MUMBAI, May 22: The top brass of the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) has embarked on a study tour in the United States. Officials of the ministry of finance and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) are also part of the tour.

The month-long tour has been organised by Price Waterhouse as part of the USAid project-FIRE (Financial Institutions Reform and Expansion) programme. The Association of Mutual Funds in India team comprises KN Atmaramani (Tata Mutal Fund), AP Kurien (Apple Mutual Fund), RG Sharma (LIC Mutual Fund) and Shastri (UTI).

They are expected to study the functioning of Investment Company Inc (ICI), which keeps a real-time track of the performance of the mutual fund industry. ICI also undertakes investor education and provides complete information on the industry, which is akin to the role that AMFI has charted out for itself.

The team will visit the offices of several successful United States-based mutual funds, apart from interacting with Securities Exchange Commission officials.

A meeting has been organised with the association of mutual funds in the US. The idea is to get a feel of successful mutual fund companies, and what needs to be done to make AMFI an effective self-regulatory organisation.

This is an effort on the part of the government and the industry to find out ways of putting some life into the ailing mutual fund industry in the country. The need for resuscitating the industry is being increasingly felt as mutual funds are finding it difficult to rope in investors. AMFI has flagged off a programme of investor education by releasing a book called `Making mutual funds work for you', which is being distributed free from offices of all mutual fund companies and the AMFI office.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.