Credit crunch anxiety costs £2bn

by Richard Kilner

Story link: Credit crunch anxiety costs £2bn

Over the course of a year UK investment funds have seen a reversal of £2bn.

Open-ended investment companies saw an investment of £1.7bn in December 2006, but December 2007 saw an outflow of over £350m.

The news comes from figures released by the Investment Management Association.

The statistics also reveal that the credit cunch impact is continuing, with a large quantity of money being withdrawn from UK investment funds last month.

The market’s troubles are seeing a continuation of low confidence, which may worry fund managers.

Standard Life is expected to publish its new business sales figures for last year shortly, and there is widespread speculation that, compared to the last 3 months of 2006, the figures could be down by over a fifth because of the credit crunch.

Mackenzie Taylor Wealth Management’s director, Ken Taylor, has said that for Scottish fund managers the figures reveal a mixed picture.

The IMA’s chief executive, Richard Saunders, has said that this is the first outflow of retail for 15 years.