The good news: With a volume of 1,506,777 million Swiss francs, the Swiss fund market reached a new all-time high in the first half of 2024, the Asset Management Association reported on Wednesday.

The increase since the end of 2023 was 10 percent. «The lively development at the beginning of the year thus continued in the second quarter of 2024, with the main impetus coming from the equity markets, which continued to offer good returns», the industry organization stated.

New Money Inflows Primarily in Low-Risk Asset Classes

Less positively: New money inflows also grew, but by a modest 1.6 percent. They were concentrated in low-risk asset classes such as bonds (9 billion Swiss francs) and money market funds (10 billion Swiss francs). Despite the positive environment in the first half of 2024, equity funds and strategic investment funds saw outflows of 3.6 billion Swiss francs and 3.5 billion Swiss francs, respectively. According to the report, alternative investments experienced outflows of 1.5 billion Swiss francs.

On the other hand, inflows into the Swiss ETF market remained strong. It grew by 19.7 percent in the first half of the year to 244,478 million Swiss francs. Equity products alone saw new money inflows of 6.3 billion Swiss francs.

Primarily Driven by Stock Market Returns

The primary growth drivers in the Swiss fund market during the first half of the year remained stock market returns, although, according to the Asset Management Association, the momentum slowed in the second quarter. During the reporting period, the return on equity funds, based on Net Asset Values (NAV), was 14.3 percent. Bond funds yielded 3.2 percent, and strategic investment funds achieved 7.2 percent.

«Investor confidence has not yet returned due to the ongoing geopolitical risks and growth uncertainties. This is evident from the substantial inflows into money market funds», said Adrian Schatzmann, CEO of the industry association.

Two Swiss Asset Managers Increased Their Market Share

The hierarchy of the largest Swiss asset managers remains unchanged, with UBS at the top, followed by Credit Suisse, which continues to be separately listed in the statistics as long as the funds are named accordingly. Among the 10 largest fund providers in Switzerland, Swisscanto, with a new market share of 10.5 percent, and Pictet, with a new market share of 6 percent, have notably increased their market share.