<P> The first introduction of a mutual fund in India occurred in 1963, when the Government of India launched Unit Trust of India (UTI). UTI enjoyed a monopoly in the Indian mutual fund market until 1987, when a host of other government - controlled Indian financial companies established their own funds, including State Bank of India, Canara Bank, of and by Punjab National Bank . </P> <P> Deposit being available in the market less than 10% of Indian households have invested in mutual funds . A recent report on Mutual Fund Investments in India published by research and analytics firm, Boston Analytics, suggests investors are holding back from putting their money into mutual funds due to their perceived high risk and a lack of information on how mutual funds work . There are 46 Mutual Funds as of June 2013 . </P> <P> The primary reason for not investing appears to be correlated with city size . Among respondents with a high savings rate, close to 40% of those who live in metros and Tier I cities considered such investments to be very risky, whereas 33% of those in Tier II cities said they did not know how or where to invest in such assets . </P> <P> Mutual fund investments are sourced both from institutions (companies) and individuals . Since January 2013, institutional investors have moved to investing directly with the mutual funds since doing so saves on the expense ratio incurred . Individual investors are, however, served mostly by Investment advisor and banks . Since 2009, online platforms for investing in Mutual funds have also evolved . Some of these online platforms offer Direct Mutual Funds which are cheaper than buying regular mutual funds from traditional distributors . The difference in expense ratio of a regular plan and direct plan is the commissions paid to the distributors . Retail clients can save about 1% p.a. in commissions by investing in Direct Mutual Funds . A lot of fee based online advisors have been launched over the last one year like - Oro Wealth and MF Utility where retail investors can buy Direct Mutual Funds . More online access to Direct Plans </P>

Who regulates the business of mutual funds in india