Asia's falling fund penetration 'worrying'

Penetration of mutual funds in Asia ex-Japan continues to decline post-crisis, despite overall growth in assets under management – market participants point to this as a worrying indicator of a lack of understanding of these products. Mutual fund AUM grew by 17.8% to $1,288 billion from the end of 2007 to June 2014, according to research firm Cerulli Associates, but fell as a percentage of household financial assets to 6.5% as of end-2013 from 9.1% at the end of 2009. The declin…