MFs ramp up hiring on rise in retail clients

MFs recruit staff on sales, marketing and digital side

The mutual funds sector has stepped up its hiring in the past year, strengthening teams on the sales, marketing, operations and digital side. This is on the back of a rise in equity assets over one and a half years, as well as an appreciable rise in the number of retail clients.

"The industry has seen an unprecedented increase in the number of clients, resulting in increased transactions at each branch and creating the need to hire more people," said Milind Barve, managing director, HDFC MF.

Experts suggest that the top 20 asset management companies (AMC) have increased their personnel by at least 10-15 per cent over the past year. ICICI Prudential AMC, for instance, is estimated to have increased its headcount by 15-20 per cent, adding 150-200 people. Axis AMC has doubled its headcount to about 500 from 250 two years ago.

"We have doubled our headcount in the last two years and will continue to expand, in line with the growth of the business," said Chandresh Nigam, chief executive officer, Axis Mutual Fund.

The number of folios of retail investors had risen to 32 million at the end of September from 28.6 million at the end of March 2014. In the same period, the number of high net worth individual (HNI) folios to 807,000 from 338,000. Equity assets have risen to Rs 3.56 lakh crore from Rs 1.89 lakh crore in May 2014, the month when the Narendra Modi-led government came to power at the Centre. "There's a bigger thrust towards digital in areas such as apps, online and SMS transactions, as well as e-commerce. Hiring on the marketing and operations side is led by the digital push," said Rajiv Shastri, CEO, Peerless MF.

On the digital side, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is in talks with various vendors to roll out an e-commerce platform to sell MFs. Schemes sold through this platform will have a lower expense ratio compared with regular plans, which are sold through distributors.

Fund houses are reportedly in talks with the market regulator to enable investors to invest in mutual fund products by using the Aadhaar card number. Quantum MF and Reliance MF are now offering an e-KYC facility that enables first-time investors to fill a simple form and complete the formalities in a paperless manner.

While the benchmark BSE Sensex rose 30 per cent in calendar year 2014, it has shed 4.5 per cent in the year till date. Since May 2014, equity schemes have seen inflows of Rs 1.29 lakh crore, of which Rs 62,300 crore has come in this financial year. "The outlook on other alternative avenues of investment, whether real estate or gold is muted, and the percentage of savings in financial products is going up. We expect robust inflows into mutual funds to continue," said Himanshu Vyapak, deputy CEO, Reliance MF.