Which Mutual Fund Categories do Retail Investors Use? AMFI Report

Last Updated on September 16, 2025 at 4:55 pm

Interested to know which mutual funds retail investors prefer, how high Networth Individuals invest? Let us take a look at the Association of Mutual Funds in India – AMFIs AUM-Category / Age-Wise and Folio Data as on June 30th 2019. I had recently used this to find out how popular index investing is in India (see video below).

The AMFI uses four investor classifications: Corporates; Banks/FIs; FIIs; High Networth Individuals (HNIs); Retail; HNIs are those who can invest Rs. 2 lakh or more (I assume in one shot in any scheme, not just NFO). FI is an Indian Financial Institution, FIIs are Foreign Institutional Investors. This is the vision document of the industry to increase its foothold

The MF industry manages 24,25,040.35 Crores as on June 30th 2019 spread (unevenly) across 83,771,689 folios. Let us look at which categories are popular among each investor type as a percentage of this total AUM.

Let us begin with the share for each investor type. The main source of revenue for AMCs is from corporates and HNIs. Retails is significant but only third. MF penetration among Banks and FIs is surprisingly low!

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Investor Classification	Total AUM
Corporates	39.79%
Banks/FIs	1.93%
FIIs	0.36%
High Networth Individuals^*	34.03%
Retail	23.89%

Corporates

Corporates prefer to park most of their money in liquid or overnight funds with almost an equal amount in other debt funds. Surprised to find 2% of the total AUM in hybrid funds!

Category	Corporates
Liquid Fund/Money Market Fund/ Floater Fund	14.96%
Remaining Income/ Debt Oriented Schemes	14.05%
ETFs(other than Gold)	5.41%
Growth/ Equity Oriented Schemes	2.95%
Hybrid Schemes	2.00%
Gilt Fund/ Gilt Fund with 10-year constant duration	0.21%
Index Funds	0.10%
Gold ETF	0.09%
Fund of Funds investing Overseas	0.02%
Solution-Oriented Schemes	0.00%

High Networth Individuals

The HNIs prefer longer duration debt funds, equity funds and hybrid funds! The shorter duration debt fund share is surprisingly low suggesting that they prefer other means for liquidity. Impressed that HNIs like Hyrbid funds.

Scheme Category	High Networth Individuals
Remaining Income/ Debt Oriented Schemes	10.90%
Growth/ Equity Oriented Schemes	10.78%
Hybrid Schemes	8.16%
Liquid Fund/Money Market Fund/ Floater Fund	3.56%
ETFs(other than Gold)	0.17%
Solution-Oriented Schemes	0.16%
Gilt Fund/ Gilt Fund with 10-year constant duration	0.11%
Index Funds	0.07%
Gold ETF	0.07%
Fund of Funds investing Overseas	0.05%

Mutual Fund Categories Preferences for Retail Investors

Scheme Category	Retail
Growth/ Equity Oriented Schemes	17.44%
Hybrid Schemes	3.74%
Remaining Income/ Debt Oriented Schemes	1.51%
Solution-Oriented Schemes	0.53%
Liquid Fund/Money Market Fund/ Floater Fund	0.44%
ETFs(other than Gold)	0.07%
Index Funds	0.07%
Gold ETF	0.05%
Gilt Fund/ Gilt Fund with 10-year constant duration	0.03%
Fund of Funds investing Overseas	0.02%

Observations

In the case of retail investors, there is a significant skew towards diversified equity funds. It is a shame that the hybrid share is quite poor. Even today the direct share of the retail AUM is only about 12% or so. So the choices here are primarily driven by sales guys with a projection of huge returns in the future (without this no one would buy!!)

The HNI direct share is twice that of retail. This could be a reason why HNIs prefer hybrid scheme a lot more. Also, the sale guys may be offering “lower” version so that the higher AUM is stickier.

How popular is index investing in India?

The full data reported category-wise is presented below.

Liquid Fund/Money Market Fund/ Floater Fund

Investor Classification	AUM (Rs. Cr)	% to Total
Corporates	362782.6	73.7
Banks/FIs	32269.5	6.56
FIIs	108.02	0.02
High Networth Individuals	86327.06	17.54
Retail	10773.05	2.19
Total	492260.2	100

Investor Classification	No of Folios	% to Total
Corporates	53111	2.64
Banks/FIs	1745	0.09
FIIs	659	0.03
High Networth Individuals^*	376419	18.75
Retail	1576063	78.49
Total	2007997	100

