Singapore Asset Management Survey Released

The Singapore MAS has released the asset management survey for the year ended 31 December 2008.  The survey shows that assets under management or advice in Singapore (banks, traditional and alternative) totalled some US$601 billion.  This is a drop of 26% from the previous year in 08 dollar terms where it was previously US$815 billion.

The numbers do not include CPF (Government mandated pension) monies.

The report states that 80% of the funds were sourced from outside of Singapore.  This shows clearly that the current international moves regarding tax disclosure, tax harmonisation and foreign fund registration are important issues for Singaporean based business.

52% of the AUM was then invested in Asia Pacific instruments or securities.

The number of hedge funds in Singapore was reported as 350 with a USD AUM of 42.8 billion.  This is a drop of 22% from the previous year when the AUM was reported as US$55 billion.  The number of funds increased by 50 from 300 at December 2007 to 350 in December 2008.

The report stated that total investments in collective investment schemes was US$23 billion.  While it is not clear from the report what they mean by this term, if one assumes that they mean registered collective investment schemes for sale in Singapore and one adds to this the amount in the alternative space then the breakdown of the industry in terms of AUM is possibly:

Hedge Funds and Advisors - 42.8 billion

Other Asset Management Schemes (excluding national pension scheme) - 23 billion

Private banking assets under management - 535 billion.