Across the investment industry, there are trend towards increased equity and international investments. This is a change from France's traditional bond and money market culture. The French asset management industry is rapidly reorganizing itself as it seeks to establish its capabilities in the post-euro environment. Most of the major players, banks and insurers, have set up independent asset management subsidiaries. However, collective fund investment dominates as there is no pension fund system to offer a significant source of third-party assets.
Banks dominate the asset management industry.
There are a number of boutique banks that focus solely on asset management, collective funds and high net worth clients. Insurance companies and securities houses also are key participants in the asset management industry. Most assets are invested in collective funds and discretionary accounts. Assets in collective schemes represent a large amount of total asset managed. Insurance companies manage the supplementary corporate pension funds, some of the investments of the complementary reserves and some of the profit-sharing and savings plans.