LIC MF Standard Chartered team up for UPI

LIC Mutual Fund Asset Management Company today announced its readiness on Unified Payment Interface (UPI) in partnership with Standard Chartered Bank as mode of payment for its investors to invest in its schemes.
This platform would help retail investors to participate actively in mutual fund investment opportunities. UPI is a payment mechanism which allows instant money transfer without bank details. Instead of bank account number and IFSC code, the virtual payment address is used to pay through the UPI.
This initiative will not only transform into an electronic payment process, but also deliver operational ease and benefits. It will further lend a hand to the investors in leveraging the UPI platform in terms of interoperability and real-time money transfer making the transaction experience user-friendly and hassle free.

"We are delighted to announce our readiness on UPI platform in partnership with one of the leading and forward looking bank, The Standard Chartered Bank," LIC Mutual Fund chief executive Sarojini Dikhale said.
"This will enable our investors to invest in our schemes with more ease with this new platform. We are very excited with this offering which is not only industry first but also in line with our strategic vision towards Digital Transformation," she added.
Out of the total assets under management of Rs 18,500 crore which LIC MF was having as on November 9, the contribution from retail AUM was at Rs 2,800 crore.

According to Dikhale, the new initiative will help us achieve the projected target of increasing our company's retail to a significant level from the current level of Rs 2,800 crore in future.

"To begin with, we will offer this solution to our existing investors through our web based online investment channel for lump-sum purchase, which will soon be extended for SIP purchase as well, for existing, new and first time investors in LIC Mutual Fund," chief technology officer and head-strategy, assets, LIC MF, Prashant Thakkar said.
He added, "In the next stage, we will have a complete integration with mobile app based solutions."

Through UPI, LIC MF will be able to reach out to the young millennial and facilitate them to start investing in the early stage of life. It will further facilitate to break in to a wider mobile penetration reaching out to the tier 2, 3 and 4 towns of India, which have a huge investment potential, he said.