Funds bounce back in March with £2 billion inflows
UK investors put £2 billion into funds in March, the highest inflow since December 2021, according to data published today by the Investment Association (IA).
Key findings for March 2023:
- All asset classes, apart from Money Market funds, experienced inflows with Equity funds and Mixed Asset funds seeing inflows of £643 million and £745 million, respectively.
- Tracker fund flows rebounded with strong inflows of £1.6 billion in March.
- Outflows from UK equity funds slowed to £835 million in March compared with the previous four months, which had seen monthly outflows of over £1 billion. North American equity funds saw a modest outflow of £41 million – the first outflow since October 2022.
Chris Cummings, Chief Executive of the Investment Association, said:
“In a sign of the continuing popularity of ISAs, savers stepped-up their investments by putting £2 billion into funds in March, adding up to a £4.1 billion investment into funds in the first quarter of the year.
“In March, with the approaching end of the tax year coinciding with a better-than-expected forecast from the Office for Budget Responsibility, investors took the opportunity to invest across all major asset classes and maximise on their tax-free ISA allowance. Our research shows that the majority of investors see investing as delivering better long-term returns, with forty one percent of investors intending to put more money into their ISAs this year, than in the previous tax year.”
FUNDS UNDER MANAGEMENT AND NET SALES
|
|
Funds Under Management |
Net Retail Sales |
Net Institutional Sales |
|
March 2023 |
£1.4 trillion |
£2.0 billion |
-£11.2 billion |
|
March 2022 |
£1.5 trillion |
-£3.5 billion |
£2.5 billion |
BEST SELLING INVESTMENT ASSOCIATION SECTORS
The five best-selling Investment Association sectors for March 2023 were:
- Short Term Money Market with net retail sales of £667 million.
- £ Corporate Bond with net retail sales of £529 million.
- Global with net retail sales of £365 million.
- Volatility Managed with net retail sales of £361 million.
- Mixed Investment 40-85% Shares with net retail sales of £267 million.
The worst-selling Investment Association sector in March 2023 was UK All Companies, which experienced outflows of £735 million.
NET RETAIL SALES BY ASSET CLASS
Mixed Asset funds saw inflows of £745 million.
Equity funds saw inflows of £643 million.
Other funds (which includes the Targeted Absolute Return, Volatility Managed, and Unclassified sectors) saw £461 million in inflows.
Fixed Income funds saw inflows of £363 million.
Property funds experienced a £80 million inflow.
Money Market saw outflows of £323 million.
NET RETAIL SALES OF EQUITY FUNDS BY REGION*
Global funds saw inflows of £653 million.
North America funds saw net retail outflows of £41 million.
Asia funds saw outflows at £99 million.
Japan saw outflows of £153 million.
Europe funds saw outflows of £223 million.
UK funds saw outflows of £835 million.
TRACKER FUNDS
Tracker funds saw net retail inflows of £1.6 billion in March 2023. Tracker funds under management stood at £284 billion at the end of March. Their overall share of industry funds under management was 20.6%.
RESPONSIBLE INVESTMENT FUNDS
Responsible investment funds saw a net retail inflow of £298 million in March 2023. Responsible investment funds under management stood at £94.5 billion at the end of March. Their overall share of industry funds under management was 6.8%.
GROSS RETAIL SALES BY DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL
Gross retail sales for UK fund platforms totalled £14.2 billion, representing a market share of 46.4%.
Gross retail sales through other UK Intermediaries including IFAs totalled £10.1 billion, representing a market share of 33.1%.
Gross retail sales for Discretionary Manager totalled £2.1 billion, representing a market share of 7.0%.
Direct gross retail sales totalled £1.1 billion, representing a market share of 3.7%.
In March, Execution only intermediaries totalled £105 million in gross retail sales and accounted for 0.3% of the market.
For further information, please contact:
Helen Ayres, Head of Communications: [email protected]
T: +44 (0)20 7269 4620
Arianna Schardt, Communications Executive: [email protected]
T: +44 (0)20 7269 4625
IA Press Office: [email protected]
Notes to Editors:
To see a breakdown of the data referenced in this press release, please see all of the tables here.
The Investment Association's figures for fund sales cover retail and institutional sales in authorised unit trusts and open ended investment companies (OEICs) provided by our membership to UK investors. The figures do not include investment trusts and ETFs.
Each month small revisions to figures have been made since the previous press release. This reflects additional information received by the Investment Association.
IA data on responsible investments has been collected using the IA's Responsible Investment Framework. Responsible investment incorporates firm-level and fund-level components. The data presented here is at the fund level where funds are pursuing one or more of the following responsible investment approaches and this approach is referenced in the fund documentation: exclusions; sustainability focus; impact investing.
Net retail sales comprise total retail sales minus repurchases (including switches between funds), thus the figures can result in a negative figure or outflow.
* Regional breakdown for equity funds
The following Investment Association sectors have been grouped together to compile the figures for regional equity sales:
Direct Channels
Direct includes sales forces and tied agents, private clients and other direct to investor sales without intermediation.
** The Investment Association’s ISA figures are based on information collected from fund companies and five fund platforms (AEGON, Fidelity, Hargreaves Lansdown, Quilter and Transact) where they are the ISA provider. Fund business through other ISA providers such as wealth managers is not included. The Investment Association’s figures cover about three-quarters of the whole of the market for funds held in ISAs.
About the Investment Association (IA):
- The IA champions UK investment management, supporting British savers, investors and businesses. Our 250 members manage £10 trillion of assets and the investment management industry supports 114,000 jobs across the UK.
- Our mission is to make investment better. Better for clients, so they achieve their financial goals. Better for companies, so they get the capital they need to grow. And better for the economy, so everyone prospers.
- Our purpose is to ensure investment managers are in the best possible position to:
- Build people’s resilience to financial adversity
- Help people achieve their financial aspirations
- Enable people to maintain a decent standard of living as they grow older
- Contribute to economic growth through the efficient allocation of capital.
- The money our members manage is in a wide variety of investment vehicles including authorised investment funds, pension funds and stocks and shares ISAs.
- The UK is the second largest investment management centre in the world, after the US and manages 37% of all assets managed in Europe.
