AMFI goes for a mutual fund platform with Polaris

CHENNAI, INDIA: Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) has entrusted Polaris with implementing MF Utility, a Centralized Mutual Fund distribution platform, in India. This platform, as per an announcement, will improve retail penetration through geographic reach, enhance customer convenience and operations & service efficiency, while enabling significant reductions in cost for the Mutual Funds industry.

AMFI is a not for profit industry association dedicated to developing the Indian Mutual Fund Industry by establishing and maintaining standards to protect and promote the interests of mutual funds and their unit holders.

K Srinivasan, EVP, Indian Subcontinent, Middle East and Africa (IMEA) Markets, Polaris Financial Technology Limited said, "It is noteworthy that we have been chosen to partner AMFI on this initiative that is of significant national importance and represents a key part of our National Financial Infrastructure. The MF Utility application will be implemented in nine months and will serve as a testament to Polaris' solution development capability. Polaris was awarded the project because of deep domain knowledge and experience in developing and maintaining a high performance OLTP platform for the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, as well as solutions for the RBI and NABARD. "

The MF Utility web application will apparently benefit all segments of investors, distributors and brokers by catering to their individual interests, reducing cost and risk and offering better service and transparency. This web enabled front-end application, functioning as an 'Order Routing' tool, will also benefit all Asset Management Companies (AMCs), the Registrar and Transfer Agents (RTAs), investor brokerage companies and regulators.

The MF Utility platform, with web based access, offers investors benefits such as a single login ID to access or transact within the entire Mutual Fund industry, single cheque payments for multiple transactions, generation of Common Account Statements, generation of Cap Gain Statement, and a complaints and feedback module. 

Polaris' implementation will provide AMFI order routing and payment mechanisms with connectivity to RTAs, AMCs, Stock Exchanges, depositories, banks and centralized KYC repository. The first year of the implementation is expected to see 20,000 concurrent connections across the 25,000 distributors, 50,000 Investors, 45 Mutual Funds, 5 RTAs, 2 Depositories, 3 Banks and the 2 Stock Exchanges.