Study: Institutional Assets Globally Jump 10% in 2010

(October 6, 2011) — New findings by a UK financial services trade organization show that worldwide investment management conventional assets rose 10% in 2010. 

Pension fund assets accounted for the largest portion of investment manager assets worldwide in 2010, growing 6.8% to $29.94 trillion, while mutual funds assets grew 7.9% to $24.7 trillion, the report by TheCityUK showed. The firm revealed that the increase in institutional assets globally was fueled mainly by insurance assets, which jumped up $4.25 trillion, or 20.9%, to $24.63 trillion. Together with alternative funds and private wealth funds, assets in the global fund management industry reached $117 trillion.

With $35.6 trillion — or 45% of the global total — the US remained the largest source of institutional money. Japan added $6.1 trillion of institutional cash, while the UK added $6.5 trillion.

TheCityUK discovered assets under management of fund managers in the UK increased by 17% in 2010 to a record £4.8 trillion, which was 15% above the pre-crisis peak in 2007. “The growth in funds for the second year running resulted from both the recovery in equity markets during the year as well as an inflow of new funds,” the report stated.

“Following two years of decline, fund management margins edged up in 2010 to 34% from 33% a year earlier, still below the 37% peak in 2007. Revenue of UK fund management activities totaled £16.1 billion in 2010, up around a quarter on the previous year,” Marko Maslakovic, Senior Manager, Economic Research at TheCityUK, said.