Review by Lee Junseo, Chair of the Judging Committee
(President of the Korea Securities Association)
The '2025 Asia Fund Awards,' now in its 16th year, was established to encourage financial institutions striving for the development of the fund market and to explore the direction of future innovation.
Last year, the domestic stock market underperformed compared to major global markets. Due to the decline in indices, interest in domestic stock funds decreased, and redemption demands for long-term investment funds continued. As a result, the net assets of domestic stock funds decreased by 7.6 trillion KRW compared to the beginning of the year.
However, despite these challenging conditions, participants in the fund market, including asset management companies and distributors, worked hard to launch products that enable investors to grow their assets. Consequently, funds flowed into ETFs, which offer high investment accessibility and convenience with low management fees, and the total net assets of the ETF market grew to 173.2 trillion KRW. The assets under management of target-date funds (TDF), investment products for retirement preparation, also increased by more than 20%.
This year, the Asia Economy Fund Awards judging committee selected the Fund Manager of the Year through written evaluations and quantitative and qualitative assessments based on data provided by FnGuide. As a result, the grand prize was awarded to Mirae Asset Global Investments.
Mirae Asset Global Investments is emerging as a global asset management company, standing out not only in the domestic market but also in the global ETF market. At the end of last year, Mirae Asset's global ETF assets under management exceeded 200 trillion KRW, ranking 12th among asset managers worldwide.
KB Asset Management was selected as the Best Manager in the TDF category. As competition to dominate the TDF market intensified, KB Asset Management was the only company among the top five asset managers to increase its market share last year.
In the ETF category, Samsung Asset Management and Mirae Asset Global Investments were named Best Managers. Both companies are launching various ETF products for investors through healthy competition.
Shinhan Asset Management was selected as the Best Manager in the retirement pension category. Shinhan Asset Management excelled in the area of the pre-designated management system (default option) implemented to improve retirement pension returns.
Korea Investment Management was recognized as the Best Manager in the public offering fund category. The company focuses on developing fund products related to U.S. growth stocks, artificial intelligence (AI), and semiconductor companies. It also demonstrated its management capabilities through high returns on public offering funds.
Best distributors were selected based on their frequent consumer contact and high scores in distributor evaluations and returns, including Samsung Securities, Korea Investment & Securities, KB Securities, and NH Investment & Securities.
We sincerely congratulate all the awarded asset management companies and securities firms and ask them to continue leading the development and sale of more innovative, creative, and consumer-protection-focused fund products for investors. Thank you.
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