Brokers' bet on mutual funds

Brokerages have moved the battle from the Stock Exchange onto the asset management market in their search for investors willing to leave their money in their hands, but who dare not invest on the stock market on their own. Lured by the opportunities of an insufficiently developed mutual fund market, several brokerages have chosen to expand their business by setting up an asset management unit. For some of them, such as KBC, Tradeville (former Vanguard) or Target Capital, the bet on mutual funds was a winner, with their management units, Swiss Capital, Vanguard AM and Target AM coming to gain a foothold on the market not as much through assets as through funds' returns. Although different in terms of the type of targeted investor, both brokerage and asset management are two markets where banking groups hold dominant positions. With net assets worth 3.8bn RON from over 50 mutual funds, the asset management market is over 90% dominated by managers part of banking groups, while independent managers and managers belonging to brokerage units share less than 5% of the market.