SBI Mutual Fund CEO Mishra outlines four priorities to drive growth

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SBI Mutual Fund will pursue a four-pronged strategy centred on democratising wealth creation, accelerating digital delivery, strengthening investment performance and building new growth engines as it looks to double its assets under management (AUM) over the next five years, managing director and chief executive officer Debasish Mishra said in an interview with Mint on the final day of the fund house’s initial public offering (IPO).

The country's largest asset manager also aims to increase the share of assets from beyond the top 30 cities (B30) from around 30% to 50% over the next three years and more than double its investor base to 3.5 crore, betting on greater financial inclusion, artificial intelligence-led investing and wider distribution through banks and digital channels.

"Our aspiration is to become the fund manager to every Indian, just as our parent, State Bank of India, is the banker to every Indian," Mishra said.

He said the next wave of mutual fund investors will increasingly come from smaller cities and rural India rather than metropolitan centres.

"We want to make investing simple, affordable and accessible. The next 100 million investors will not come only from metros; they will come from emerging towns and rural India," he said.

"Out of our ₹13.2 trillion AUM, around ₹3 trillion comes from B30 locations. We want to increase that share to 50%," Mishra said.

The country's largest mutual fund house expects its overall AUM to double over the next five years. "I'm sure in five years' time we'll be doubling the whole size of the mutual fund business," he said.

The company also plans to more than double its customer base from the current 16 million to about 35 million over the same period.

"Our target is to increase the customer base to around 3.5 crore in the next five years. The rollout of KYC 2.0 should significantly reduce onboarding friction and help accelerate investor acquisition," Mishra said.

Beyond traditional mutual funds, the company plans to expand its presence in passive funds, alternative investments and international offerings. Its GIFT City subsidiary will help channel overseas investments under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS)—a framework that lets Indian residents invest a set amount abroad each year.

SBI Mutual Fund remains India's largest asset management company, managing assets of around ₹12.5-13 trillion and commanding a market share of roughly 15-16%, according to the latest Amfi data available for mid-2026. It is followed by ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund, HDFC Mutual Fund, Nippon India Mutual Fund, Kotak Mahindra Mutual Fund, UTI Mutual Fund and Axis Mutual Fund.

Commenting on the ongoing IPO, Mishra said the issue has seen strong participation from retail and non-institutional investors.

"As of today, the retail portion has been subscribed around 2.6 times and I expect it to cross three times by the close. The shareholder category has been subscribed more than seven times, reflecting strong confidence from SBI shareholders," he said.

The non-institutional investor (NII) segment had also received robust demand, with overall subscriptions exceeding 16 times. Mishra declined to estimate the final subscription, saying institutional investors generally place bids during the final hours of the issue.

Despite rising competition and regulatory pressure on fees, Mishra believes scale will continue to set apart the country's largest fund managers.

"Mutual fund products have largely become commoditized, and pricing has become standardised. What differentiates players today is scale," he said.

He said SBI Mutual Fund benefits from the State Bank of India's network of over 23,000 branches and more than 75,000 customer service points, in addition to 1.3 lakh mutual fund distributors independent of this network.

"This extensive distribution network gives us a significant competitive advantage," h...