01/03/2010
Nearly USD1trn in Asian inflows to funds since 2005
What do mutual funds represent in Asia? Do Western management firms dominate the asset management industry in Asia? In the past five years, Asian inflows to long-term funds (in other words, all funds excluding money market funds, or MMF) totalled USD850bn, while flows of Asian assets towards offshore funds have totalled a further USD120bn, according to statistics from Strategic Insight, published by Asian Investor. In total, Asian inflows to funds come to USD970bn, close to an overall total of USD1trn, compared with Usd430bn in Europe and USD1.3trn in the United States. Worldwide, mutual funds have attracted a net total of USD4.2trn in the past five years, most of which has been invested in bonds or equities. Total assets in the management industry come to about USD27trn, and this total is expected to continue to rise, as the roughly USD60trn still parked in savings accounts and money market funds, which are bringing in near-zero returns, begin to migrate over. Asian Investor reports that last year, Asian inflows totalled only USD100bn, due to regulatory changes which have affected distribution of products. Most of these inflows (90%) went to local products or brands. In the past five years, the top vendors of long-term products have been Daiwa, with USD52.2bn, Nomura (USD46.4bn), Mirae Asset (USD44.6bn), Nikko (USD33.5bn), and Kokusai (USD22.7bn). Of the next twenty managers in the rankings, only four are Western management firms (Pictet, Schroders, Fidelity and Credit Agricole), two firms which are under Western control but which have Asian roots (Prudential and JP Morgan), and three joint ventures with Western groups (Birla Sun Life, Harvest, and Shinhan BNP Paribas).
