Las carteras canalizan uno de cada cuatro euros en fondos

CaixaBank, Santander and BBVA control 70% of the discretionary fund management market in Spain. The trend of discretionary fund management continues to grow in the Spanish investment fund market. This strategy, allowing small investors to delegate fund management through their bank or other entities, as they typically do with higher net worth clients, has become one of the main channels for fund distribution.

According to the latest data from Inverco, 26.4% of the sector's wealth is already distributed through managed portfolios, meaning one out of every four euros in funds is moving through these baskets. The interest in this type of investment service, once relatively exclusive to private banking clients with large net worth, has skyrocketed in just a few years.

Small investors now hold a total of 183 billion euros in fund portfolios as of the first half of the year. There are currently 1.38 million portfolio management contracts in the Spanish market, with an average wealth managed through this model amounting to 30,100 euros. This formula, which has continued to expand in recent years (up 30% in the first half of the year), allows investors to delegate fund management to an entity in exchange for a fixed fee that in some cases is lower than the commissions charged by conventional funds.

One of its advantages is that discretionary management allows investors to forget about markets and have their wealth diversified and controlled in a single product. As entities confirm, discretionary management keeps clients more loyal than direct product sales, such as investment funds. This is one of the reasons why banks, which dominate the distribution of investment products in Spain, have made this service a priority in their commercial strategy in the investments area.

The three largest Spanish banks, CaixaBank, Santander, and BBVA, manage the majority of the wealth in managed portfolios. Together, they distribute a total of 127.201 billion euros through this formula, representing nearly 70% of the total market as of the first half. Almost seven out of ten euros in discretionary management are with these three entities.

CaixaBank leads the market, alone accounting for around 34.6% of the wealth, with assets valued at 63.293 billion euros. Santander manages 33.581 billion euros in discretionary management, while BBVA oversees approximately 30.327 billion euros. Beyond the big banks, it is particularly noteworthy that Indexa Capital, managing a volume of 5.256 billion euros, is experiencing strong growth in recent periods.

This roboadvisor, specializing in low-cost automated fund portfolio management, is the sixth entity in this segment. Only CaixaBank, Santander, BBVA, Kutxabank, and Sabadell exceed it in terms of managed wealth.