Open-end mutual funds in Bangladesh, explained

A plain-language guide to open-end mutual funds in Bangladesh, ending in a glossary of every term you will meet. For real returns, head to the calculator.

What is an open-end mutual fund?

A mutual fund pools money from many investors, and a professional manager invests it in a portfolio of shares, bonds, and other assets. You own units of the fund, each one worth a slice of that whole portfolio.

"Open-end" means the fund can create or cancel units on demand: you buy units from the asset manager and sell them back whenever you like, at a price based on the fund's net asset value. There is no fixed size and no maturity date. A closed-end fund is the opposite: a fixed size and a fixed life, with units that trade on the stock exchange like a share, often at a price above or below their true value. This site and this guide are about open-end funds only. Since late 2025, the regulator has stopped approving new closed-end funds, so open-end is the way forward.

How open-end funds work here

The manager values everything the fund owns, subtracts what it owes, and divides by the number of units. That gives the net asset value, or NAV, per unit, and managers update it frequently, often daily. ReturnKoto?'s source history contains real published NAV observations; the calculation keeps one observation per month for comparable long-term series, then uses the newest validated NAV collected from the manager's own website to keep current figures fresh. You buy in at a sale price and cash out at a repurchase (surrender) price, both based on NAV. Because the price is tied to the actual value of the portfolio, not to supply and demand on an exchange, open-end units do not swing on market mood the way a listed share can.

Deeper dive: how ReturnKoto? builds and validates every figure.

How you actually invest

You buy open-end units directly from the asset management company (AMC) or its authorized selling agents, in person at their offices and designated bank branches, or online. You fill in a form with your basic KYC details and pay by cheque, pay order, bank transfer, or mobile money like bKash or Nagad.

You also need a BO (Beneficiary Owner) account, because fund units are held in dematerialised form with CDBL; you open one through a broker or a bank that offers the service, often online. Minimums are modest, often just a few thousand taka, and you can also set up a SIP from around BDT 1,000 a month.

SIP vs lump sum

A lump sum puts all your money in at once. A SIP, or Systematic Investment Plan, invests a fixed amount every month by auto-debit. A SIP spreads your purchases across many different prices, so you do not have to guess the right moment to enter, and it builds a saving habit. A lump sum can do better if you happen to invest before a strong run, and worse if you invest right before a dip. ReturnKoto? lets you test both on each fund's real history.

Try it: replay a monthly SIP on the calculator.

What fees you pay

The main cost is the annual management fee the AMC charges, often a tiered rate that starts around 2.5% of net asset value and falls toward 1% as the fund grows, though some funds charge a flat rate closer to 1%. On top of that are small, regulated trustee, custodian, and BSEC fees, usually a fraction of a percent combined. Some funds also apply an exit load if you redeem very early, or a small charge for cancelling a SIP in its first year or two.

One key point: the NAV you see is already after these fees, so the returns shown on ReturnKoto? are net of the fund's costs. You can see each fund's exact, prospectus-verified fee in its details on the main page.

Compare costs: every fund's exact fee and exit load side by side.

How returns are measured

ReturnKoto? shows total return, which counts both the change in unit price and the cash dividends a fund pays, reinvested by default. For a lump sum, the annualized figure is the CAGR, the compound annual growth rate, meaning the steady yearly rate that would turn your starting amount into the final amount. For a SIP, where you invest bit by bit, the fair measure is the money-weighted return (IRR), which accounts for the timing of each deposit. Both express a multi-year result as a single yearly percentage.

Dividends

Many funds distribute part of their earnings as a cash dividend. You can take it as cash, or reinvest it to buy more units and compound your holding. ReturnKoto? reinvests dividends by default (switch any figure to taken as cash), which is the like-for-like way to compare total performance across funds.

Shariah-compliant funds

Several open-end funds are Shariah-compliant, meaning they avoid interest-based and non-permissible businesses and are overseen by a Shariah supervisory board. Otherwise they work exactly like any other open-end fund. ReturnKoto? has a one-tap filter to show only these.

Filter for them: show only Shariah-compliant funds on the calculator.

What are the risks?

Mutual funds are investments, not savings accounts, so their value moves with the markets they hold and can fall as well as rise. Equity-leaning funds are more volatile than income funds. Past performance, the very thing this site shows, does not guarantee future results; it is context, not a promise. Spreading money across funds and across time, and matching your choice to how long you can stay invested, are the usual ways to manage that risk.

