By Mark McSherry — Assets under management (AuM) in the European fund management industry fell 11.8% to €28.4 trillion during the first nine months of 2022.
That’s according to the latest report from the European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA).
“The outbreak of the war in Ukraine, the sharp rise in inflation and interest rates, and the resulting slowdown in economic growth led to a sharp fall in the bond and stock markets in 2022,” said EFAMA.
“According to our estimations, this resulted in a 11.8% decline in total AuM during the first nine months of 2022.”
EFAMA said the outstanding amount of debt securities and listed equity issued in Europe and held by European asset managers at the end of 2021 stood at €6.9 trillion and €3.6 trillion, respectively.
Bonds accounted for 36% of the assets managed by asset managers at the end of 2021, and listed equity accounted for 33%.
“In relation to European GDP, European AuM rose from about 98% of GDP at the end of 2011 to 171% at the end of 2021,” said the EFAMA report.
“For 2022, we project the AuM/GDP will have decreased to below 150% of GDP by the end of September.
“Asset management in Europe is primarily concentrated in six countries, where almost 85% of the activity takes place. In each of these six countries, AuM was higher than EUR 1.5 trillion.
“The UK is the largest European asset management market, followed by France, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Italy.
“The presence of large financial centres, such as London, Paris, Frankfurt or Zurich, and sizable domestic markets can explain the market concentration in most of these countries.
“In the Netherlands, the presence of the largest occupational pension fund sector in Europe is the main reason behind the existence of considerable asset management activities there.
“Asset managers in Denmark, Spain, Belgium, and Austria also manage substantial amounts of fund and mandate assets.
“In Central and Eastern Europe, Poland is a significant asset management centre, followed by the Czech Republic and Hungary.
“The share of the rest of Europe (9.1%) is attributable to other European countries for which no survey data is available, such as Sweden, Finland, Norway, Luxembourg, and Ireland, where asset managers are also active …”