Lipper

Fitch Ratings, the US fund rating service, is to launch a fund rating service covering UK funds as part of a new offering aimed at IFAs and wealth managers.

The first quarter 2011 witnessed the launch of 500 mutual funds registered for sale in Europe, compared to 762 newly launched funds over the same period in 2010.

Cash flows into Japan equity funds last week were dominated by ETFs, with eight Japanese equity tracker funds pulling in $936.8m in the seven days to Wednesday, according to Lipper.

There is a lack of appetite amongst European investors for bond funds across the continent after a net withdrawal of €4.6bn in November, according to Lipper's latest monthly snapshot.

ETFs tracking the Eurostoxx 50 index have outperformed the benchmark by 0.22 percentage points annually on average over the three-year period, according to Lipper.

The level of inflows into emerging market bond funds in 2010 has already overtaken the figure for 2009, according to Lipper FMI.

Performance fees

On-exchange turnover in the European ETF industry has reached an all-time high, fuelled by fluctuating markets and investor uncertainty, Lipper says.

Paul Burgin looks at the nature of the French ETF market, exploring product themes, investor appetite, distribution channels and prospects for development

Pan-European ETF assets under management (AUM) have hit an all time high, increasing 47.37% to €162.49bn over the year, according to Lipper.