Reliance Money eyes half mn customers in FY'08

Eyeing a geographical spread of 91 per cent in the country, Reliance Money is looking forward to creating a customer base of half a million for its broking services by the end of the financial year 2007-08.

A financial services and products distribution arm of Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group's Reliance Capital, the company already has a customer base of around 0.5-0.6 Million for its mutual funds' advisory services and a couple of lakh customers for its life insurance and general insurance product distribution services.

Moreover, moving ahead with its rural plans in the country, Reliance Money has tied up with ANaRDe Foundation, a non-profitable charitable organisation, to offer its services in several villages and towns of Gujarat.

"We are committed to registering Reliance Money's presence in 5,165 taluks across the country to achieve a 91 per cent coverage. For this, we are tying up with NGOs like ANaRDe Foundation, Sparsh, SEWA and others to reach the target and build our customer base," said Sudip Bandyopadhyay, Director & CEO, Reliance Securities Ltd (Reliance Money).

Through the tie-up, Reliance Money will set up Personal Financial Services (PFS) desks alongside drinking water booths run by ANaRDe in rural and semi-urban areas.

According to Bandyopadhyay, the PFS desks will be manned by the members of self help groups trained to sell financial products by Reliance Money.

Apart from financial products like mutual funds of around 17 asset management companies (AMCs), seven life insurance companies and five general insurance companies, Reliance Money also offers financial guidance in equity and commodity trading, IPOs, life insurance, general insurance, money transfer, money changing, gold coin retailing and other offshore investments.

Bandyopadhyay added that the company is one of the first to charge fees on a slab basis instead of brokerage.

Reliance Money charges a flat fee of Rs 500 for trading up to Rs 5 lakh, Rs 1,250 for trading up to Rs 3 crore and Rs 2,500 for trading up to Rs 6 crore. For the festive season, the company has waived Rs 500 fees charged for trading up to Rs 5 lakh for the first year, in case the customers who open accounts with Reliance Money during the next few weeks.

Presently, the company also runs around 4,000 of its own Reliance Money outlets which it intends to increase to 10,000 by end of the fiscal.