CRISIL Mutual Fund Year Book 2010 is one more initiative from CRISIL in its ongoing effort towards promoting investor education, help investors make informed investment decisions as well as facilitate best practices in the mutual fund industry.

CRISIL has been associated with the mutual fund industry for over a decade. CRISIL Mutual Fund Ranking (earlier known as CPR) and CNBC–TV–18 – CRISIL Mutual Fund Awards have become market benchmarks for independent and transparent assessment of mutual funds. The quarterly mutual fund ranking and annual awards enable investors to know the top performing schemes within categories and accordingly make investment decisions.

However, an investor needs to refer to multiple data sources to obtain basic information on mutual funds.

Further, there is always a question on reliability of the information, and in most cases the information is available at a price. CRISIL Mutual Fund Year Book addresses these gaps by making such information available in a single compendium, covering current and historical information on mutual funds across categories.

The CNBC TV–18 – CRISIL Mutual Fund Awards 2011 gave awards across 11 scheme categories. This Year Book covers all mutual fund schemes that were shortlisted for the awards. The schemes covered cater to a wide gamut of investment objectives ranging from capital appreciation (growth of capital), capital preservation (protecting of capital) or capital consumption (regular income).

The first edition of the Year Book focuses on scheme level information and acts as a one–stop reference guide for investors. The information has been categorised under three broad headings – scheme details, performance measures and portfolio attributes.

CRISIL has also provided a comparison between the performance of the scheme and its benchmark index. Further, investment style is captured in a 3 by 3 style box, depicting both capitalisation (large, small & mid–cap, and diversified) and style (growth, blend and value).

Each of the schemes covered in the Year Book have also been ranked under CRISIL Mutual Fund Ranking in all four quarters of 2010. CRISIL Mutual Fund Ranking analyses schemes on risk adjusted performance and portfolio attributes. CRISIL strongly believes that portfolio attributes are very critical to ascertain sustainability of returns as well as debt asset quality and are a key differentiator in CRISIL's proprietary ranking methodology.

Over the last 2 years, several regulatory changes have taken place to help retail investors. Key revisions include removal of entry loads, cap on mutual fund expenses and standardisation of disclosures. The industry's focus has accordingly shifted from increasing assets under management to retaining and developing retail investors. The Year Book supports the ongoing efforts of the industry to create awareness about investing in mutual funds.