"The
regulatory standards and the regulatory provisions for mutual
funds in India are among the best in the world."
AMFI's
roles are broadly in four areas. Firstly, doing research and
finding out the standards of mutual funds industry in other
countries and recommending standards for the industry in India.
Since MF industry is global in nature, international standards
are available. AMFI compares the standards in various international
markets and recommends the best professional and ethical standards
for the mutual fund companies in various areas like accounting,
NAV construction, portfolio management, transparency, disclosure,
communication, and evaluation and performance measurement
of various funds. Also, it is the primary role of the AMFI
to ensure that the MF companies in India adhere to these standards.
Secondly,
AMFI interacts with the regulator, Sebi. AMFI is the voice
of the industry and all MF companies collectively discuss
issues relating to the industry and are communicated to the
Sebi through AMFI. The Sebi, on the other hand, communicates
any major policy-related issues to AMFI, for further discussion
with the industry players and get their views before a final
decision is made by the regulator. Sebi and AMFI work closely
on various regulatory issues, which resulted in the establishment
of standard guidelines and practices for the industry over
a period of about 10 years.
The
third important role is investor education. AMFI has been
actively engaged in investor education over its decade-long
existence. The investor education has been mostly done in
association with ASSOCHAM, FICCI, CII and so on. In addition,
several investor education programs were conducted in association
with local bodies like Rotary Club, investor associations
and several other bodies. Since many investors in India are
new to mutual fund, AMFI has realized the importance of investors
understanding the concept of mutual fund. Hence, AMFI has
come up with study material in both English and Hindi, explaining
the fundamentals of the MF concept to investors and disseminate
the information through conferences, seminars and workshops.
This is an ongoing program. The distributors and the marketing
executives of all the 30 mutual funds are active in explaining
various schemes to investors and in the process are passing
on the message of the mutual funds. |
