Mutual fund assets in S.E. Asia hit $265.1 billion in 2012

Mutual fund assets under management of southeast nations enjoyed a four-year compounded annual growth rate of 21.2 percent, rising to $265.1 billion last year from $123 billion in 2008, according to new research.

Cerulli Associates, Boston, released this finding in its latest quarterly edition the Cerulli Edge: Asia-Pacific. The report explores mutual fund trends in the far east.

Among the six southeast nations examined in the report—Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam—Malaysia had the highest CAGR (27.7 percent) during the 2008-2012 period. Occupying the second and third positions in the CAGR rankings were Indonesia at 26 percent and the Philippines at 23.6 percent.

The three other southeast nations achieved the following compounded annual growth rates:

Thailand: 16.7 percent

Singapore: 14.9 percent

Vietnam: 2 percent

In 2012, Malaysia’s mutual fund assets under management totaled $111.6 billion, up from $89 billion in 2011 and $78.9 billion in 20910. The AUM of Thailand and Singapore—the countries with, respectively, the second and third largest pools mutual fund AUM pools in 2012—totaled 73.2 billion and $53.1 billion.

“These three countries arguably have the most mature financial markets in ASEAN, though even among them there are disparities, such as Malaysia’s capital controls versus the more freely traded currencies of Thailand and Singapore,” the report states.

The other southeast Asian nations had the following AUM levels in 2012:

Indonesia: 18.5 billion, up from 15.8 billion in 2011