According to Thinking Ahead Institute, the world’s 500 largest fund houses saw a significant dip in assets under management for the first time since the 2008 global financial crisis.
At the end of last year, the world’s 500 largest fund houses saw assets under management (AuM) fall 13.7 percent year-on-year to $113.7 trillion, according to a research paper by Thinking Ahead Institute, the first significant drop since the 2008 global financial crisis.
Regionally, Asia Pacific (4.9 percent AUM decrease) was relatively resilient compared to North America (14.2 percent decrease) and Europe (16.8 percent decrease). By investment type, passively managed funds accounted for 34.7 percent of total assets, up four percentage points, compared to 65.3 percent for actively managed funds. Alternatives also saw a noteworthy increase in weighting to 7.1 percent.
Overall, BlackRock was the largest asset manager by AuM at nearly $8.6 trillion. This was followed by Vanguard ($7.3 trillion), Fidelity Investments ($3.7 trillion), State Street Global ($3.5 trillion) and JPMorgan ($2.8 trillion). Among Swiss institutions on the list, UBS came at number ten with AuM of $1.8 trillion, Credit Suisse 53rd with $477 billion, and Swiss Life Asset Managers with $271 billion.
«Not Out of the Woods»
After a decrease last year, the research paper notes that there are still more challenges ahead.
«As we have conducted this research, a common theme throughout our conversations with managers has been to expect a higher-for-longer regime in interest rates in which concerns about inflation and growth remain elevated, suggesting investment managers are not out of the woods yet,» said Jessica Gao, director at the Thinking Ahead Institute.
Established in January 2015, the Thinking Ahead Institute is a non-profit investment research and innovation group. It has a worldwide membership of 55, made up of institutional asset owners and service providers.
