Central Bank Data on Investment Funds doc

1 Information Release 14 December 2012 Central Bank Data on Investment Funds 1 The Central Bank today publishes statistics for Q3 2012 on investment funds IFs resident in Ireland.. So

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Information Release

14 December 2012

Central Bank Data on Investment Funds 1

The Central Bank today publishes statistics for Q3 2012 on investment funds (IFs) resident in Ireland IFs, measured by total shares/units in issue, increased by 4.4 per cent to €892 billion

by end-Q3 2012, driven by revaluations of €24.3 billion and net new subscriptions of

€13.5 billion Growth was concentrated in equity and bond funds, at 5.3 and 4.5 per cent respectively, though was also evident in all fund types During the same period, European units/shares in issue increased by 4.4 per cent to €6.3 trillion, within which equity funds increased by 5.3 per cent and bond funds increased by 4.6 per cent

1 These data were first introduced in the article ‘The Investment Funds Industry in Ireland – A Statistical

Overview’ published in Quarterly Bulletin 1, 2010

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2009 2009Q3 2009Q4 2010Q1 2010Q2 2010Q3 2010Q4 2011Q1 2011Q2 2011Q3 2011Q4 2012Q1 2012Q2 2012Q3

Chart 1: Value of Investment Funds Shares/Units

Transaction Net Inflows (RHS) Value of Investment Funds (LHS)

€ billion

Please note that the movement from Q3 2011 to Q4 2011 includes €114 billion of MMFs that were reclassified as IFs in accordance with

Regulation ECB/2001/12 Please see information release of Investment Fund Statisitics, 14 March 2012, for further details

Source: Investment Funds Statistics, Central Bank of Ireland

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Looking at the asset holdings of Irish IFs, 77 per cent were located outside of the euro area,

14 per cent in the rest of the euro area and 9 per cent within the state2 Looking at the ownership of units/shares in Irish IFs, 70 per cent were held by non-euro area residents,

24 per cent by other euro area residents and 6 per cent by Irish residents

Sovereign bond investment holdings increased by 6.5 per cent to €160 billion in Q3 2012 UK sovereign bonds, the largest country holding of Irish IFs, benefitted from inflows of

€3.1 billion to close at €46.9 billion Holdings of German sovereign bonds experienced a net inflow of €1.2 billion to close at €20.1 billion French sovereigns experienced outflows of

€0.5 billion despite positive revaluations of €0.9 billion to close at €11.3 billion, perhaps indicating market preparations for a potential ratings downgrade Spanish and Italian sovereign bonds had inflows of €0.5 billion and €1.8 billion respectively, to close at

€1.4 billion and €8.4 billion, indicating a favourable response to ECB policy measures Holdings of ‘outer-core’ EU sovereigns, such as the Netherlands, Belgium and Finland remained largely static at low levels, of €3.5 billion, €2.4 billon and €0.3 billion respectively Irish sovereign holdings remained small at €0.4 billion Holdings of US and Japanese sovereign assets remained relatively stable at €39 billion and €2.2 billion respectively It is worth noting, however, that investment in non-government paper far exceeds that of sovereign bonds, accounting for €430 billion

Table 1: Debt Securities – IF Holdings by Sovereign and Private Sector – Selected Countries

of which:

Net inflows into holdings of Monetary and Financial Institutions’ (MFIs) assets amounted to 5.5 per cent of total holdings, to a stock of €203 billion in Q3 2012, comprising €176 billion

in paper and €26.9 billion in shares UK MFIs experienced the largest inflows, up €5.6 billion

