Is the era of fund rationalisation coming to an end?

Fund rationalisation may be coming to an end after a few years of groups actively cutting their product ranges, according to Fitch Ratings.

Speaking at Investment Week's Fund Management Summit this week, Alastair Sewell, senior director at the ratings agency, pointed to latest figures from Lipper which suggest the recent trend may be reversing. Between 2011 and 2013 more funds have been liquidated that created, with a total of over 3,000 funds eliminated across Europe, according to Fitch. Among groups cutting their fund ranges are such well-established names as Newton Investment Management, which overhauled its UK equity range back in 2012, and the programmes embarked on by Henderson and F&C in 2009. "Fund eliminations...