Funds Investing

A eurobond is a debt security handled internationally by syndicates, groups of bankers and/or brokers who underwrite and distribute new issues of securities or large blocks of outstanding issues. It is typically in bearer (non-registered form) and is issued outside the country of the currency in which it is denominated.

Borrowers and lenders are spread around the world, while the intermediaries are spread across Europe, with the majority of business being done from London. The market was founded in the early 1960s and has provided a competitive source of funding for borrowers who can tap discreet but important sources of finance. Japanese banks, pension funds and insurance companies have become important lenders in recent years and there are still plenty of wealthy individuals who prefer the anonymity offered by bearer securities. The eurobond market is the world’s second largest securities market after the US bond market in terms of trading volume and the third largest after the US and Japanese bond markets in terms of debt outstanding. Read the rest of this entry »

1. Asset growth In 1990, the mutual fund industry was a relatively small industry among financial intermediaries, with just over $1 trillion in assets, or 12% of the total sector (see Table 1). By contrast, depository institutions had almost five times the assets, or 56% of the sector (of which commercial banks accounted for $3.3 trillion or 38%, and assets of life insurance companies equaled $1.4 trillion or 16%).

By the end of the 1990s, the mutual fund industry had become a major player among financial intermediaries, with almost $7 trillion in assets and 39% of the overall sector. Although mutual fund assets slightly lagged those of all depository institutions taken as a whole-at $7.6 trillion, Read the rest of this entry »