Savers remain cautious as net retail outflows ease

Thursday 7 March 2019

 

The Investment Association (IA), the trade body that represents UK asset managers, has today published figures on on how savers invested in January.

• Net retail sales were negative in January, with £859 million of outflows from UK authorised and recognised funds.
• Europe and UK equity funds continued to experience net retail outflows of £450 million and £135 million, respectively.
• Mixed Asset was the best-selling asset class with £367 million in net retail sales.

Chris Cummings, Chief Executive of the Investment Association, said:

“Dry January extended to the fund markets as savers remained cautious, heralding the fourth consecutive month of net retail outflows. The threat of a no-deal Brexit, Eurozone instability, and international trade tensions, combined to dampen investor appetite with savers looking towards Mixed Asset funds to spread their risk.”

FUNDS UNDER MANAGEMENT AND NET SALES

 

BEST SELLING INVESTMENT ASSOCIATION SECTORS

The five best-selling Investment Association sectors for January 2019 were:

• £ Strategic Bond was the best-selling sector with net retail sales of £801 million.
• Mixed Investment 20-60% Shares with net retail sales of £424 million.
• Mixed Investment 40-85% Shares with net retail sales of £217 million.
• Volatility Managed with net retail sales of £186 million.
• North America with net retail sales of £142 million.

The worst-selling Investment Association sector in January 2019 was Targeted Absolute Return with an outflow of £665 million.

NET RETAIL SALES BY ASSET CLASS

Mixed Asset was the best-selling asset class with £367 million in net retail sales.

Fixed Income was the second best-selling asset class with net retail sales of £253 million.

The remaining asset classes experienced outflows. Money Market saw net retail outflows of £74 million, followed by Property with net retail outflows of £108 million in January.

Funds classified as Other (which includes the Targeted Absolute Return, Volatility Managed, Protected and Unclassified sectors) saw net retail outflows of £427 million, whilst Equity experienced outflows of £870 million.

NET RETAIL SALES OF EQUITY FUNDS BY REGION*

Japan funds were the best-selling in January with net retail sales of £146 million.

North America funds were the next best-selling with net retail sales of £134 million.

The remaining regions experienced outflows. Asia funds saw net retail outflows of £21 million, followed by UK funds which experienced net retail outflows of £135 million.

Global and Europe funds experienced net retail outflows of £177 million and £450 million, respectively.

TRACKER FUNDS

Tracker funds saw a net retail inflow of £641 million. Tracker funds under management stood at £184 billion as of the end of January 2019. Their overall share of industry funds under management was 15.7%.

ETHICAL FUNDS

Ethical funds experienced net retail inflows of £66 million in January 2019. Funds under management were £16 billion at the end of January, representing a 1.4% share of industry funds under management.

GROSS RETAIL SALES BY DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL

In January, gross retail sales for UK fund platforms totalled £8.1 billion, representing a market share of 44%.

Other Intermediaries including UK IFAs made gross retail sales of £4.7 billion, representing a market share of 25.4%.

Direct gross retail sales in January were £1.7 billion, representing a market share of 9.4%.

-ENDS-

 

For further information, please contact:

Helen Ayres, Media Relations Manager: [email protected]

T +44 (0)20 7269 4620; M +44 (0)7508 724 066

David Parton, Communications Executive: [email protected]

T +44 (0)20 7831 0898

Notes for Editors

To see a breakdown of the data referenced in this press release, please see all of the tables here.

The Investment Association's figures for fund sales cover retail and institutional sales in authorised unit trusts and open ended investment companies (OEICs) provided by our membership to UK investors. The figures do not include investment trusts and ETFs.

Each month small revisions to figures have been made since the previous press release. This reflects additional information received by The Investment Association.

Net retail sales comprise total retail sales minus repurchases (including switches between funds), thus the figures can result in a negative figure or outflow.

* Regional breakdown for equity funds

The following Investment Association sectors have been grouped together to compile the figures for regional equity sales:

Direct Channels

Direct includes sales forces and tied agents, private clients and other direct to investor sales without intermediation.

** The Investment Association’s ISA figures are based on information collected from fund companies and five fund platforms (AEGON, Fidelity, Hargreaves Lansdown, Old Mutual Wealth and Transact) where they are the ISA provider. Fund business through other ISA providers such as wealth managers is not included. The Investment Association’s figures cover about three-quarters of the whole of the market for funds held in ISAs.

About the Investment Association:

The IA champions UK asset management, supporting British savers, investors and businesses. Our 250 members manage £7.7 trillion of assets and the asset management industry supports 100,000 jobs across the UK.

Our mission is to make investment better. Better for clients, so they achieve their financial goals. Better for companies, so they get the capital they need to grow. And better for
the economy, so everyone prospers.

• Our purpose is to ensure investment managers are in the best possible position to:
• Build people’s resilience to financial adversity
• Help people achieve their financial aspirations
• Enable people to maintain a decent standard of living as they grow older
• Contribute to economic growth through the efficient allocation of capital.

The money our members manage is in a wide variety of investment vehicles including authorised investment funds, pension funds and stocks and shares ISAs

The UK is the second largest investment management centre in the world, after the US and manages 35% of all assets managed in Europe.