Motilal Oswal AMC concludes India's digital first NFO amid COVID-19 crisis

Motilal Oswal Asset Management Company (MOAMC) said on Friday it has successfully completed the new fund offer (NFO) of Motilal Oswal S&P 500 Index Fund, an open-ended scheme replicating and tracking S&P 500 Index.

It is an index fund that helps investors invest in the world's largest brands in the world's largest index -- the S&P 500 Index. It was the first time in India that a mutual fund NFO has been marketed and transacted exclusively through digital modes of transaction, said MOAMC.

For the NFO, besides the company website and app, investments were received through various intermediaries transacting on the BSE, NSE, MFU platforms and various other leading digital investing platforms such as Motilal Oswal, ICICIDirect.com, IIFL Securities, HDFC Securities, PaytmMoney, Groww, Zerodha Coin, Kuvera and others.

While the asset management company had filed for regulatory approvals in January, approvals were received amid the COVID-19 crisis. Hence all marketing, investor and distributor communication, engagement, as well as transactions, were executed digitally while working from home.

"The S&P 500 Index Fund in line with our Nasdaq100 offering and the entire series of Nifty index funds is an endeavour to provide an array of building blocks for effective asset allocation solutions to investors and intermediaries like wealth managers, financial planners and robo-advisors alike," said MOAMC Managing Director and CEO Aashish Somaiyaa.

"Neither had we planned on this being a digital-first NFO nor the exact timing of the launch. But the COVID-19 crisis necessitated that we execute this NFO differently," he said in a statement. The Motilal Oswal S&P 500 Index Fund will open again for investing from April 29 onwards.

( With inputs from ANI )