Gilt Fund/ Gilt Fund with 10-year constant duration

Investor Classification	AUM (Rs. Cr)	% to Total
Corporates	5031.07	58.56
Banks/FIs	76.48	0.89
FIIs	176.92	2.06
High Networth Individuals^*	2627.5	30.58
Retail	679.61	7.91
Total	8591.57	100

Investor Classification	No of Folios	% to Total
Corporates	2261	2.55
Banks/FIs	37	0.04
FIIs	8	0.01
High Networth Individuals^*	10591	11.96
Retail	75685	85.44
Total	88582	100

Remaining Income/ Debt Oriented Schemes

Investor Classification	AUM (Rs. Cr)	% to Total
Corporates	340834.8	52.11
Banks/FIs	10425.02	1.59
FIIs	1930.15	0.3
High Networth Individuals^*	264339.9	40.42
Retail	36511.63	5.58
Total	654041.5	100

Investor Classification	No of Folios	% to Total
Corporates	101474	2.29
Banks/FIs	2183	0.05
FIIs	41	0
High Networth Individuals^*	1319173	29.71
Retail	3017018	67.95
Total	4439889	100

Growth/ Equity Oriented Schemes

Investor Classification	AUM (Rs. Cr)	% to Total
Corporates	71556.22	9.41
Banks/FIs	962.27	0.13
FIIs	3145.33	0.41
High Networth Individuals^*	261523	34.4
Retail	423002.8	55.64
Total	760189.6	100

Investor Classification	No of Folios	% to Total
Corporates	193563	0.32
Banks/FIs	784	0
FIIs	555	0
High Networth Individuals^*	3264403	5.38
Retail	57171840	94.29
Total	60631145	100

Hybrid Schemes

Investor Classification	AUM (Rs. Cr)	% to Total
Corporates	48539.8	14.31
Banks/FIs	233.17	0.07
FIIs	1741.51	0.51
High Networth Individuals^*	197826.5	58.34
Retail	90750.73	26.76
Total	339091.7	100

Investor Classification	No of Folios	% to Total
Corporates	67736	0.71
Banks/FIs	172	0
FIIs	43	0
High Networth Individuals^*	1512225	15.84
Retail	7965494	83.45
Total	9545670	100

Solution Oriented Schemes

Investor Classification	AUM (Rs. Cr)	% to Total
Corporates	33.32	0.2
Banks/FIs	0.01	0
FIIs	0	0
High Networth Individuals^*	3944.42	23.48
Retail	12824.17	76.33
Total	16801.92	100

Investor Classification	No of Folios	% to Total
Corporates	129	0
Banks/FIs	1	0
FIIs	0	0
High Networth Individuals^*	47261	0.88
Retail	5332658	99.12
Total	5380049	100

Index Funds

Investor Classification	AUM (Rs. Cr)	% to Total
Corporates	2377.27	41.57
Banks/FIs	2.7	0.05
FIIs	0	0
High Networth Individuals^*	1752.27	30.64
Retail	1586.76	27.75
Total	5719	100

Investor Classification	No of Folios	% to Total
Corporates	2101	0.67
Banks/FIs	3	0
FIIs	0	0
High Networth Individuals^*	20132	6.41
Retail	291755	92.92
Total	313991	100

Gold ETF

Investor Classification	AUM (Rs. Cr)	% to Total
Corporates	2103.42	42.66
Banks/FIs	7.6	0.15
FIIs	0	0
High Networth Individuals^*	1688.49	34.25
Retail	1130.92	22.94
Total	4930.43	100

Investor Classification	No of Folios	% to Total
Corporates	2931	0.89
Banks/FIs	12	0
FIIs	0	0
High Networth Individuals^*	20070	6.13
Retail	304502	92.97
Total	327515	100

ETFs(other than Gold)

Investor Classification	AUM (Rs. Cr)	% to Total
Corporates	131258	92.83
Banks/FIs	2771.48	1.96
FIIs	1628.05	1.15
High Networth Individuals^*	4105.35	2.9
Retail	1626.49	1.15
Total	141389.4	100

Investor Classification	No of Folios	% to Total
Corporates	11627	1.28
Banks/FIs	51	0.01
FIIs	11	0
High Networth Individuals^*	41555	4.57
Retail	856053	94.14
Total	909297	100

Fund of Funds investing Overseas

Investor Classification	AUM (Rs. Cr)	% to Total
Corporates	414.15	20.45
Banks/FIs	0	0
FIIs	0	0
High Networth Individuals^*	1101.63	54.4
Retail	509.27	25.15
Total	2025.05	100

Investor Classification	No of Folios	% to Total
Corporates	788	0.62
Banks/FIs	0	0
FIIs	0	0
High Networth Individuals^*	9045	7.09
Retail	117721	92.29
Total	127554	100

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