UTI Asset Management Company (UTI AMC) is an Indian asset management company. It manages mutual funds, portfolio management services, and retirement solutions for individual and institutional investors. UTI Mutual Fund was launched by the Government of India in 1963, and it is one of the oldest mutual fund companies in India.
History
The Unit Trust of India (UTI), first mutual fund in India, was set up by an Act of Parliament in 1963. Mutual funds in India are constituted in the form of trusts under the Indian Trusts Act of 1882. The Unit Trust of India aimed to encourage saving by providing for various classes of investors the facility of investing their money in units of the Trust. In 1964, UTI launched its first investment scheme Unit Scheme-1964 initially RBI had the regulatory and administrative control. UTI had the monopoly of the mutual fund industry till 1987 when the Government of India permitted public sector banks and financial institutions to sponsor mutual funds.[2][3] Under Unit Scheme-1964, UTI had sold and repurchased the units at prices fixed arbitrarily by its management rather than on the basis of the actual value of the underlying assets, attributing to its abnormally high dividends. Investment decisions based on political compulsions taken by those in key positions exacerbated by the political instability in the 1990s and the consequent market rout and took a toll on the Unit Scheme-1964 which ultimately led to the government intervention in 2002 with a bailout package and the act to repeal and transfer the undertakings of the trust.