2 These figures exclude unclassified assets which account for €75 billion, or 7.6 per cent, of total assets of €985

billion

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to close at €34.4 billion. Exposure to German MFIs moved the opposite direction, experiencing outflows of €2.6 billion to close at €10.5 billion Spanish and Italian MFIs remained static at €1.4 billion and €1.1 billion respectively Irish MFI holdings increased marginally to €3.5 billion The non-financial sector experienced net outflows of 2 per cent to close at €364 billion, split between €235 billion in equity and €129 billion in commercial

paper

Investment Funds by Category

Bond funds, which accounted for €373 billion of Irish IFs by shares/units in issue, experienced inflows of €12 billion and positive revaluations of €4.2 billion, amid generally increasing bond prices This continues a longer term trend of significant inflows into bond funds, which comprised 42 per cent of Irish IFs by end-Q3 2012, compared with 24 per cent

at end-Q1 2010

Equity funds, which accounted for €290 billion of IFs, saw positive revaluations of €12.9 billion and net transactions inflows of €1.7 billion, in line with strong global equity markets over the quarter Equity funds have experienced positive revaluations since late 2011, following a sharp negative adjustment in mid-2011

Hedge funds increased in value to €79 billion, driven largely by revaluations of €2.2 billion amid a net transactions outflow of €0.3 billion The revaluation performance was tempered

by the fact that some hedge funds assumed short positions in a positively performing market Hedge funds have not outperformed other investment strategies in the year to date

Other funds, comprising mostly mixed funds3, experienced negligible inflows of €0.2 billion, despite positive revaluations of €5.1 billion, culminating in an increase in overall stock to

€152 billion

3 These also include real estate and other unclassified funds

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Chart 2: Change in Value of Shares/Units by Investment Fund Category,

Q3 2012

Change in value of investment fund shares/units (excl reclassifications) Transactions

Revaluations

€ billion

Source: Investment Funds Statistics, Central Bank of Ireland

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Notes to Editors

These data were published under the requirements of Regulation (EC) No 958/2007 concerning statistics on the assets and liabilities of investment funds (ECB/2007/8), which was passed on 27 July 2007, obliging investment funds to report quarterly balance sheets Reporting is obligatory for all investment funds resident in Ireland

The full data series for Ireland is available from the Central Bank website while euro area statistics are available from the ECB website

Type of Fund Definition

Equity funds Equity funds are investment funds primarily investing in shares and other

equity The criteria for classifying an investment fund into equity funds are derived from the public prospectus, fund rules, instruments of incorporation, established statutes or by-laws, subscription documents or investment contracts, marketing documents, or any other statement with similar effect

Bond funds Bond funds are investment funds primarily investing in securities other than

shares The criteria for classifying an investment fund into bond funds are derived from the public prospectus, fund rules, instruments of incorporation, established statutes or by-laws, subscription documents or investment contracts, marketing documents, or any other statement with similar effect

Mixed funds Mixed funds are investment funds investing in both equity and bonds with no

prevalent policy in favour of one or the other instrument The criteria for classifying an investment fund into mixed funds are derived from the public prospectus, fund rules, instruments of incorporation, established statutes or by-laws, subscription documents or investment contracts, marketing documents, or any other statement with similar effect

Hedge funds Hedge funds, for the purpose of IF data collection, mean any collective

investment undertakings (CIU) regardless of its legal structure under national laws, which apply relatively unconstrained investment strategies to achieve positive absolute returns, and whose managers, in addition to management fees, are remunerated in relation to the fund’s performance For that purpose, hedge funds have few restrictions on the type of financial instruments in which they may invest and may therefore flexibly employ a wide variety of financial techniques, involving leverage, short-selling or any other techniques This definition also covers funds that invest, in full or in part, in other hedge funds provided that they otherwise meet the definition These criteria to identify hedge funds must be assessed against the public prospectus as well as fund rules, statutes or by-laws, subscription documents or investment contracts, marketing documents or any other statement with similar effect of the fund

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Real estate

funds Real estate funds are investment funds primarily investing in real estate The criteria for classifying an investment fund into real estate funds are derived from

the public prospectus, fund rules, instruments of incorporation, established statutes or by-laws, subscription documents or investment contracts, marketing documents, or any other statement with similar effect

Other funds Other funds are investment funds other than bond funds, equity funds, mixed

funds, real estate funds or hedge funds

Open-ended

IFs Open-ended investment funds are investment funds, the units or shares of which are, at the request of the holders, repurchased or redeemed directly or

indirectly out of the undertaking’s assets

Closed-ended

IFs Closed-ended investment funds are investment funds with a fixed number of issued shares and whose shareholders have to buy or sell existing shares in order

to enter or leave the fund