Unit Trust Of India Mutual Fund came into existence on February 1 2003 when it took over all NAV-based schemes of Unit Trust Of India with over Rs 17,000 crores of investment value. UTI Mutual Fund today is a SEBI registered mutual fund whose Sponsors are State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda and Life Insurance Corporation of India.

As common investors suffered due to stock scam and Unit Trust of India's mismanagement, the Government intervened by taking up the liabilities of assured return schemes of Unit Trust Of India including the country's most popular and largest fund Unit Scheme 1964 (most of which have since been converted into tax free bonds, the present investment is guaranteed by the Govt. of India). These schemes were not part of Unit Trust Of India MF.

UTI Mutual Fund is the largest mutual fund in the country with assets under management of over Rs.27600 crore and investor accounts of over 7 million under its 57 domestic schemes (as of February 28,2006).

Unit Trust Of India because of its huge headstart has the widest reach across the country from which UTI Mutual Fund has benefited organisationally.

UTI Mutual Fund has a track record of managing a variety of schemes catering to the needs of every class of citizenry. It has a nationwide network consisting 70 UTI Financial Centers (UFCs) and UTI International offices in London, Dubai and Bahrain.

It has reset and upgraded transparency standards for the mutual funds industry. All the branches, UFCs and registrar offices are connected on a robust IT network to ensure cost-effective quick and efficient service.

If you have undergone traumatic experience following UTI's difficult financial situation and the uncertainty about your invested money, it will be practical to forget that phase. There were systemic weaknesses, misselling of schemes giving rise to unreasonable investor expectations, and above all mismanagement due to lack of control over huge financial resources. All these factors have been taken care of. Over the last few years since then, the successor Unit Trust Of India Mutual Fund is managing its affairs just like every other well run mutual fund company and the investors' money is well looked after.

Since Unit Trust Of India Mutual Fund is the largest mutual fund in the country in terms of reach and investor accounts and is turning in good performance, it is appropriate that its schemes should be considered on merit along with comparable schemes from other fund houses.

In deciding your mutual fund investment choice, you should unburden yourself of your unpleasant past experience if you had one. You should ignore those facts because they are no longer relevant.

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