Marketing of Mutual Fund Products Through Retail Banks in India: An Empirical Study of Customers' Perception

Abstract

The Financial Companies in developed countries are using the Banking channels effectively for selling their Mutual Fund products. The emergence and spread of Mutual Funds has been one of the most significant developments in Retail Financial Services Sector in India. With the opening up of the Financial Sector, the Banks are tying up with Mutual Fund Companies in India and abroad for cross-selling of Mutual Fund products. This is a new channel for selling Mutual Fund products in India. The customers have been purchasing the Mutual Fund Products from the Insurance Agents and Non Banking Finance companies (NBFCs) till now.

The objectives of the study has been to understand the perception of Indian customers of the new channel and address the issue of whether they would prefer Banks over Agents and NBFCs, who are offer them some commission; ascertain the ability of banks to work as an effective conduit for selling Mutual Funds products.

A survey through a questionnaire was conducted using convenient sampling method. The sample consisted of 100 customers of banks located in and around Delhi. A questionnaire consisting of 14 questions based on the study of Lymberopoulos K. (2004) et al. was developed, pilot tested and appropriate changes made based on pilot testing.

The study brings out that the “Customer Relationship Management” should be the focus area for the Mutual Fund companies since as high as 90% of the customers said that they would prefer to buy Mutual Fund Products from banks due to existing personal relationship with banks. The study concluded that opportunities exist for banks to cross-sell Mutual Fund Products in India. These opportunities are based on customer’s high usage rate of Mutual Fund Products, the low penetration of banks to Mutual Fund schemes and customer’s willingness to buy these products from banks.

Keywords: Mutual Funds, Retail Financial Services, Non Banking Financial Companies, Crossselling, Customer Relationship Management, e-marketing