Global funds are having a good year.
According to a report by financial services lobby TheCityUK, pension funds, insurance funds and mutual funds are on track to finish the year with $21 trillion more of assets under management than when they hit rock bottom in 2008 with the Lehmann collapse.
They are growing for the fourth year in a row, and much more so than last year, thanks to the recovery in equity markets.
All together, the London lobby forecasts these funds will end the year with about $85.2 trillion of assets under managements globally, $5.4 trillion more than last year, while 2011 ended “only” $1 trillion higher than 2010.
The 1.2% increase in assets under management in 2011 represents a slowdown from the strong rate of growth seen in the two previous years, and was largely due to the decline in equity markets in the latter part of the year and sovereign debt crisis in Europe.
The recovery in equity markets since then has contributed to the increase in assets under management in
2012 … On the whole, the fund management industry has recovered quickly from the sharp fall in assets under management at the outset of the credit crisis, with most of the recovery coming from market performance rather than new inflows.
