European Fund Industry Seeing Growth in the U.K., France, Eastern States

Investors in mutual funds in Europe are not of a single mind, the Financial Times reports. While the U.K., France and most of the nations in Eastern Europe are doing a brisk business, outflows are strong in Italy, Germany and Switzerland.

Funds in Italy experienced $15 billion in outflows in the first quarter, while funds in Germany lost $5 billion and those in Switzerland lost $2.7 billion. Investors in Italy and Germany, scared by the market turbulence in February, are putting most of their money in bank deposits and structured notes, while Swiss investors are investing directly in equities and real estate.

Meanwhile, funds in France netted $16.7 billion in inflows in the first quarter. “The French market has always been a very conservative market, very much controlled by banks,” explained Diana Mackay, managing director of Feri FMI, which issued the flow data. “When we had the dotcom bubble, the banks were more cautious, so we do not have a swath of investors that lost money in the crash, and they are more willing to buy equities now.”

Funds in the U.K. took in $10.5 billion, with equity funds taking in the lion’s share of the flows. Elsewhere, funds in Bulgaria, Latvia, Poland and Slovenia experienced strong flows in the quarter as well.