PwC Luxembourg has announced the release of the 20th edition Annual Global Fund Distribution (GFD) Poster showcasing the growth of cross-border funds and distribution in 2019. The research process covers over 40 countries and provides a unique and global view of the health of the industry.
The GFD Poster showcases the number of fund registrations peaking at 121,458 at the end of 2019 from 14,031 cross-border investment funds worldwide. The number of fund registrations has increased by 7.02% in comparison with previous year while the number of cross-border funds has increased by 2.65%.
Robert Glover, partner, Global Fund Distribution at PwC Luxembourg, commented: "We've seen continued rapid growth, both in terms of the number of true cross-border funds and their registrations, over the last ten years, and despite a slowdown in the past year, the overall numbers show the popularity of UCITS funds continues globally."
Given the situation in a covid-19 environment, we could expect to see some rationalisation in 2020, but managers are still pushing to market and distribute their products into new countries across the globe."
"Given the situation in a covid-19 environment, we could expect to see some rationalisation in 2020, but managers are still pushing to market and distribute their products into new countries across the globe."
Regionally, the Nordics have continued to be a focal point for asset managers, making Norway the top country globally with 939 new registrations. The poster also notes the emergence of Mexico as a new hot spot for cross border fund registration with the Americas, still with a long way to go to catch up with traditionally popular locations such as Chile and Peru. In Africa, Botswana was the most popular market for registrations while Singapore dominated Asia in 2019.
Other key findings from the GFD Poster include the list of 100 cross border asset management groups which revealed the top 5 to be Franklin Templeton, Fidelity International, HSBC, BlackRock and Invesco.
Franklin Templeton led the way as clear first with their funds distributed to 10 more countries than Fidelity International which came in second.
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