A new Refinitiv Lipper report revealed that April was a generally positive month for the European fund industry.
The European Fund Flow Trends Report, April 2023 said that mutual fund and ETFs promoters saw respective inflows of €5bn and €11.0bn during the month, with inflows into actively managed funds were driven by inflows of €10bn into money market products.
Detlef Glow, head of Lipper EMEA research, wrote: “The flow pattern for April drove the estimated overall net flows to €49.4bn year to date. While mutual funds (-€1.2bn) faced estimated net outflows, ETFs enjoyed inflows of €50.6bn over the course of the first four months of 2023.
The inflows into ETFs within the positive but still somewhat uncertain market environment repeat a trend we witnessed over other rough market periods such as the financial crisis or the euro crisis, where ETFs enjoyed inflows while mutual funds faced massive outflows.”
He added: “Despite the inverted yield curve for Eurozone bonds, European investors bought further into bond funds, which might be seen as a sign that European investors may anticipate a possible ending of the interest hiking cycle of central banks around the globe led by the US Federal Reserve.”
Glow also pointed towards the shift towards passive investing.
He wrote: “The trend toward passive investment vehicles is widely discussed by market observers and asset managers, so it is worthwhile to highlight this topic, especially as not all passive products are ETFs. In fact, the flows into ETFs (+€50.6bn) were outpacing the flows into passively managed index mutual funds (€15.2 bn) for the first four months of 2023.”
Elsewhere, Refinitiv Lipper ranked the continent’s fund promoters, with BlackRock taking the top spot.
The company said: “The largest fund promoter in Europe, BlackRock, (+€22.8bn) is the best-selling fund promoter in Europe over the course of the year so far, ahead of BNP Paribas (+€16.9bn), JPMorgan (+€15.6bn), Vanguard (+€11.5 bn), and Swisscanto (+€10.3bn).”
It added: “By looking at these numbers, one needs to bear in mind that the flows in the money market segment over the course of 2023 so far have a significant impact on the flow numbers and positions in the league table of the best-selling fund promoters in Europe.”
