Press Release

INVESTMENT FUND STATISTICS

29 October 2007

Summary	UK Domiciled	Overseas Domiciled
Funds under Management	£468.3 billion (September 2006 £386.1 billion)	£17.3 billion (September 2006 £11.2 billion)
Net retail sales	£887.7 million (September 2006 £1.6 billion)	£210.9 million (September 2006 -£65.9 million)
Net ISA sales	£43.2 million (September 2006 £50.5 million)	£2 million (September 2006 £1 million)

UK Domiciled funds

Funds under management

Funds under management of UK domiciled investment funds were £468.3 billion in September, an increase of 2.5% from August and 21% higher than September 2006.1 UK domiciled ISA funds under management of £54.6 billion were up 1.9% from the previous month and 10% higher than the previous year.

1.  The increase in funds under management is mainly due to the inclusion of additional institutional funds from January 2007.  The total FUM for September would have been £438.7 billion without these funds, an increase of 14% from September 2006.   

Graph showing UK domiciled funds under management since September 2006

ISA sales

Net sales of UK domiciled investment fund ISAs were £43.2 million in September, 13% more than August and down 14% from September 2006.

The most popular UK domiciled ISA sector in September was UK All Companies, accounting for 27% of gross ISA sales.  In net terms the most popular ISA sector was Cautious Managed.

UK domiciled net sales by asset class

Of the £888 million net retail sales £613 million was invested in equities followed by £130 million in balanced funds. Institutional holdings of unit trusts and OEICs saw inflows of £252 million with money market funds accounting for inflows of £246million.

Graph showing net retail sales of UK domiciled funds over the last 13 months

Gross retail sales by sector and distribution channel

The most popular sector in September was UK All Companies, representing 19% of gross retail sales of all UK domiciled funds.  80% of gross retail sales into the UK All Companies sector were via the intermediary channel.

The most popular distribution channel for UK domiciled funds in September was the intermediary channel representing 87% of gross retail business. Gross ISA sales of £207 million from fund supermarkets made them the dominant distributor of ISAs, followed by £171 million through sales force/tied agents.

Best selling sector for UK domiciled funds

The sector with the largest net retail inflow of £267 million was the Specialist sector. 44% (£118 million) was through commodity funds and 26% (£69 million) through property funds. 

The sector with the biggest outflows in September  was the UK Corporate Bond sector with net outflows of £119 million.

OVERSEAS FUNDS

Overseas funds under management of £17.3 billion in September saw a 6.8% increase from the previous month, while overseas ISA assets of £332.1 million grew 16% from August.

Net retail sales of overseas funds in September were £210.9 million.  Net retail sales of overseas domiciled investment fund ISAs were £2 million in September, an increase of 11% on August.

Summary of overseas domiciled funds - FUM and sales

Mona Patel, Head of Communications of the IMA commented:

" Net retail sales in September appear to have been largely unaffected by the turmoil in world markets with all main asset classes continuing to attract investors.  And this month commodity and property funds were largely responsible for renewed inflows into the specialist sector. "