Bajaj Finserv Mutual Fund, the latest entrant into the asset management business, is banking on last-mover advantage and differentiated product offering to make its mark felt in the fast-growing mutual fund business. Including this fund house, there are 41 companies in the space.

The fund house has received regulator approval to launch four debt funds and three equity funds. It will launch liquid, money market, overnight and arbitrage funds by this month. Subsequently, it will introduce large- and mid-cap, balanced advantage and flexi-cap funds.

One of the most diversified and technology-driven financial services group, Bajaj Finserv MF also plans to launch a passive large-cap fund. The fund house feels it will be difficult for an active large-cap fund to beat the benchmark large-cap index due to its construct.

Full-stack services

Sanjiv Bajaj, Managing Director, Bajaj Finserv, said the company is committed to being a full-stack financial solutions provider to meet India’s growing needs and building deeper, long-term relationships with customers who are already invested in the company.

The last-mover advantage helps the company learn from others’ mistakes and leverage on competitors’ success so that there is no need to reinvent the whole wheel while offering differentiated products to investors, he said.

Asked whether the group will apply for banking licence to complete the financial solution stack, Bajaj said the company can offer most of the banking services through its NBFC arm. The stack appears complete for the next five years and there are no plans to apply for banking licence, he added.

The company said over 16,000 distributors have already registered for mutual fund business and it will leverage on 70 lakh customers who have experienced its various product offerings across NBFC, fixed deposit, loan and insurance.

The company will have 10 branches and invest heavily on technology to service investors in smaller cities. The company’s latest technology helps distributors get empanelled in 15 seconds.

Common tech platform

Ganesh Mohan, Chief Executive Officer, Bajaj Finserv Asset Management Company, said the company plans to develop a common technology platform for distributors to deal with all financial products including mutual fund.

Even with a nominal growth, the asset under management of the MF industry will touch ₹90-95 lakh crore by FY30 from ₹40-lakh crore currently, he said.

While investors feel that the Indian mutual fund industry with 41 fund houses is overcrowded, the US has 6,000 fund houses while it is 1,000 and 800 in Singapore and Brazil, he added.

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