At the end of June, total assets in mutual funds and unit trusts registered for sale in the territory reached $1.48bn, up from $1.29bn a year before. Most of that growth took place in the second quarter, with equity funds growing fastest.
Equity funds accounted for the largest share of total assets under management, $685bn, or 46%. The asset class has grown AUM by 14.6% during the past 12 months (to the end of June).
Bond funds accounted for $512bn, or 34%, and grew by 17.9%.
Mixed-asset funds grew fastest by AUM at 21.3% year-on-year and now account for 10% of the total funds’ assets, or $149bn.
Over the past year, the AUM of index funds, including leveraged and inverse ETFs, has gone up, down and back up. It has grown 4.8% since March this year, but is now roughly equal that of June 2016.
These passive products constitute around 6.5% of the assets of SFC-registered funds, down from 7.5% a year before, while active fund AUM grew faster.
SFC-authorised unit trusts and mutual funds
Data: Securities and Futures Commissions, Quarterly Report April-June 2017
The number of unit trusts and mutual funds stood at 2,204 at the end of June, a 1.4% increase in the past 12 months.
SFC authorised 33 new collective investment schemes during the quarter, which include unit trusts, mutual funds, MPF funds and investment-linked assurance schemes (ILAS).
The number of authorised bond funds grew to 431 from 407 a year before, while the number of equity funds shrank to 1,017 from 1,036. The number of diversified (mixed-asset) funds grew fastest, to 164 from 152 a year before, or 7.9% increase.
Around half of the unit trusts and mutual funds authorised for sale in Hong Kong is domiciled in Luxembourg, and only around a third is domiciled here. The Luxembourg-domiciled funds command 66% of the AUM, followed those domiciled in Ireland (13%) and Hong Kong (9%).
SFC received 1,698 licence applications from financial intermediaries, 6.5% less than in the second quarter of 2016. The number of licenced and registered individuals grew by 2.6% over the past 12 months, reaching 40,536, while the number of licenced corporations grew by 13%, to 2,549.
SFC received a slightly higher number of complaints against intermediaries and market activities in the second quarter than during the same period a year before.
The largest number of complaints (204) was around listed companies and disclosure of interests.
Complaints about the conduct of licensees and registered institutions declined to 80 from the 113 reported in the second quarter of 2016.
The full text of SFC’s quarterly report can be found on the regulator’s website.
