The most-crowded mutual fund industry is expected to add two more players with Bajaj Finserv and Zerodha Broking applying with SEBI for a licence to enter mutual fund business.

While Bajaj Finserv applied with SEBI last month, Zerodha Broking application has been pending with since February. Though the mutual fund industry currently has 40 players, the top 10 players account for over about 80 per cent of the overall asset under management.

Recently, NJ India Invest and Samco Securities had received in-principle approval from the market regulator for starting the MF business.

The industry’s average asset under management in the September quarter was at ₹27.60 lakh crore while the share of top-10 mutual funds were at ₹22.95 lakh crore. SBI Mutual Fund and HDFC Mutual Fund led the table with asset of ₹4.21 lakh crore and ₹3.75 lakh crore.

There are over 1.59 crore SIP account in B-30 cities with asset under management of ₹1.12 lakh crore while there are 1.74 lakh SIP account in top-30 cities with asset under management of ₹12.23 lakh crore.

However, the entry of Bajaj Finserv with presence in 2,392 locations, including 1,357 in rural areas, small towns and villages will help in mutual fund penetration.

In fact, SEBI has been driving mutual funds to look beyond top-30 cities for attracting investors. The special incentives provided by SEBI for getting investments from beyond top-30 cities is slowing yielding results.

Bajaj Finserv core businesses include lending, insurance and wealth advisory. Bajaj Finance, the non-banking finance arm of Bajaj Finserv, has a consolidated asset under management of ₹1.38 lakh crore.

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