The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has impressed upon the Mutual Funds Association of Pakistan (MUFAP) to focus on increasing the retail penetration of mutual funds. In a meeting with the MUFAP representatives, the SECP chairman, Zafar Hijazi, pointed out that participation of retail investors in the mutual funds industry constitutes a relatively small proportion and almost 66 percent of total AUMs are held by corporates and other institutions.
He said that inadequate branch network outside major cities and lack of appropriate distribution network was the main causes of this limited outreach. The need of the hour is to take the industry forward, and to tap into the small retail level investors instead of completely concentrating on institutional clients. The asset management companies need to make focused efforts to expand their outreach to major cities of the country. The SECP chairman said that the SECP would observe the efforts being made by individual AMCs to increase retail outreach and facilitation shall be provided to only those AMCs that will make serious efforts to augment retail participation. The SECP asked the AMCs to submit their comprehensive plans to increase the industry's retail base of mutual funds.-PR
Comments
Comments are closed.