The value of the assets that the world's top 100 largest firms are responsible for gained 9% last year
The assets controlled by the world’s 100 largest asset managers grew 9% in the year to the end of 2021, down from 16% growth in the prior year.
That put the total value of their assets at US$25.7 trillion, the Thinking Ahead Institute has calculated. Pension funds continue to be the dominant group of asset managers with 56% of the total, slightly down from 58% in 2020.
Sovereign wealth funds increased their share of total assets from 35% to 37%.
The top 20 asset managers in the world are responsible for more than half of the total assets – 55% or $14.1 trillion – which has been the case throughout the Thinking Ahead Institute’s 5-year run of annual reports.
“These big asset owners control the world’s most influential capital and hold great responsibility and growing influence in relation to their beneficiaries, and to a widening group of stakeholders,” said Roger Urwin, co-founder of the global not-for-profit investment research and innovation member group.
He added that these asset owners have a distinctive opportunity to contribute to real-world systemic change by contributing to a Paris-aligned future, consistent with net-zero emissions by 2050.
Largest asset managers
The top three largest asset managers in the world at the end of 2021 were:
- Government Pension Investment Fund of Japan ($1.7 trillion)
- Norges Bank Investment Management (US$1.4 trillion)
- China Investment Corporation (US$1.2 trillion)
