Assets under management in Europe rose 12% during last year to €15.4 trillion, according to new estimates.
This figure is just under a third of global assets under management and is equivalent to more than the entire GDP of Europe.
The money is managed by 3,200 registered asset managers, which directly employ 90,000 people, a report by the European Fund and Asset Management Association (Efama) shows.
Discretionary mandates account for more than half (53%) of the assets, with investment funds accounting for the rest.
The rise in assets under management was mostly caused by rallying stock markets, the report says, noting that “2012 came in like a lamb, but went out like a lion for the European asset management industry”.
The efforts of Mario Draghi, governor of the European Central Bank, to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro helped reassure investors, and boosted equity values.
“In the last quarter of the year almost all questions of whether the euro would survive seemed to fade,” says the report. “These developments turned 2012 into a rollercoaster year on global stock markets, which finished the year at levels not seen since pre-crisis years.”
©2013 funds europe
