Mumbai: Franklin Templeton Investments (India) has signed an agreement with the State Bank of India for the distribution of its products.

"In the Indian financial markets, mutual funds are rapidly gaining ground among retail investors due to various advantages such as professional management, diversification, liquidity etc," said S K Mishra, general manager, marketing and cross selling department, State Bank of India. "For us, this tie-up will open up further opportunities to provide our vast client base with a wider choice of products to meet their diverse financial needs and also give a boost to our fee-based income. We will distribute the entire range of Franklin Templeton products through our identified branches across the country."

Vivek Kudva, president, Franklin Templeton India, said, "At Franklin Templeton, we have always believed that the banking channel, especially public sector banks, have a key role in spreading the mutual fund concept across the country, into smaller centers and overseas, which are not covered by the existing distribution networks.

"Given the reach of domestic banks and their need to widen product offerings to their customers in a competitive market, it is a win-win situation for both mutual funds and banks. This tie-up with an established bank such as State Bank of India is an important step in that direction, and will help us in enhancing the accessibility of our products.

"Many Indians are realizing the importance of the role personal savings and investments will play in the quality of their retirement and in life, and are looking towards professional managers for investments. The Indian MF industry has a big responsibility in ensuring a smooth transition of this flow of savings from traditional savings avenues to market related products."

SBI has domestic network of over 9500 branches, representing nearly 14 per cent of the total bank branches in India and commands one-fifth of deposits and loans of all scheduled commercial banks in India. The State Bank Group includes a network of eight banking subsidiaries and several non-banking subsidiaries offering merchant banking services, fund management, factoring services, primary dealership in government securities, credit cards and insurance.

It has an overseas branch network spanning all time zones and the banks international banking group delivers the full range of cross-border finance solutions through four wings, the domestic division, the foreign offices division, the foreign department and the international services division.

Franklin Templeton is one of the largest private sector fund houses in the country with over Rs26,276 crore of assets under management for over 21 lakh investor accounts as of 31 May, 2007.

It manages 44 mutual funds, one of the most comprehensive range.