (SIFs), letting qualified distributors sell both mutual funds and SIFs under one certification.
- SEBI's proposed MF-only PMS framework would invest exclusively in direct plans of mutual funds, ETFs and SIFs, with a proposed minimum ticket of ₹25 lakh — half the ₹50 lakh threshold for conventional PMS.
- Singh warned that ethical distribution must remain central to the investor relationship, flagging mis-selling risks where investors may not immediately recognize a product was unsuitable.
Why it matters: Singh's framing positions distributors as India's behavioural firewall against panic-selling in a market where ₹85 lakh crore in AUM and 21% SIP share make retail behaviour a systemic variable. The proposed MF-only PMS at ₹25 lakh — half the conventional threshold — opens portfolio management to a much broader distributor base, while the SIF certification simplification lets the same MFDs cross-sell higher-ticket products, raising both opportunity and mis-selling risk.
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