US increases share of assets among world’s top managers

Twelve of the 20 biggest fund managers globally were from the US last year, accounting for two-thirds of all assets under management among the group, while the remaining eight were based in Europe, according to a study by professional services company Towers Watson.

The data also show that US asset managers among the top 500 overall have increased their share of assets under management to 50 percent from 41 percent over the past 10 years while the share fell for asset managers from Japan, Switzerland and the UK.

BlackRock was the world’s biggest fund manager last year with $4.3 trn in assets under management, followed by Vanguard Group with $2.8 trn. Allianz Global Investors, the largest asset manager in Europe, came third with $2.4 trn.

Assets under management by the world’s biggest 500 fund managers set a record high last year as equities and most other asset classes increased in value, adds Towers Watson. Assets of the top 500 fund managers climbed 12 percent in value last year to $75.6 trn, beating the previous record of $69 trn set in 2007 before the financial crash, the firm says in a press release. Asset values have consistently grown over the past six years and have now more than doubled since 2002.

The study, conducted jointly with business newspaper Pension & Investments, also shows that the number of independently owned asset managers in the top 20 has doubled in the past 10 years as the number of bank-owned asset managers declined due to risk reduction and other measures taken after the 2008 financial crash.

‘2013 was clearly another good year for most large asset managers, regardless of the types of assets under management,’ Luba Nikulina, global head of research at Towers Watson Investment says. ‘While it looks like an industry in rude health, there is no room for complacency given numerous on-going challenges including the medium-term outlook for the global economy where we see risks to global growth skewed to the downside.’