Allahabad Bank	UTI Mutual Fund

UTI MF expands distribution network - ties up with Allahabad Bank for distributing its MF schemes

UTI Mutual Fund (UTI MF) and Allahabad Bank today announced a strategic tie-up for distribution of UTI MF schemes. Under the agreement, Allahabad Bank will offer the entire bouquet of UTI MF’s schemes across the Bank’s selected branches. This initiative reflects UTI MF’s strategy to rapidly expand and value-add its access network to complement the Mutual Fund’s growth strategy in the Indian mutual fund sector.

Announcing the UTI MF’s tie-up with Allahabad Bank, Shri Meleveetil Damodaran, Chairman and Managing Director, UTI Asset Management Company said, “With an intention of reaching out to more retail investors, today we are announcing our strategic alliance with Allahabad Bank for distribution of our schemes. This tie-up will enable us to offer UTI MF’s comprehensive range of mutual fund products to 15 million number of depositors of Allahabad Bank. It gives me great pleasure in saying that our strategic partnership with Allahabad Bank has further endorsed our commitment to the retail investors of this country. We are confident that these efforts will further increase the retail investor participation in our various mutual fund schemes.

Shri Damodaran, added “Today, UTI MF is widely respected for the best practices that it has implemented in areas of fund management, front and back-office automation, and transparency in its systems and services. UTI Mutual Fund philosophy has been ‘Create Wealth and Share Wealth’. During the last 14 months UTI MF has distributed Dividends / Bonus amounting to more than Rs. 1700 crores.”

Shri Onkar Nath Singh, Chairman and Managing Director, Allahabad Bank, said, “It gives me great pleasure in saying that our strategic partnership of UTI MF with Allahabad Bank has further endorsed the commitment of the two institutions to the retail investors of this country. Banks have emerged as financial superstores that provide a wide array of financial products under one roof to their customers. Over the years, our Bank has seized new business opportunities, which are drivers of future growth to enhance shareholder value. By tying-up with India’s leading and largest mutual fund, we assure our customers and other investors that they can now avail, at our branches, mutual fund products from the stable of India’s largest mutual fund that have rewarded its investors richly over the past one year in the process Allahabad Bank will also enrich its skill of marketing retail financial products. This will help us in understanding the retail customer well for repositioning Banking products in future.”

Elaborating further Shri Singh added “Allahabad Bank is now gearing up to further step up its fee-based income from alternative avenues. The tie-up in respect of distribution of life insurance and non life insurance products are providing steady streams of income. With the signing of the Corporate Agency Agreement with UTI Mutual Fund, the Bank has taken yet another major step forward to meet the diverse financial needs of its valued customers, all under one roof. For distribution of mutual fund products, Allahabad Bank has identified 150 locations across the country wherefrom mutual fund products will be sold to the retail investors. For this purpose, the Bank is in the process of building a pool of 150 dedicated officers who will be exposed to extensive product training as also professional training on soft skill development at reputed institutes so as to further improve their marketing skill in promoting insurance and mutual fund products.

Presently, UTI MF through its wide range of mutual fund schemes (comprising 42 domestic and 4 offshore funds with an Assets under Management (AUM) base of over Rs 21,000 crores) meets the investment, savings and retirement planning needs of its investors primarily through its core Financial Advisors, a wide distribution network of 55 Financial Centers (UFCs) (this is set to increase to 110 UFCs in 2004), Direct Marketing and through 180 branches of Indian Bank, 70 branches of Corporation Bank and 125 branches of Bank of India spread across India. UTI Mutual Fund is also planning to double its agency force during the next one year.

Further, UTI MF’s entering into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with IL&FS MF to acquire schemes of IL&FS MF (with AUM of Rs 2,500 crore) further boosts UTI MF’s distribution capabilities (and UTI MF’s AUM catapults to over Rs 23,500 crore). As per the MoU, IL&FS Investsmart too would distribute UTI MF products as a preferred fund house

With today’s strategic tie-up, UTI MF is further enhancing its distribution capabilities. India’s largest Mutual fund will now also be offering its schemes through 150 branches of Allahabad Bank across India.

Thus, UTI MF will be offering its entire range of mutual fund schemes to a wider segment of the investing public in addition to its more than 10 million (one crore) unit holding accounts (this excludes the 65,000 retail and high-net worth investors of IL&FS MF schemes that will come into UTI MF fold) - accounting for 85 per cent of the investor accounts of the Mutual Fund industry.

UTI Mutual Fund was carved out of Unit Trust of India (UTI) as a SEBI registered mutual fund from 1st February 2003. In order to allow the Mutual Funds’ products to be professionally managed by a professional management team, the Government of India decided to divide erstwhile UTI into two distinct entities. Hence, February 1, 2003 gained significance in the annals of Indian Capital Market as the day on which Unit Trust of India Act 1963 was repealed paving the way for the bifurcation of UTI into Specified Undertaking of Unit Trust of India (SUUTI); and UTI Mutual Fund (UTIMF). While SUUTI manages schemes which involve the commitment of the Government of India, the UTI Mutual Fund (UTI MF) manages the pure Mutual Fund schemes / products, which are fully SEBI compliant and in line with the best global practices. Since February 1, 2003, UTI MF has implemented several new initiatives, a recipe which has enabled the MF to achieve spectacular success.