The fat years of rising asset values and soaring ad valorem fees for custodian banks are over, according to a Cerulli Associates report on the state of the global asset management industry in the second half of last year. The survey-based report, published today, reckons global assets under management scarcely grew at all in 2001 – by perhaps 0.2 per cent in the year as a whole, after falling by 2 per cent in the first half.
The good news for fund administrators is that non-traditional forms of retail distribution – such as financial supermarkets – are booming, giving both them a greater opportunity to sell transfer agency and other services. The Cerulli survey respondents said they took in a fifth of their assets via non-traditional routes in the second half of last year, which is up from 13 per cent worldwide and just 10 per cent in Europe alone in 2000.
The survey also reported growing enthusiasm for both multi-manager asset management products (such as those supplied by Frank Russell and SEI Investments) and indexed products (27 per cent of assets under management reported by respondents, or the equivalent of US$9 trillion, were in indexed or passively managed portfolios).