02
Feb
2023

2022 ends with a record annual outflow from retail funds of £25.7 billion

UK investors took £282 million out of funds in December 2022, in the tenth month of net retail outflows of 2022, according to data published today by the Investment Association. This takes total retail outflows for 2022 to £25.7 billion. This is the first time that an annual outflow has been recorded, with the next lowest sales total coming in 2008 during the Global Financial Crisis at £4.2 billion. Over 2022, responsible funds bucked the trend of outflows, seeing £5.4 billion inflows throughout the year and tracker funds also saw annual inflows of £11.0 billion.

Key findings for December 2022 include:

  • Equity funds saw outflows soften to £33 million, despite outflows from UK equity funds of £1.1 billion. Fixed Income Funds saw inflows of £389 million, down from last month’s £1.4 billion inflow.
  • Tracker funds were also in inflow this month at £696 million, down from November’s £1.6 billion, which was the highest inflow into tracker funds in 2022.
  • North America was the bestselling IA sector for the second month in a row, seeing inflows of £358 million. UK All Companies saw the highest outflow again in December at £1.0 billion.  
  • Responsible investment funds saw modest inflows of £9 million, following last month’s £148 million outflow.

Chris Cummings, Chief Executive of the Investment Association, said:

“December was a quiet month for investor activity, and funds closed out the year on a modest outflow. Despite outflows easing across equity funds, investors continued to take money out of UK equities, against the backdrop of the challenging economic forecast for the UK.”  

“UK retail investors faced a challenging year in 2022, as inflation soared following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which caused energy and supply shocks. Investors grappled with a cost-of-living crisis and returns from stocks and bonds falling in tandem. Funds saw outflows in 10 months out of 12 last year, with £25.7 billion withdrawn through the year, a record annual outflow. As the December data shows, the significant outflows we saw earlier in the year are easing. With markets rebounding at the start of 2023 and the outlook for bond investing improving, there are glimmers of hope that investor confidence will increase in the first quarter of 2023.”

FUNDS UNDER MANAGEMENT AND NET SALES 

                                 

Funds Under Management  

Net Retail Sales  

Net Institutional Sales  

December 2022   

£1.4 trillion 

-£282 million

-£2.7 billion

December 2021 

£1.6 trillion 

£2.3 billion

-£903 million

BEST SELLING INVESTMENT ASSOCIATION SECTORS 

The five best-selling Investment Association sectors for December 2022 were: 

  1. North America with net retail sales of £358 million. 
  2. Global was second with net retail sales of £237 million. 
  3. UK Gilts followed with net retail sales of £127 million. 
  4. Targeted Absolute Return was fourth this month with net retail sales of £107 million. 
  5. Global Equity Income remained in fifth with net retail sales of £98 million. 
     

The worst-selling Investment Association sector in December 2022 was UK All Companies, which experienced outflows of £1.0 billion.  

NET RETAIL SALES BY ASSET CLASS

Fixed Income funds saw inflows of £389 million. 

Other funds (which includes the Targeted Absolute Return, Volatility Managed, and Unclassified sectors) saw £293 million in inflows.

All other asset classes experienced outflows this month.

Equity funds saw outflows of £33 million.

Property funds experienced £93 million in outflows.

Mixed Asset funds saw outflows of £116 million.

Money Market saw outflows of £721 million.

NET RETAIL SALES OF EQUITY FUNDS BY REGION* 

North America funds saw net retail inflows of £366 billion.

Global funds saw inflows of £224 million.

Asia funds saw inflows of £42 million.

All other equity regions experienced outflows this month.

Japan saw outflows of £104 million.

Europe funds saw outflows of £243 million.

UK funds saw outflows of £1.1 billion.

TRACKER FUNDS 

Tracker funds saw net retail inflows of £696 million in December 2022. Tracker funds under management stood at £284 billion at the end of December. Their overall share of industry funds under management was 20.7%.

RESPONSIBLE INVESTMENT FUNDS 

Responsible investment funds saw a net retail inflow of £9 million in December 2022. Responsible investment funds under management stood at £91 billion at the end of December. Their overall share of industry funds under management was 6.7%.

