The German fund industry is set to have a record sales year as inflows hit €167.9 billion at the end of September, according to a report by the BVI, Germany’s investment fund association.
Prior to the current year, 2015 was the best year for sales with fund companies registering €186.6 billion in inflows from the beginning of January to the end of December.
Open-ended retail funds have already surpassed their previous year-2000 record high, with in excess of €85.9 billion of inflows year to date.
During 2000, these funds generated inflows totalling €74.6 billion from the beginning of January to the end of December.
Over the course of 2021, open-ended Spezialfonds, the German institutional fund vehicle of choice for the most liquid asset classes, attracted inflows of €79.9 billion and closed-ended funds raised €4.4 billion.
Investors withdrew €2.3 billion from discretionary mandates and the fund industry is now worth more than 4% of the asset figure at the start of the year – €3.9 billion.
At the end of September, German fund companies managed assets of €4,183 billion.
Equity funds account for over half of new business, while sustainable products account for 13% of fund assets.
Sustainable funds recorded inflows of €41.6 billion by the end of the month, which corresponds to a 25% share of the fund industry’s total new business.
In accordance with the EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation, which came into force on 10 March 2021, only products classified by members as Article 8 or 9 funds are deemed sustainable.
With inflows of €42.9 billion, equity funds have been the principal sales drivers within the open-ended retail fund sector, according to the BVI.
Actively managed funds and equity ETFs account for €25.2 billion and €17.7 billion respectively. Property funds also contributed €267 billion.
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