Outsourcing by European pension funds and insurance companies is on...

Outsourcing by European pension funds and insurance companies is on the rise, according to a new study by InterSec Research. The survey of more than 300 senior investment officers in charge of more than E1.5 trillion ($1.56 trillion) found that 25% of all assets are managed by external money managers, up from 18% four years ago. Key findings include: Private pension funds hand out about half of their assets to external managers, while public pension funds award only 31% of assets to outside managers; average accounts given out by private and public pension funds were E262 million and E277 million, respectively; balanced portfolios have dropped sharply to 26% of all externally managed allocations from 45% in 1994. Domestic equity allocations now comprise 18% of all those externally run, up from 10% four years ago. International equity accounts dipped one percentage point to a 27% market share. Passive allocations now are responsible for 13% of all external mandates, up from 9% in 1994. However, passive allocations tend to be larger than active ones, and the strategies now account for 21% of externally mandated assets, up from 12% four years ago.