Fewer fund schemes good for retail investors

Once Sebi regulations are implemented, they will have to make changes in their portfolios

After nudging mutual fund houses to reduce the number of schemes for the past five-six years, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has finally taken the strong step of classifying all schemes under five broad categories. Every category has been further classified into 36  sub-categories. And fund houses can now have only one scheme per category. 

At present, 42 fund houses have  2,000-odd schemes. Of these, almost 800 are fixed maturity plans within the closed-end category, which will not be impacted by Sebi’s circular. But fund houses will have to take action in many other schemes within three months. 

All