Central Bank, Tata MF in marketing pact
The Hindu — December 22, 2006

Public sector banking major, Central Bank of India (CBI) and Tata Mutual Fund, on Thursday signed a marketing agreement for distributing the latter's mutual funds nationally.

Central Bank will now distribute Tata MF's various schemes through its 300 branches countrywide, the bank's chairperson H A Daruwalla told newspersons here on Thursday.

The bank already sells products of UTI MF, besides having tie-ups with Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) and the New India Assurance Co for selling their life and non-life insurance products respectively, through all its branches.

"We are happy to enter into a partnership with Tata Mutual Fund for distribution of their mutual fund products through our vast network of branches," Daruwalla said.

Ved Prakash Chaturvedi, managing director, Tata Asset Management, said that the way mutual funds products were being sold had undergone a tremendous transformation in the last five years.

The tie-up with Central Bank "Is a unique opportunity for us to serve a large number of investors to enhance the long-term yield on their savings," he said.

"We have grown our assets from Rs 700-crore four years ago to Rs 13,000-crore of domestic assets and Rs 2,500 crore of overseas assets now," Chaturvedi said.

With over 56 branches and over a million customers, Tata MF's assets under management (AUM) as on November 30 stand at Rs 12,521.86 crore.