'Investors will migrate to equity, index schemes as they become risk averse'

CHENNAI: With people becoming risk averse and aware of alternatives and willing to take risks, the migration to equity and index schemes is the pattern that would emerge, said Bank of Baroda in a report.

According to the report, mutual funds have grown in stature and do compete with bank deposits.

“While one can see a direct correspondence between debt schemes and bank deposits where risk-return tradeoffs are different, the migration to equity and index schemes is a reflection of the individual investor becoming more aware of the alternatives and willingness to take risk. This could be the pattern going ahead,” the report said.

Citing the data of Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the report said the financial savings of households show an increased flow to mutual funds which rose from Rs 0.64 lakh crore in FY21 to Rs 1.60 lakh crore in FY22 and further to Rs 1.79 lakh crore in FY23.

In terms of share in overall financial savings stock of households, it was 7.6 per cent in FY21 and 8.5 per cent and 8.4 per cent respectively in the following two years, the report said.

“Hence it can be seen that while assets under management (AUM) mutual funds are still of a lower magnitude compared with banks deposits, they have been gaining importance of late with investors becoming financially savvy.

“More importantly, risk aversion has started coming down, which is natural as individuals become more financially savvy,” the report notes.

The assets under management (AUM) of mutual funds increased from Rs 37.57 lakh crore in FY22 to Rs 39.42 lakh crore in FY23. In the first seven months of the year there has been a sharp increase to Rs 46.72 lakh crore.