Managed fund registrations lead product growth in March quarter

APIR Systems, which identifies, codes, and manages reference data for unlisted financial products, said the registration of financial products in the 2024 March quarter were in line with the five-year rolling average for the same period at 184 registrations, slightly down on the previous quarter.

In the March 2024 quarter, 51 products were terminated, down 75 per cent on the rolling five-year average for the period, and remains significantly down, year to date, from last year.

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APIR chief executive, Chris Donohoe, noted that after several years of extremely high levels of rationalisation within superannuation products, terminations have reduced significantly with 114 archived in the year to date.

There were no registrations of superannuation products during the latest quarter.

Noting consecutive above-average periods, registrations of managed investment products (MIPs) were up almost 15 per cent on the quarterly average over the past five years, at 156, slightly lower than the December 2023 quarter which had 183, up 11 per cent on the quarterly average over the past five years.

Managed accounts product registrations were also up, seeing a 39 per cent increase on the rolling five-year average for the period, at 18, an increase on the December 2023 quarter which sat below the rolling average at 10.

Noting the findings for the recent quarter, Donohoe said there had been increases in registrations across a number of product categories this quarter, some of which broke records by a significant margin.

“Our recent observations about the strength in new registrations of traditional managed fund products continues to play out, with 531 registrations year to date, which is 15 per cent up on the five year rolling average,” he said.

“Additionally, we saw a sharp jump in the number of wholesale funds in the quarter, making up 55 per cent of new registrations.

“Also of interest was that 43 fund of fund products were registered, which is far and away a record for any quarter.”

Over recent years, Donohoe said product manufacturers have held fast, despite trying market conditions.

“Product manufacturers have proven to be incredibly resilient over the past four to five years despite the pandemic, slower economic growth, and higher interest rate environment,” he said.

“Recent geopolitical events will also challenge global markets and present opportunities to the industry.”