The OPCVM market
Without supplying numerous statistics on the fund market, you will find below the major figures which will allow you to be persuaded of the importance of this market.
Globally:
The sums managed globally by funds, which represent household savings exceeded 18 000 billion Euro at the start of 2008.
The part of the funds invested in specific markets like property or carrying a blocking certificate or not being available to the public is around 20%.
So there remain around 16 000 billion Euro invested in securities.
Considering the significance of this figure , remember that we are concerned in the main, with the accumulated sum of household savings; savings set aside in case of unforeseen events or even for those ‘forseen’ events such as retirement and tuition fees for offspring.
Reflecting the most significant part of individual savings in the USA, the American market is to this day the largest market in the world. Nevertheless the European market is equally very significant. These two geographical zones are far ahead of the others as can be seen in the graphic below.
Source / European Fund and Asset Management Association ; EFAMA ;
In Europe:
In Europe, the amount managed by funds has reached 5,500 billion Euro for around 51000 funds.
(By way of comparison, the capitalization of London + Euronext + Deutsche Börse is around 6500 billion Euro with less than 5000 companies listed).
These amounts are distributed according to the 5 usual categories (see To start with in this site) :
Funds invested in equities (around 40%)
Funds invested in bonds (around 25 %)
Mixed funds (15%)
Monetary funds (16%)
Other funds (4%)
For the interior of Europe, the market is relatively concentrated in 5 countries which regroup 75% of the total of funds managed.
In France:
Evolution of the values of the OPCVM in France (source AMF/AFG)
This strong growth demonstrates that the products offer numerous advantages which are attracting more and more subscribers.
There are now more than 4.5 million adherents of OPCVM (excluding FCPE) holding between them approximately 1300 billion Euro (at the end of 2006). OPCVM represent nearly 50% of the savings invested in securities (against 35% for stocks and 15 % for bonds). You will note in passing that albeit that many reviews and information publications are available for the stock exchange, this is not necessarily the case with the fund market as there are not many places where one can find information or comparisons on this subject.