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Need money? Sirf 2 minute!

Aditi Kothari Desai, Head Sales & Marketing, DSP BlackRock


18th October 2016

Sirf 2 minute! A phrase that caught the nation's imagination and created a new snack category in the country - instant noodles. That's the power of instant solutions. That could well be the power of instant redemptions - a facility that can create a new category of smart savings solutions in a country of savers. Aditi takes us through a great new feature in IFAXpress - Instant Redemptions - which promises credit of redemption proceeds into your clients' bank accounts in less than 2 minutes. The advisor favourite platform just got better - with a facility that can catch every saver's imagination. Its really upto distributors and advisors to fully leverage this exciting 2 minute proposition and help every saver become a smart saver.

DSP BlackRock IFAXpress has been one of the most appreciated online business platforms made & built specifically with advisors in mind. It hasn't just simplified sales process for the advisors & their clients in DSP BlackRock Mutual Fund. While seamless transactions - for new as well as existing investors - continue to be the main attraction, other initiatives like Sales Opportunities Feed, Tools for identifying investors for cross-sell opportunities & SMS based transactions have been steadily helping us keep the platform unique & differentiated.

One of the approaches we have taken is - not to build new applications or websites. Every enhancement we build is always built on top of IFAXpress platform. And hence, we have experienced a speedier traction to all the new services or features introduced in the platform. And we are sure what I am announcing here today is going to be one the best things we have done on DSP BlackRock IFAXpress.

Introducing Instant Redemption

It's a service that's meant to give liquidity of a savings bank account to clients' investments in DSP BlackRock Money Manager Fund.

This service as the name suggests enables advisors & their clients to instantly redeem their investments in the scheme. And we say instantly, we mean we will endeavor to get investors their redemption proceeds credited into their registered bank account within a couple of minutes, if not lesser.

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How does it work?

Just like all other solutions built by us for the advisor community, this service has also been put together with the philosophy that the service should be simple and easy to use & the underlying technology shall deliver an unmatched user experience.

That's why Instant redemption has been integrated with IFAXpress and will be offered through it just like any other transaction. No change to make or new things to learn or even get trained on for advisors. The only change shall be that when the clients get their redemption proceeds in near real time, it will bring in a smile & delight them. So, in a way Instant Redemption is made to help advisors delight their clients.

So when do they get their money? If the client sees a success page after the approval of instant redemption, then, the money will be already on its way to client's bank account! There is no manual intervention of any nature. And in all our beta tests, we have seen that client's bank account is credited within 1 minute of approval! Our endeavor is to ensure that client's bank account is credited in a snap.

For the advisor friends who aren't yet aware about the transaction process, here is a simple workflow -

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Step 1: Advisor logs in to his/her IFAXpress account

Step 2: S/he clicks "New transaction button" available on every page of an advisor's account inside the login

Step 3: Click on Instant Redemption & then simply type the name of the client for whom instant redemption needs to be made

Instant Redemption under 'New Transaction Button'

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Step 4: Select folio, enter amount & choose the bank account where the redemption proceeds need to get credited

Step 5: Tell us the email ID or the mobile number where we need to send the link for client's approval

What does client need to do?

Same as what s/he does for approving any transaction initiated through IFAXpress. That is -

Step 1: Click on the transaction link for review

Step 2: Confirm the transaction

Step 3: Enter the OTP that will get triggered to registered email & mobile number

Step 4: Confirm again. And it's done. The redemption proceeds will come in under a couple of minutes, if not earlier than that!

Why this service?

A lot of people ask us why launch a service that encourages redemption. We believe that most advisors really understand the value of the having their clients' holdings invested in a Scheme like DSP BlackRock Money Manager Fund.

The client gets a chance to earn a return that's better than their savings account. Also, relative to bank term deposits, there are many other advantages like no TDS at the time of redemption irrespective of value of redemption as well as favorable taxation if units are held for 3 years or more. And on top of it, there is no exit load. So, the client can choose to park the cash surplus without even committing for tenure.

Despite all these obvious advantages, this category hasn't been as much as the industry will like to see.

By bringing the power of instant redemption into the advisors' hands, we are making the proposition of Money Manager Fund better than what it is it in its absence -

  1. Takes away the perception of lack of liquidity - It takes away the perception of lack of instant liquidity that savings bank accounts enjoy - with instant redemption, the client will be able to redeem the investment on weekends, non-business days & moreover at any hour of the day! So, the investment is always within reach!

  2. No 1-day advance planning required for redemption any more - The advisor & client don't need to plan for cut-off times! So, they don't have to plan redemption on Thursday prior to 3pm if they need the money over the weekend!

  3. An opportunity to get clients to park more of their cash surpluses - Due to instant redemption, we believe, the advisors can convince their clients to park more of their short-term cash surpluses or even their emergency funds into Money Manager Fund. Today, not all advisors are recommending or not all clients are parking their emergency funds into DSP BlackRock Money Manager Fund. I believe we can see a situation possible where clients only start keeping their minimum savings account balances as per their bank's requirements just because there is an instant redemption possibility now.

Some other features of Instant Redemption

  1. There is a maximum upper limit of Rs. 2 lakhs per calendar day

  2. At any point in time, client's 95% of investment value as per last NAV declared can be instantly redeemed, subject to Rs. 2 lakh upper limit

  3. This service works on IMPS. So, if client's bank isn't on IMPS, then s/he won't be able to get instant redemption.

  4. A valid IFSC code must be present in the Client's folio's bank mandate details. If for whatever reason, IFSC code is invalid or not present, the client won't be able to avail instant redemption request.

IFAXpress + Instant Redemption: A comprehensive solution

Since the launch of IFAXpress last year, we have seen tremendous inflows in DSP BlackRock Money Manager Fund. We have seen ticket sizes of as low as Rs. 5000 to as high as a few crores coming into DSP BlackRock Money Manager Fund through IFAXpress in single transaction.

When we spoke to few advisors & understood why this wasn't happening prior to launch of IFAXpress, we understood that garnering inflows from all clients for Money Manager Fund wasn't feasible. But, because of IFAXpress, the efforts for get transactions in this Scheme are reduced to almost zero. There is near zero monetary costs + the transaction experience (purchase as well as redemption) is very smooth.

What advisors have done in last 1 year has been great. BUT, we believe that almost every client they serve can invest in DSP BlackRock Money Manager Fund for their surplus cash & with instant redemption, all the clients who either parked a small portion of their savings or avoided investing surplus cash in funds like DSP BlackRock Money Manager Fund - that battle will be gone.

DSP BlackRock IFAXpress is really an integrated system. To avail this service for clients, advisors have to simply do what they have been used to doing with respect of IFAXpress. The transaction process is same, the money comes in near real time & neither the client NOR the advisors have to train themselves for downloading a new app or registering on a new site.

We invite all our advisor partners to take time out to learn more about this service here & make use of it in growing their business. There is after all, a limit to amount of money a client can invest in Equity Funds or other funds suitable for long term horizon. The opportunity to serve client needs for short term investing needs is much bigger & its time, we go after this opportunity which is opening up because of technologies that were unavailable in the past.

To know more about Instant Redemption @ IFAXpress, click here.


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