Despite a challenging second quarter, net flows to long-term mutual funds worldwide in the first half of 2010 reached USD500bn, twice as much as in the first half of 2009, according to Strategic Insight, a business intelligence provider to the fund industry.

Institutional investors redeemed USD625bn from money market funds.  

“Year-to-date, bond funds continued to be the main driver of flows, adding a net USD315bn, followed by equity/mixed funds with a combined net intake of USD120bn; ‘other’ funds, mostly alternative ‘Newcits’ and absolute return funds, collected almost USD50bn in cash flows, a sign of continued convergence between the traditional and alternative fund space,” says Daniel Enskat, senior managing director and head of global consulting at Strategic Insight.  

In the first half of 2010 Asia saw USD60bn of net flows, local Europe USD63bn, international/cross-border USD147bn and the US USD217bn, according to the Strategic Insight Simfund databases.

Top cash flow categories include global fixed income, emerging market and Asia Pacific bonds and equities.

The top ten existing products in the US, Europe and Asia combined accounted for USD150bn in cash flows year-to-date, with another USD30bn in cash to the most successful fund launches.

Franklin Templeton surpassed Blackrock to become the best selling cross-border long-term fund manager in the first half of the year, followed by Carmignac, Pictet, Allianz and Schroders.

“SI fund flow data from around the world shows that over half of the top selling funds in the first half of 2010 were ‘bridge products’, moving investors from a thematic story to a long-term investment solution in dollar-cost-averaging buy-and-hold fashion,” Enskat says, “with a growing concentration of flows to fewer managers and products, as distributors are restructuring their fund selection criteria post-crisis towards greater partnerships with selected firms.”