Bank interest decline drives mutual funds to over 1bn euros

Mutual funds ended their best quarter ever, raising almost 200 million euros from investors in the first three months of the year and reaching total net assets worth one billion euros. The decline in bank interests brought 16,000 new investors to the funds.

The mutual fund industry had a strong start of 2010, taking full advantage of the decline in bank interests. The 54 mutual funds broke a new psychological threshold, reaching total net assets worth 4.29 billion RON (1 billion euros) at the end of March, after having seen net inflows of 795.4 million RON (194 million euros) in the first quarter, the first such performance in the over fifteen year history of the industry.

The number of investors went up by some 16,000 to 180,509 by the end of March, according to the monthly report of the Fund Manager Association.

"The mutual fund industry has gone past a psychological threshold and is becoming more and more self-confident. The first billion euros in assets managed was reached faster than we had anticipated, but we were also helped by the decision of the National Bank (about the reduction of the monetary policy rate i.e.)," said Dragos Neacsu, chairman of Erste Asset Management, the biggest mutual fund manager with 1.91 billion RON (466 million euros) in its portfolio.