COL Financial set to launch 1st mutual fund supermart

MANILA, Philippines - Leading online stockbroker COL Financial Group Inc. has signed up six major mutual fund providers comprising the lion’s share of the country’s mutual fund industry for its upcoming online distribution platform set to commence next month.

In an interview, COL Financial business development consultant Marvin V. Faustino said the online mutual fund distribution service dubbed as the country’s “first fund supermarket” would have its test launch next month and an official launch a month or two after.

“We are going to launch the first fund supermarket in the country. In other countries, they have fund supermarkets where you can access different funds in a single platform and we’re going to do that in the country,” Faustino said.

“In the next couple of months, we are going to formally launch this and we will have all major mutual funds in that platform,” he added.

COL’s fund supermarket will distribute funds from major local mutual fund houses which include Sun Life Financial, Philam Asset Management Inc., ATR Kim Eng Mutual Funds, BPI’s ALFM, First Metro Asset Management Inc., Philequity Management and Philam Asset Management Inc.

Together, Faustino said these six mutual fund providers comprises about 98 percent of the country’s mutual fund industry with combined assets under management of P220 billion to P250 billion.

“We are also close to finalizing with the fund houses to remove the front end fees. So if you invest in COL, there should be no front end fees as compared to going straight to the fund houses. And we are close to signing all of them to agree with this,” Faustino said.

COL’s upcoming online mutual fund platform will allow clients to start accessing various professionally managed funds through its website.