German retail investors placed €120.2 billion in open-ended funds last year, the funds industry trade body said as it also called for a “regulatory shift” in the EU that could unleash more resources for investment in technology and new markets.
Overall assets under management (AUM) increased to a record high for the industry, said the BVI.
AUM increased to €3.398 trillion – a 15% increase over the previous year.
Despite the rude health of the industry in Germany, Thomas Richter, chief executive of the BVI, said “excessive regulation” was tying up huge amounts of resources for Europe’s asset managers as a whole that could be used elsewhere.
“Overregulation in the EU is impeding the ability of Europe’s asset managers to compete in the global market,” he said. “The EU is fixated on consumer protection and financial market stability and, when reaching its supervisory and regulatory decisions, it fails to factor in the impact of the competitiveness of the asset management sector. That has to change.”
He suggested the EU could adopt ideas from the US, where competitiveness of the financial sector has long been a regulatory objective, he said.
Meanwhile, reporting 2019 figures for the German funds industry, the BVI said open-ended Spezialfonds raised the most retail money, at €102.7 billion, and property was the asset class with the highest flows.
Property funds received €10.7 billion of sales, up from €6.4 billion last year, which compares to €4.4 billion for equities and just under €4 billion for bonds.
Sustainable funds received €7 billion – or 40% of net inflows to open-ended funds.
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