GROSS RETAIL SALES BY DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL 

Gross retail sales for UK fund platforms totalled £9.0 billion, representing a market share of 48.3%.

Gross retail sales through other UK Intermediaries including IFAs totalled £ 5.7 billion, representing a market share of 30.9%.

Gross retail sales for Discretionary Manager totalled £1.5 billion, representing a market share of 7.8%.

Direct gross retail sales totalled £674 million, representing a market share of 3.6%.

In December, Execution only intermediaries totalled £108 million in gross retail sales and accounted for 0.6% of the market.

ENDS

For further information, please contact: 

Arianna Schardt, Communications Executive: [email protected]

T: +44 (0)20 7269 4625  

Helen Ayres, Head of Communications: [email protected]

T: +44 (0)20 7269 4625 

IA Press office: [email protected] 

Notes for Editors  

This data includes the six new sectors launched from the Investment Association’s (IA) Global and Specialist sectors on Monday 13 September 2021. 

Currently, the two sectors are among the largest within the classification scheme, with 471 funds included within the IA Global sector and 332 in the IA Specialist sector. As the retail fund market evolves and grows, the creation of the new sectors will help investors to more easily find similar types of funds. The decision to create the new sectors was taken by the IA Sectors Committee after a public consultation with the industry and sector users.  

New country - regional equity sectors:  

  • Latin America 
  • India/Indian Subcontinent 

Industry sectors: 

  • Financials and Financial Innovation 
  • Healthcare 

Alternative investment approaches: 

  • Infrastructure 
  • Commodity/Natural Resources 

To see a breakdown of the data referenced in this press release, please see all of the tables here

The Investment Association's figures for fund sales cover retail and institutional sales in authorised unit trusts and open-ended investment companies (OEICs) provided by our membership to UK investors. The figures do not include investment trusts and ETFs. 

Each month small revisions to figures have been made since the previous press release. This reflects additional information received by The Investment Association. 

Net retail sales comprise total retail sales minus repurchases (including switches between funds), thus the figures can result in a negative figure or outflow. 

* Regional breakdown for equity funds 

The following Investment Association sectors have been grouped together to compile the figures for regional equity sales: 

Asia

Europe

Global

Japan

North America

UK

Asia Pacific excl. Japan

Europe excl. UK

Global

Japan

North America

UK All Companies

Asia Pacific incl. Japan

Europe incl. UK

Global Emerging Markets

Japanese Smaller Companies

North America Smaller Companies

UK Equity Income

China/Greater China

Europe Smaller Companies

Global Equity Income

 

 

UK Smaller Companies

India/Indian Subcontinent

 

Specialist

 

 

 

 

 

Healthcare

 

 

 

 

 

Technology and Technology innovation

 

 

 

 

 

Financials and Financial innovation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Direct Channels 

Direct includes sales forces and tied agents, private clients and other direct to investor sales without intermediation. 

** The Investment Association’s ISA figures are based on information collected from fund companies and five fund platforms (AEGON, Fidelity, Hargreaves Lansdown, Quilter, and Transact) where they are the ISA provider. Fund business through other ISA providers such as wealth managers is not included. The Investment Association’s figures cover about three-quarters of the whole of the market for funds held in ISAs. 

About the Investment Association (IA): 

The IA champions UK investment management, supporting British savers, investors and businesses. Our 250 members manage £10.0 trillion of assets and the investment management industry supports 122,000 jobs across the UK. 

Our mission is to make investment better. Better for clients, so they achieve their financial goals. Better for companies, so they get the capital they need to grow. And better for the economy, so everyone prospers. 

Our purpose is to ensure investment managers are in the best possible position to: 

  • Build people’s resilience to financial adversity 
  • Help people achieve their financial aspirations 
  • Enable people to maintain a decent standard of living as they grow older 
  • Contribute to economic growth through the efficient allocation of capital. 

The money our members manage is in a wide variety of investment vehicles including authorised investment funds, pension funds and stocks and shares ISAs. 

The UK is the second largest investment management centre in the world, after the US and manages over a third (37%) of all assets managed in Europe.