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The Italian funds were born in 1984 and their development during these years have been really rapid. The general patrimony has reached 503 million € (the end of September 2003), over a million of the old Lira currency.

In the classification for nations, Italy occupies the fourth place after the United States (the absolute giant with 7000 million dollars of AUM), France and Japan. The Italian/continental Europe system (i.e. France, Germany and Spain) is very different from that of British.  In Italy, in fact, the asset management market is controlled by the banks and the insurances. In the United States and Great Britain, the proportions are very different: the quota of managers and independent sales (that is of factories and of distributors untied by the banking matrix or insurance) is much higher.

A recent study by Morgan Stanley states that, in 2002, 81% of the funds in Italy has been sold at the counter of some institute of credit. Our country is the land of conquest for almost all the foreign societies of asset management (to them it turns more independent) that tightens the distribution agreements of their products with the Italian middlemen. Till today, the choice of Italian 'funds' has grown. Practically it is possible to purchase everything.  Choosing the best funds is difficult, because the structures able to introduce a menu to the client with the best of availability on the market.

These are often reserved to the vip clients that can afford the expensive services of private banking. For now we are "free" to purchase the funds of our bank. The latest analysis of Morgan Stanley on the European market of the assets manager shows how much the performance is not a decisive factor to motivate the investment in the countries where the structure of harvest is captive, that is denominated from intermediary that also possess the factories of the funds.
In France, Italy and Spain in fact only the 30-35% of the new flows go towards the funds with the best results. While in the United States the leaders of the result gain 97%.

As to say: our give parts the funds they sell him however, even if they don't shine. In the United States the liberty of movement is maximum. And people look for the best. Certainly the American system has its leaks. Just in this autumn 2003, many historians in the Usa have ended on the bench of the accused with the accusation to have violated the rules of the financial democracy that hold up the world of the managed saving favouring some clients against the others with more permissible practices. If therefore from our parts the conflicts of interest checked managers and banks that check can brake the competition, also in a system that otherwise turns the small savers I am not certain in an iron barrel.

However, the future, also for the European market, should that of the diversified products sale.  The first attempts of multimanager management (that is composed by in-house funds and products selected on the open market) have particularly featured these years. Certainly it will be a slow process, and it is unrealistic to foresee a Copernican revolution among the independent brokers and the financial supermarkets taking over.

Ours is a system that will remain dominated by the institutes of credit. We can only hope, however, that the clients offer will improve, and increasingly opening to a true and profitable competition.

"Investire con sicurezza" by F. Barin, A. Drisiani, L. Marconi, M. Marinelli, edited by M. Fracaro

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