Marketing of investment funds abroad and cross-border fund mergers result in increased foreign investors’ holdings in Finnish funds, said a Bank of Finland press release.

Foreign holdings in Finnish investment funds in the 2010s stayed at around 20 per cent and new investments in investment funds registered in Finland totalled EUR 5.4 billion in net terms in the first half of 2017.

If funds’ mutual subscriptions and redemptions are not taken into account, net investments in Finnish funds in the first half of the year were the largest seen in the 2010s.

The rise in investments in Finnish funds in January-June 2017 is mostly due to foreign investors who increased their investments in Finnish funds by EUR 3.2 billion in the period.

Approximately 80 per cent of the amount came from Sweden. Of foreign investor sectors, insurance corporations, non-financial corporations, and households increased their investments the most.

On the whole, foreign investors held around 21 per cent, i.e. EUR 24.8 billion, of Finnish investment fund assets at the end of June.

According to the Bank of Finland’s estimate, 14 per cent of the assets had been channelled from abroad into Finnish investment outlets. The corresponding figure for Finnish investors was 31 per cent.

Among the types of funds, bond funds attracted most of the new capital, which stood at EUR 2.8 billion, in January-June. As in recent years, these investments were mainly directed at debt instruments issued by non-financial corporations and financial institutions.

Equity funds registered a net inflow of EUR 1.4 billion in new investments. These were mostly channelled into European and Asian stock markets.

By contrast, Finnish funds’ repatriations of investments in US shares were EUR 0.6 billion higher than their additional investments in them.

In addition to new investments, valuation changes boosted Finnish investment fund assets by EUR 2.7 billion in the first half of the year.

In all, the assets increased by 7.5 per cent with their value standing at EUR 116 billion at the end of June.