Religare Mutual Fund has announced the declaration of dividend on the face value of Rs. 10 per unit under dividend option in regular & institutional plan of Religare Yearly Fixed Maturity Plan - Series I - Plan A (375 days) (close ended debt scheme). The record date for dividend has been fixed as 7 April 2010. The fund house has decided to distribute 100% of distributable surplus as dividend as on the record date.

You can now invest in mutual fund (MF) schemes of SBI MF through your State Bank of India's (SBI) ATM-cum-debit card using the MF's Internet transaction facility. This is a first in the industry. Until now, you could invest in SBI MF schemes through the fund's website if you had a bank account with one of the 12 banks that they had tied up with. You needed to have an Internet banking facility with any of the 12 banks. Once you opened an online MF transaction account on SBI MF's website, you could select a fund and you were automatically directed to your bank's website where you could authorize the transfer of funds.

IDBI Bank and Union Bank are the latest entrants. In less than 24 hours, two public sector players-IDBI Bank and Union Bank of India-announced their foray into over Rs 781,000-crore mutual fund (MF) industry, though both have taken different routes. While IDBI Bank decided to go solo, Union Bank has partnered Belgian asset manager KBC. By doing so, Union Bank has followed peers such as State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda and Canara Bank that have tied up with foreign partners.

Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund has launched a new fund named as Birla Sun Life Fixed Term Plan - Series CD (370 Days), a close ended income scheme. The New Fund Offer (NFO) price for the scheme is Rs 10 per unit. The new issue opens & closes subscription on 29 March 2010.

Asset management companies (AMCs) and mutual fund (MF) distributors have sought more time to comply with know-your-client (KYC) norms and will soon make a representation to capital market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on the matter. "Fund houses and distributors have approached Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi) to take up this issue with Sebi," said an official familiar with the development.

Deutsche mutual fund has launched a new open ended overseas fund namely, DWS Global Agribusiness Offshore fund. The new fund offer under the scheme will be available from 06th April, 2010 to 30th April, 2010. The investment objective of the scheme is to generate long-term capital growth by investing predominantly in units of overseas mutual funds, focusing on agriculture and/or would be direct and indirect beneficiaries of the anticipated growth in the agriculture and/or affiliated/allied sectors.