Tax, in plain terms

This is general information, not tax advice, and the rules change with each national budget, so confirm current figures with the National Board of Revenue (NBR) or a tax professional. The broad shape for an individual investor: the fund itself pays no tax on its earnings, so tax falls on you rather than the fund; the money you invest in mutual funds counts toward the yearly investment tax rebate that lowers your tax bill; cash dividends have tax withheld at source, with a small tax-free allowance; and capital gains when you sell units have, for ordinary retail investors, been effectively tax-free up to a high yearly threshold that most individuals stay well under.

2026-27 budget update. The national budget passed on 29 June 2026 made mutual funds notably more tax-friendly. It removed the old Tk 5 lakh ceiling that capped how much of a mutual fund investment could earn a tax rebate, so a much larger investment can now qualify. The total yearly investment eligible for the rebate is now up to Tk 75 lakh, rebated at 10% (a maximum rebate of about Tk 7.5 lakh across all eligible investments combined), and individual dividend income is now taxed at a flat 15% as a final tax. Rules still change with each budget, so confirm the latest figures with the NBR or a tax professional before you rely on them.

Common questions: fees, dividends and tax on the FAQ.

Who regulates mutual funds

Bangladesh's capital-market regulator, the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC), licenses the managers and approves every fund. Funds now operate under the BSEC (Mutual Fund) Regulations 2025, which replaced the older 2001 rules. For your protection, every fund is built around four separate parties: a sponsor that establishes it and seeds the capital, an asset manager (AMC) that runs the portfolio, a trustee that holds the fund in trust and guards unit-holders' interests, and a custodian that safe-keeps the fund's assets. Keeping these roles in different hands is a core safeguard.

Mutual funds vs the safe options

Bangladeshis often weigh funds against Sanchayapatra, DPS, FDR, or gold. The safe options give a fixed, predictable return and are designed to protect your capital under their own terms, but that return is capped and can be eaten away by inflation. Mutual funds offer the potential for higher long-run returns by taking market risk, with no guarantee. They are different tools for different goals. ReturnKoto? lets you line a fund up against all of these on the growth chart, so you can see the trade-off for yourself.

The market at a glance

Bangladesh has roughly 100 open-end funds run by dozens of asset managers, alongside about three dozen older closed-end funds that are gradually converting to open-end under the 2025 rules. The mutual fund industry is still young and small relative to the economy; the last published industry-wide total was around BDT 16,200 crore in mid-2023. Figures shift as funds launch and convert, so treat them as approximate.

Glossary

NAV (Net Asset Value): The per-unit value of a fund: everything it owns minus what it owes, divided by the number of units. Open-end funds price off the NAV, which managers update frequently (often daily); ReturnKoto? keeps one published observation per month for comparable long-term series, refreshed with the newest validated NAV from the manager's own website.
Unit: One share of a mutual fund. Owning units means owning a slice of the fund's whole portfolio.
Open-end fund: A fund with no fixed size or maturity; you buy and redeem units directly with the manager at NAV-based prices.
Closed-end fund: A fund with a fixed size and life whose units trade on the stock exchange like a share, often above or below NAV.
AMC (Asset Management Company): The licensed company that runs a fund's portfolio and makes the investment decisions.
Sponsor: The institution that establishes a fund and puts up its initial capital.
Trustee: The independent party that holds the fund in trust and protects unit-holders' interests.
Custodian: The party that keeps the fund's securities and assets in safe custody.
SIP (Systematic Investment Plan): Investing a fixed amount every month by auto-debit, spreading your entry price over time.
Lump sum: Investing a single amount all at once.
AUM (Assets Under Management): The total value of money a fund or manager currently manages.
Management fee: The annual fee the AMC charges for running the fund, taken from the fund's assets.
Expense ratio: A fund's total yearly running costs expressed as a percentage of its assets.
Exit load / surrender charge: A small fee some funds deduct if you redeem, or cancel a SIP, very early.
Face value: The original par value of a unit at launch, BDT 10 for Bangladeshi funds.
Total return: Performance counting both the unit-price change and dividends (reinvested by default, or taken as cash).
CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate): The steady yearly rate that grows your starting amount into the final amount; used for lump-sum returns.
IRR (money-weighted return): A return measure that accounts for the timing and size of each deposit; used for SIP returns.
Dividend: A cash distribution of part of a fund's earnings to unit-holders.
Shariah-compliant fund: A fund that invests only in Islamically permissible ways, overseen by a Shariah board.
BSEC: The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission, the regulator that oversees mutual funds.
Sanchayapatra / DPS / FDR: Traditional fixed-return savings options (savings certificates, deposit pension schemes, fixed deposits) often compared with funds.

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