The picture of a $100 trillion global asset management industry by 2018 is on the horizon, but only if the US - which accounts for just less than 50 per cent of global AuM - continues to grow “strongly,” Cerulli Associates' says in its international Global Markets 2014 report.

The picture of a $100 trillion global asset management industry by 2018 is on the horizon, but only if the US - which accounts for just less than 50 per cent of global AuM - continues to grow “strongly,” Cerulli Associates says in its international Global Markets 2014 report.

According to the report, the past couple of years have been “good for the global asset management industry,” with top-line asset growth from developed and emerging markets.

“The dark days of late 2008 and early 2009 may be well behind us, but there continues to be pressure on net revenues,” said Shiv Taneja, a managing director at Cerulli in London.

Taneja believes that ultra-low interest rates have played a major role in boosting global financial markets, resulting in healthy investment portfolios driven by market appreciation.

“Our five-year prognosis to 2018 is optimistic, but navigating the next couple of years could be a lot trickier,” he added.

According to Ken Yap, the Singapore-based director of quantitative research at Cerulli Associates, markets such as Southeast Asia and “a handful of others” will top the leader board of mutual fund growth over the next five years.

“Yet, what is most pleasing is that our analysts continue to feel positive about the world's largest marketplace, the US, which as we have said for some time will continue to be the engine of global asset management growth,” Yap said. “We also feel positively about the European market as a whole, with our old favorites the UK, Switzerland, and Sweden slated to do well.”