The latest Investment Fund Industry Fact Sheet for March, published today by the European Fund and Asset Management Association, shows a continuing trend of investors’ strong demand for long-term funds and their gradual exit from money market funds.

The main developments in March in the reporting countries can be summarised as follows:

• The trend observed since September 2009 continued in March, with sustained demand for long-term funds and capital outflows from money market funds. For the first three months of 2010, UCITS and non-UCITS enjoyed net inflows of EUR 89 billion.
  

• Net inflows into long-term UCITS (UCITS excluding money market funds) remained strong in March, totaling EUR 26 billion compared to EUR 28 billion in February. Money market funds continued to suffer from net outflows (EUR 18 billion) for the seventh consecutive month. Reflecting the combined effect of these trends, net inflows into UCITS slowed down to EUR 8 billion in March, compared to EUR 12 billion in February.
  

• Among long-term UCITS, bond funds led the sales ranking, collecting EUR 13 billion in net new inflows. Equity and balanced funds ranked second and third, with net inflows of EUR 8 billion and EUR 6 billion, respectively.
  

• Net inflows into special funds reserved to institutional investors rose to EUR 8 billion in March, from EUR 6 billion in February.
  

• Total assets of UCITS and non-UCITS increased by 3.6 percent in March thanks to strong price appreciation on both stock and fixed-income markets.