Net assets of UCITS and AIFs doubled over the last ten years, reaching EUR 20.7 trillion in 2023
Net assets of UCITS and AIFs doubled over the last ten years, reaching EUR 20.7 trillion in 2023
EFAMA's Annual Review highlights our key achievements over the past 12 months and provides a useful overview of the main topics we cover.
The Review is structured around the work of our Standing Committees and Taskforces. These bodies are the lifeblood of our Association as they develop sound, unified and evidence-based common positions around relevant EU/global initiatives and campaigns.
Improved Retail Investment Strategy approved but more work still to be done
Today, EU member states confirmed their position on the Retail Investment Strategy, following months of intensive negotiations under the Belgian Council Presidency. We welcome the decision to move away from banning commissions on execution-only transactions, which ensures that retail investors will still have access to direct distribution channels such as fund platforms.
European fund trends in Q1 2024 - EFAMA has today published its European Quarterly Statistical Release for Q1 of 2024.
Thomas Tilley, Senior Economist at EFAMA, commented: “Investors flocked into bond funds in anticipation of interest rate cuts. Net sales of bond funds (UCITS and AIFs) reached EUR 95 billion for the quarter, marking the highest volume of inflows since Q2 2017.”
EFAMA has published the latest Monthly Statistical Release for March 2024.
At the Roundtable on the distribution of retail investment products on 18 July 2023, the European Commissioner for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union, Mairead McGuinness, invited the European Banking Federation (EBF), the European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA) and Insurance Europe to advance an industry-driven process to explore common solutions aimed at increasing retail participation in EU capital markets.
We were pleased to welcome the Polish Chamber of Fund and Asset Managers as an EFAMA member earlier this year. In the 11th issue of our “3 Questions 2” (3Q2) series, we spoke with Malgorzata Rusewicz, CEO of the Polish association, on the Polish asset management sector.
She answered the following questions:
1: What is the structure of the asset management industry in Poland?
FIA, ISDA, AFME, ICI, AIMA, EBF and EFAMA (together the Associations) welcome the
European Commission's (the Commission) timely and temporary equivalence decision from
21 September 2020 with respect to UK central counterparties (CCPs) and subsequent
recognition decisions by ESMA of CCPs and the recent temporary equivalence decision for
UK Central Securities Depositories (CSDs) under CSDR. Together, these steps have provided
much needed certainty for continued and uninterrupted access to these CCPs and CSDs by
EFAMA has some concerns with ESMA’s clarifications. In the consultation paper (CP), ESMA seems to have a very broad interpretation of the ‘multilateral systems’ definition under MiFID II and states that ‘systems where trading interests can interact but where the execution of transactions is formally undertaken outside the system still qualify as a multilateral system and should be required to seek authorisation’ (paragraph 36).
We disagree with an extension of its scope to UCITS’ and AIFs’ management companies to the scope of the reporting requirements imposed by MiFIR, Art. 26. This extension would be in breach of the principle of proportionality, as:
Article 51(5) of the BMR provides that, unless the Commission has adopted an equivalence decision in relation to a particular third country, a third country administrator has been recognised or a third country benchmark has been endorsed, EU supervised entities may only use a third country benchmark in financial instruments, financial contracts and measurements of the performance of an investment fund that already reference the relevant benchmark prior to 31 December 2021.
EFAMA is grateful for the opportunity to comment on some messages included in the aforementioned roadmap. We believe that these comments should be made clear for all persons interested, especially to those who would like to participate in the upcoming public consultation.
Asset managers represent an important group of benchmark users, either in the case of index funds and exchange traded funds (ETFs) - where benchmarks are used as a target for index tracking funds - or in the case of the evaluation of an active manager’s performance - where the fund performance is measured against a selected index or a set of indices.

Discover the 6 reasons why your organisation should become a member of EFAMA.
Our members enjoy significant benefits including the opportunity to shape the industry positions, get first-hand access to regulatory and political intelligence, engage with industry peers and policymakers, and take part in EFAMA events.
Our three membership categories cater to the wide range of organisations that make up and support the investment management industry in Europe.