Asian mutual fund assets saw growth of 8.2% in the first nine months of 2018 in spite of significant turbulence ranging from the US-Sino trade war, China’s economic slowdown and interest rate hikes from the US Federal Reserve.
The findings by Cerulli Associates, a US research and consulting firm, revealed that China accounted for 53% of the share of the growth. Japan trailed in second place with 16.5%.
Notable developments include further efforts by China to liberalise its economy and the green light for domestic banks to set up wealth management units.
Meanwhile when it came to fees, “the Taiwanese regulator undertook initiatives in late 2018 to reduce fund churning; these included placing a ban on charging initial fixed fees for marketing and sales campaigns, and revising the calculation of commissions, basing these on net sales instead of gross sale,” a statement from Boston-headquartered Cerulli said.
“Over in India, the regulator took measures to lower costs incurred by end investors, by directing fund houses to move to a trailer fee-based model of commission in October last year,” it added.
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