B30 assets see 39% rise in a year

As much as 16 per cent of mutual fund (MF) assets to the tune of ~5.56 trillion have come from beyond 30 (B30) cities as of June 2021. These assets have risen 39 per cent from ~4.01 trillion in June 2020, latest data from Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi) shows. Assets in top 30 (T30) cities stood at ~28.5 trillion in June 2021. The share of B30 cities, however, has remained in the range of 15-17 per cent of the assets under management (AUM) since the financial year 2018-19 (FY19).

Investors from B30 cities rely more on face-to-face communication with distributors and advisors compared to their T30 counterparts. These regions depend on simpler products, such as large-cap schemes, which have been impacted in the past few years owing to polarisation in the market.

For June 2021, 26 per cent of assets held by individual investors and 5.6 per cent of institutional assets come from B30 locations.

B30 locations tend towards equity assets, with 70 per cent of assets in equity schemes. For T30 locations, equity-oriented schemes accounted for 40 per cent of assets.

Fund houses have conducted several investor camps and awareness programmes in B30 cities over the past few years. The popular ‘Mutual fund sahi hai’ campaign, which kicked off in 2017, has also helped bring in a lot of new investors into the MF fold from under-penetrated regions.

MF officials are hopeful that the increased digital push during the pandemic could help push B30 sales in the long run.