Net cash flows into investment funds record enjoy further increases

Publication date: 5 July 2012

Tagged with: European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA)

According to the latest quarterly international statistical release published today by the European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA), the worldwide asset management industry had the following highlights to report for Q1 2012:

Investment fund assets worldwide increased by 4.4 percent during the first quarter to stand at EUR 20.85 trillion at end March 2012. In U.S. dollar terms, worldwide investment fund assets increased 7.8 percent to US$ 27.85 trillion. The depreciation of the US dollar vis-à-vis the euro during the quarter explains this.

Worldwide net cash flows into investment funds recorded a sharp increase in the first quarter totaling EUR 193 billion, up from EUR 83 billion in the previous quarter. This turnaround came on the back of a surge in net inflows to bond funds.

Long-term funds (all funds excluding money market funds) experienced a jump in net inflows during the quarter to EUR 248 billion, marking a significant increase compared to net inflows of EUR 11 billion in the previous quarter.

Bond funds recorded their largest quarterly net inflow during the first quarter amounting to EUR 169 billion, up from EUR 49 billion in the first quarter.
Equity funds recorded a third quarter of net outflows, albeit at a slower pace, registering outflows of EUR 6 billion, compared to EUR 52 billion in the previous quarter.
Balanced/mixed funds registered net inflows of EUR 44 billion, against net outflows of EUR 1 billion in the previous quarter.

Net inflows to long-term funds amounted to EUR 69 billion in Europe and EUR 128 billion in the United States during the quarter.

Money market funds experienced a turnaround in net flows during the first quarter to register net outflows of EUR 55 billion, compared to net inflows of EUR 72 billion in the previous quarter. The United States registered net withdrawals of EUR 83 billion from money market funds, whereas Europe experienced net inflows totaling EUR 22 billion.

At the end of the first quarter of 2012, assets of equity funds represented 38 percent and bond funds represented 22 percent of all investment fund assets worldwide. The asset share of money market funds was 17 percent and the asset share of balanced/mixed funds was 11 percent.

The market share of the ten largest domiciles in the world market (excluding non-UCITS) were the United States (48.9%), Luxembourg (8.9%), Brazil (5.9%), Australia (5.5%), France (5.4%), Ireland (4.2%), Japan (3.7%), Canada (3.6%), United Kingdom (3.3%) and China (1.2%).