Raiffeisen Zentralbank sterreich (RZB) says that investment funds are set to boom in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). They have seen a 59 percent growth in assets under management in 2006. As a result of this RZB are to open new asset management companies in Serbia and Ukraine. The asset management companies belonging to Raiffeisen International Bank-Holding respectively to the group of RZB had assets under management of about 3.3 billion euros in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) at the end of 2006. At the beginning of 2006 they amounted to 2.1 billion euros.
“This reflects a significant increase of 59 per cent and proves our ambition to ensure the success of this particular business”, says Herbert Stepic, the CEO of Raiffeisen International. “The market is still in its infancy, but as in Austria people identify investment funds as an attractive alternative to savings accounts.”
Investment funds are at the beginning of a long-term boom in the countries of CEE. The rapid economic development leads to significant increases in disposable income for many people and consequently to a change in savings behaviour.
As at year-end 2005 assets under management in the five Central European EU-member countries, namely Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia, amounted to 20 billion euros or close to 7 percent of GDP. At the corresponding time only in Austria were 155.6 billion euros invested in investment funds. In the eurozone, total assets under management account for about 60 per cent of GDP. In the new EU-member countries Bulgaria and Romania this measure is below one per cent and in Russia just marginally above one per cent.