The international mutual funds, offered by Postbank, received increased attention from investors in 2010, as the bank reported Mutual Funds sales up by 74%, compared to the levels in 2008, prior to crisis. The volumes moved most actively in the last quarter of the year. The rise is most significant among individual investors, due to the recently offered Personal Banking service and an increased attention towards the savings product SpestInvest, which combines a deposit and investment in mutual funds.
Last year, the international mutual funds, offered by Postbank, reported high returns. The best-performing fund was “Turkish Equity Fund” with an annual return of 34%, followed by Emerging Europefund, which invests its assets primarily in equity securities of companies that are exposed or have an important part of their business in the South, East or Central European region with 25% return in 2010. The champion in 2009 BRIC Fund that gained 70% and invests in equity securities in Brazil, Russia, India and China , performs strongly again in 2010, with an annual return of 21%.
“The data shows that good investments in the global funds brought high yield to investors, despite the financial crisis,” said Asen Yagodin, Executive Director of Postbank. “Mutual funds’ investments have a riskier profile than the deposit, but the funds managed by our group, prove to be a serious alternative to savings.”
Mutual funds are a collective form of investment in securities – shares, bonds and other financial instruments. They were designed to offer an opportunity to private individuals to take advantage of the stock exchange profits. Postbank’s 8 Mutual Funds are available for investments in Euro and Leva and invest their assets in different geographic regions and asset classes, as well as through the savings product SpestInvest.
