Paisabazaar.com becomes India's first major platform to offer direct mutual funds to consumers

Paisabazaar.com, India's No. 1 Marketplace for Loans and Cards, announced today it has launched direct mutual funds, becoming India's first major platform to offer direct plans to retail customers. Unlike in a regular plan where a part of investment is paid to the broker as commission by the mutual fund company, a direct mutual fund doesn't involve any type of commission and provides higher returns to the consumers and hence, is a much superior investment option.

The commission involved in regular plans, typically one percent of the investment amount, leads to customers paying a significant amount to brokers in the long run. For example - On a monthly SIP of Rs. 5000 for 25 years in regular plans, a customer would create a corpus of around Rs. 1.64 crore at a CAGR of 15 percent.

On the other hand, the same investment in direct plans would create a corpus of Rs. 1.98 crore, which means he earns Rs. 34 lakh more through direct plans.

Direct mutual funds till now have largely been restricted to HNIs and institutions, due to lack of awareness amongst retail consumers. Paisabazaar.com plans to spread the message around benefits direct plans have and make it available to consumers through a seamless, transparent and digital investment process on its platform. This is the first time a major financial services organization is offering direct plans to retail customers on its platform.

"Whether it's lending, investment or insurance, our biggest aim, as a group, is to help customers buy the right financial product in the most convenient and transparent manner possible. By launching direct mutual funds on Paisabazaar.com, we are enabling our customers to earn the highest returns on their hard-earned money," said CEO and co-founder Policybazaar.com, Yashish Dahiya.

"Since there is no commission involved, financial advisors usually do not recommend direct plans. The regular plans customers invest in involve recurring hidden charges that is paid to the financial advisors as commission year after year. What's worse is that most investors are not even aware of these charges, since they don't pay it directly. By buying direct mutual funds through Paisabazaar.com, customers can now earn a much higher return in the long run," said CEO and co-founder Paisabazaar.com, Naveen Kukreja.

Manish Kothari, Director, Mutual Funds, Paisabazaar.com, said, "By investing in direct funds through Paisabazaar.com, not only would you be able to create a bigger corpus, but also take advantage of our cutting-edge digital technology which makes the entire investment and tracking processes extremely simple and convenient."

Paisabazaar.com launched the mutual fund product in 2016, and since then has garnered an AUM of Rs. over 1200 crore. It currently has over 20 partners, which includes India's top AMCs on board, and provides investment solutions to retail consumers as well as HNIs and institutions.