‘Incredible resilience’ shown by wealth product creators

The March quarter saw a steady increase in new financial product registrations, buoyed by a surge in managed fund product launches, the latest figures from APIR reveal.

A total of 184 financial products were registered in the March quarter, according to APIR, which tracks reference data for unlisted financial products.

Of these, 156 registrations were for managed investment products, representing a 15% increase on the quarterly average (tracked over five years).

In total, 531 traditional managed fund products have been registered in the year to date, which is also 15% up on the five-year rolling average.

Wholesale funds comprised around 55% of new registrations in the March quarter.

‘Fund of fund’ (FoF) products, also known as multi-manager investments, also hit a new registration record, with 43 products in market, FoF’s biggest recorded rise for any quarter.

Managed account product registrations were also up by more than one-third (39%) on a rolling five-year average, with a total of 18 new registrations.

Product terminations were also down significantly in the March quarter, dropping 75% over this period, with the loss of just 51 products, and remain significantly down in the year to date from the previous year, according to APIR.

There were no new product registrations for superannuation during the period.

However, according to APIR chief executive Chris Donohoe, after several years of extremely high levels of rationalisation of superannuation products, and particularly investment options, terminations have reduced significantly.

In the year to date, only 114 super products have been archived, Donohoe said.

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

“Recent geo-political events will also challenge global markets and present opportunities to the industry,” Donohoe added.