Fund supermarkets: threat or opportunity?

Investment Week 28 May 2001Recent findings and predictions by Cerulli Associates that fund supermarkets will account for 25% of net new inflow into the European fund market by 2005 should not come as a surprise. In the US, fund supermarkets have been up and running for several years and already have approximately 16% of market share. However, the question causing fear and consternation in broker circles is whether this growth will come at the expense of the traditional intermediary sector? An often-touted argument is that growth in sales through fund supermarkets will destroy current c...