Efama

Net sales of investment funds in Europe were at their lowest in November - apart from bonds - as investors worried about the new Covid-19 Omicron variant while awaiting reactions by the world’s central banks to rising inflation, the European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA) said on Monday.

Rather than having to file the same publicly available financial and non-financial information multiple times with national and European regulators, why not have a single, centralised repository for this data? That’s the idea behind the European Single Access Point (ESAP) which has just been given the go-ahead. ESMA is now working on the devilish detail, with a view to launch at the start of 2025.

The European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA) has today published its latest monthly Investment Fund Industry Fact Sheet, providing data on net sales of UCITS and AIFs sold in June 2021, at a European level and by fund domicile.

Equity, bond, and mixed collective investment schemes (UCITS) have achieved annual net returns of 7.6%, 2.3%, and 3%, respectively, over the period 2010- 2019. These positive returns contrast with the 1% loss on bank deposits.

Despite the huge cost in terms of human lives and economic damage of the corona crisis, European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA) summarises the performance of the European fund industry as ‘resilient’. 

This was reflected in the Brussels-based organisation’s 2021 Factbook, published this month. It outlines the most important European trends currently affecting the fund industry. 

The net inflow of investment funds in the world exceeded EUR 1 trillion in a single quarter for the first time in history. This is according to the analysis of the European Interest Group for Asset Managers (Efama).

In its latest quarterly report, the Brussels-based Efama charts global trends for the first three months of 2021. For example, net sales of global investment funds increased significantly by 7.3 per cent. The US and Europe both recorded net asset growth of 4.5 per cent.

If Europe’s nations decide to enforce different local guidelines when it comes to the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) it would be detrimental not just to asset managers but also investors, industry insiders have warned.

The SFDR came into effect on 10 March, when asset managers in the European Union had to decide whether their funds fit into one of three categories set out by the regulation, designating the level of sustainable characteristics. But that was only the beginning.

The acronym ELTIF has been popping up on news sites with increasing regularity in recent months. This vehicle has failed to excite the industry since it was launched in 2015, but maybe this is changing.

In a lot of funds investing in illiquid assets, such as property, daily dealing is likely to disappear. “The idea that you can have property in a fund you can buy or sell shares in on a daily basis has been exposed to be a lie.”

Despite the Grand Duchy’s status as Europe’s largest investment fund centre, Luxembourgers hold almost four times more money in bank deposits than in funds.