When we started the discount brokerage (flat fee per trade) model in India in 2010, we decided to charge the same fee regardless of trade size. The logic was simple: if the effort to execute a trade is the same, why should customers pay differently? We applied the same logic to mutual funds. We didn’t launch MFs until we could sell exclusively direct plans.

You can’t call yourself a discount or a low-cost broker if you charge a percentage fee on transactions, because there’s no incremental effort in executing a larger order. This logic has informed all our product and pricing decisions from day one.

Anyway,Coin today is the largest direct mutual funds platform in India, with nearly ₹1.6 lakh crores in direct MF AUM, and all our customers have saved thousands of crores in commissions. Direct mutual funds are a no-brainer if you’re a DIY investor.

It’s interesting that most of the direct MF platforms that started when we launched Coin have either disappeared or pivoted to something else. The few remaining platforms are also rethinking their choice of offering direct plans. However, at Zerodha, we will continue to offer direct mutual funds for free.

A lot of investors still don’t know the difference between direct and regular plans. If you are investing in mutual funds, it’s worth checking if your investments are in regular or direct plans. If you are in regular plans and want to switch to direct, we can help.

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