SBI branches to sell UTI Mutual Fund schemes

This tie up is the first of its type for SBI whereby it sells a third party mutual fund products.

UTI Mutual Fund and the State Bank of India on Saturday entered into an agreement under which the bank will distribute UTI mutual fund schemes initially through 48 branches.

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"SBI has a dominant presence in India and outside. The tie up will be mutually rewarding as customers get easy access to invest in the various schemes of UTI Mutual Fund at the branches where they do their transactions," UTI Asset Management Company Chairman and Managing Director U K Sinha said.

This tie up is the first of its type for SBI whereby it sells a third party mutual fund products. The bank has identified 48 centres across the country to sell UTI Mutual Fund schemes.

"This tie up of two largest players in their respective fields will enable SBI to leverage its branch network and customer base to cross sell a range of mutual fund products and thus open up a new revenue stream," SBI Chairman A K Purwar said.

He added that the third party sales of mutual fund products would not eat up its own business.

UTI Mutual Fund, that has four sponsors namely SBI, Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda and the Life Insurance Corporation of India, is the largest fund house in the country in terms of Asset Under Management. As on February 28, 2006, the fund managed Rs 27,600 crore across seven million investor accounts.