AMFI reiterates 'Mutual Funds Sahi Hai' in ads with Sachin Tendulkar and Mithali Raj

The Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) has unveiled three ads featuring cricketing legends, Sachin Tendulkar and Mithali Raj. The ads address three identified key fears impacting the investors’ psyche - market volatility, new-age digital trends and unregulated schemes.

A joint study by Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA) and Investor Education and Protection Fund Authority (IEPFA), analysed 15 scams related to unregulated and illegal schemes. It found that more than 10 crore Indians have been defrauded by top 15 pump-and-dump Ponzi schemes in the last three decades, leading to an average loss of Rs 15 lakh-plus per victim. All of them offered unrealistic returns on investment, which attracted gullible investors.

Two of the three ads make small savers aware of the pitfalls of investing in dubious schemes and new-age trends. They also encourage small savers to shift towards formalised and regulated investment avenue like mutual funds (MFs).

The first film in the campaign, featuring Tendulkar, highlights how volatility is inherent and embedded characteristic of stock markets, and appeals to investors to simply focus on their goals and stay invested. Market volatility usually results in investors panicking and ending up redeeming their investments, most of the times, resulting in a loss or reduced profits.

The second film showcases how a young investor, blinded by social media, invests in new-age digital trends and ends up losing his life savings. Tendulkar explains why we must steer clear of hyped digital trends and focus on a regulated investment option like MFs.

The third film, featuring Raj, the captain of Indian women’s cricket team, highlights the issue of unregulated deposit schemes, which promise double returns and gullible investors, especially women, falling prey. Mithali explains to her friend, who is a victim of such a scheme run by a fly-by-night operator, that MFs are ideal for regular savers like her because they are time-tested and trusted for years.

A Balasubramanian, chairman, AMFI, said, “We, at AMFI, want to educate small savers to shift towards formal and regulated mode of investments, and opt for MFs as the preferred investment avenue. Last financial year, the MF industry added over a crore new investors. A significant section of retail savers voiced their concerns about continued market volatility in the light of various global geopolitical events.”

“We wanted a voice of reason, someone people trust to address the concern and educate them that it is best to ignore short-term volatility and focus on long-term goals. Hence, we chose Sachin Tendulkar.”

NS Venkatesh, chief executive, AMFI, added: “We realised that a lot of young investors were swayed by the returns offered by new-age digital trends, without realising that these were unregulated. Many of them burnt their hands and hard-earned money. Also, since a long time, women investors from semi-urban and rural India, have been defrauded by fly-by-night operators, who run dubious deposit schemes promising very high returns.”

“We wanted to address both these audiences and warn them of the pitfalls and ask them to choose a very well regulated investment option like MFs. Sachin and Mithali, given their significant contribution to Indian cricket, come across as the most trusted and popular cricket stars, hence, we thought it was best to use them to convey these important messages.”