Number of Fund Managers Tops 700

The Korea Financial Investment Association announced on April 19 that the number of public fund managers working for 57 asset management firms in South Korea topped 700 early this year and reached an all-time high of 720 early this month. The number of public funds managed by the managers rose from 3,871 to 4,255 from early December 2017 to early this month. At present, the managers are managing 331.8 billion won in six public funds on average.

The managers have an average career of five years and five months. KB Asset Management has 66 fund managers, followed by Mirae Asset Global Investments (51) and Samsung Asset Management (44). Fidelity Asset Management and BlackRock Asset Management have only one fund manager each. In those firms, the managers are running 46 and 23 funds, respectively.

The number of fund managers in South Korea jumped from 386 to 612 from December 2007 to December 2012. However, the number fell to 576 until December 2016 with the South Korean stock market moving sideways and funds losing their popularity. Then, the number began to increase in 2017 based on fund product diversification. It rose from 639 to 666 in 2018 and to 698 in 2019.