| Tabitha Rendall | ||||||
At the end of 2000 the top-50 asset management firms managed in excess of e4.7 trillion ($4 trillion) on behalf of third-party clients in Europe.
This impressive figure is expected to continue to rise since Europe will be a significant driver of growth in the global asset management industry in the coming decade.
The top-five firms in the ranking have combined strength in both institutional and retail businesses in domestic markets and across other European countries.
Fifth-ranked CDC IXIS's move into other European markets is still in the relatively early stages of development compared with the four firms ahead of it. The fact that the French mutual fund market is the largest in Europe accounts for the fact that French firms are well represented in the ranking, with all five placed in the top 22, even though there is almost no domestic funded pension market.