Is the funds industry reversing the concentration trend?

As more money flows into the industry, the fund universe remains skewed between the large funds getting larger still and the small funds being merged away.

A contrary note on one of the industry’s hot topics could be found buried in the Investment Management Association’s annual survey of the UK asset management industry last week. It centres on the concentration of assets, widely assumed to have risen over the past few years. In 2013, however, the IMA said there were, in fact, signs of decreasing concentration at the gross retail sales level. In a strong year for retail sales, the share of assets managed by the five largest firms remained constant at 35%, while the ten largest firms saw their collective share fall slightly from 51% t...