Specific customer requirements, fund-related regulation and access to distribution partners are the biggest challenges for foreign investment companies in the German market – or at least they were until the Coronavirus lockdown began. The highest personal hurdle for employees and service providers of investment companies was, until recently, the fact that Germany is highly decentralised and has many different financial centres. These are the key findings of the survey “Which hurdles do foreign fund managers have to overcome in the German market?“, which was initiated by the specialised communications consultancy Gerle Financial Communications (GFC). Please find the complete results of the survey in this English press release (PDF file).
Between January and March, representatives of 18 companies working for or providing services to foreign fund houses, mainly in sales, took part in the online survey. The participating investment companies come from Europe (nine companies), North and South America (eight) and Asia (one company) and represent a total of approximately EUR 4.3 trillion in assets under management worldwide (as of December 2019).