Singapore's assets under management up 9% in 2015: MAS report

SINGAPORE'S assets under management (AUM) grew 9 per cent to S$2.6 trillion (US$1.8 trillion) in 2015, said a newly-released Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) report titled the 2015 Singapore Asset Management Survey.

This was accounted for almost entirely by new AUM, and was faster than the one per cent global growth to US$71.4 trillion.

Singapore's performance was in line with Asia's AUM growth excluding Japan and Australia. This figure was up 10 per cent to US$5.2 trillion in 2015.

Global AUM growth in 2015 was weighed down by a slowdown in emerging markets growth and fears of monetary policy normalisation in the US, the report said.

At home, the money flowing into the asset management industry was not spread out equally. While private equity and venture capital grew by over 40 per cent to S$136 billion, and real estate by over 80 per cent to S$69 billion, AUM managed by traditional asset managers increased by just 4 per cent.

Several emerging market managers also saw outflows from their equity and bond funds, MAS said.

"As public market returns disappoint, more investors are seeking excess returns from illiquidity and credit risk premia in private markets," it said.

The MAS report is an annual survey of the Singapore asset management industry for the year ended Dec 31, 2015.

It can be found here: http://www.mas.gov.sg/news-and-publications/surveys/asset-wealth-management.aspx