Fund Inflows Notch Up Second-Best Year On Record

Despite the pandemic, new stats from The Investment Association(IA)¹ show investors added over £43bn to funds last year, the second highest recorded. The IA details a key finding ‘inflows to responsible investment funds totalled a record £16bn, up £4.3bn on 2020.’

In December, net retail sales reached £2.3bn. Equity funds were the most popular asset class with £1bn of inflows, with ‘global’ remaining the best-selling sector for the seventh consecutive month.

Chief Executive of the IA Chris Cummings commented on the findings, “Investors put their lockdown savings to work in 2021, with near record inflows to retail funds in 2021 helping investors take part in the global COVID-19 market bounce. This was particularly so in the first half of the year, when monthly inflows into funds peaked at £6.2bn at the end of the 2021 ISA season in April. While new variants of COVID-19 appeared throughout the year, every month of 2021 saw net inflows – against a backdrop of rising prices eroding the value of saving in cash.”

He continued, “The return of significant inflation in the second half of 2021 indeed left its mark, with falling flow into bond funds, but overall investor confidence remained resilient. Growing focus on climate change in the year Glasgow hosted COP26 also helped take flows into responsible investment funds to new heights.”

¹The Investment Association, 2022

The value of investments can go down as well as up and you may not get back the full amount you invested. The past is not a guide to future performance and past performance may not necessarily be repeated.