The Swiss fund market shrank by 13.7% in 2022, with the country’s Asset Management Association labelling this “the most difficult investment year since 2008”.

In the association’s review of the year, the trade body said 1,325 billion Swiss francs were held in Swiss funds, as of December 31, 2022. In contrast, this figure was 1,534 billion Swiss francs in the 12 months prior.

Performance losses were attributed to 13.3% of this reduction, with 204.6 billion Swiss francs lost on market movements alone.

Flows remained muted throughout the year, and by December 31 the industry had seen net outflows of 5 billion Swiss francs.

During the fourth quarter investors committed 4.6 billion Swiss francs to equity and bond funds. Money market funds remained in demand throughout the year as investors still required liquidity. This manifested in net inflows of 20.1 billion Swiss francs.

Broken down by asset class, the trade body found bond funds suffered the worst outflows, with investors redeeming a net sum of 17.4 billion Swiss francs.

Equity funds – which make up the largest proportion of Swiss funds with 42.6% of the market – recorded the second worst net outflows of the year, at 7.3 billion Swiss francs.

These strategies performed the worst, with overall underperformance of 20.7% throughout the year.

Asset Management Association managing director Adrian Schatzmann said, however, that he took confidence from the limit to outflows and the return to net inflows in the fourth quarter.

“In one of the most difficult investment years ever, Switzerland as a fund location proved its strengths despite a decline in volume,” said Schatzmann. “Investors remained calm and adjusted their asset allocation accordingly, despite the at times severe market distortions.”

In terms of market share, UBS remained the largest provider, followed respectively by Credit Suisse and Swisscanto.

Year-on-year data shows a compression at the top, with Swisscanto, BlackRock and Pictet each gaining market share at the expense of UBS and Credit Suisse.

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