Investment funds in Guernsey increased by £2.5 billion during the final quarter of 2009, according to research from Guernsey Finance. The 1.5% growth took the total value of funds business on the island to £184.2 billion at the end of December 2009. Despite this, there was an overall decline of £16.2 billion throughout the year; an 8.1% loss compared to 2008.

Guernsey Finance chief executive Peter Niven said that the overall business decline is indicative of a severe global crisis and investors should continue to remain cautiously optimistic about Guernsey's fund sector.

"Although we have seen overall business decline by some 8% during the last calendar year, our performance has outstripped some of our closest competitors. The fact that we have had two consecutive quarters of growth to the end of the year points again to a slow climb out of the general trough of 2008/9," Niven said.

Guernsey domiciled closed-ended funds reached a net asset value of £85.4 billion at the end of December 2009, which was a rise of £4.3billion (5.3%) during the quarter but a decline of £6.1billion (6.7%) compared to the previous comparable year.

The Guernsey open-ended sector was valued at £50.7 billion by the end of the year - down £800 million (1.4%) during the final three months of 2009 and falling £12.9 billion (20.3%) compared to twelve months ago.

Non-Guernsey schemes, where some aspect of management, administration or custody is carried out on the island, decreased by £800 million (1.6%) during the third quarter of 2009 to reach £48.1billion, although this is £2.8 billion (6.2%) higher than the value at the end of December 2008.

The figures issued also show that the gross asset value of all Guernsey funds reached £220.7 billion at the end of December 2009. This is a rise of £3.5 billion (1.5%) from the end of September, which was the second quarter for reporting those gross figures.
Within the investment management and stock broking sector, 80 respondents confirmed gross assets under management of £47.1billion.