ICI Presents 2014 Fund Reclassification
Data Series Updated to Reflect Current Marketplace
Washington, DC, March 26, 2014 - The Investment Company Institute (ICI) is releasing today its modernized investment objective classifications for open-end mutual funds, reflecting current market practices and maintaining consistency in its industry data series. The new data classification will be first made available in the detailed data underlying the March 26 Trends report and weekly long-term report, as well as the March 27 money market fund report.
Impact of Fund Reclassification
To help members, analysts, the media, and the public understand trends in mutual fund investing, ICI reports data on open-end mutual funds at several levels of detail. At the macro level, the ICI data categories—domestic equity, world equity, taxable bond, municipal bond, hybrid, taxable money market, and tax-exempt money market funds—will remain the same. These macro-level category data are found in ICI press releases and in reports that are available to the public.
The changes from the reclassification will occur at a more granular level. Below the macro-level categories, 13 composite investment objectives (IOBs) (for example, capital appreciation, world equity, hybrid, and investment grade bond) can be broken out further into 42 IOBs (for example, growth, alternative strategies, global equity, flexible portfolio, and investment grade–short term). The 42 IOBs offer the greatest level of detail on trends in net assets, flows, and liquidity in mutual funds.
Data by these detailed categories are available to ICI members, paying subscribers, and members of the media.
Purpose of Fund Classification Refresh
Every year, ICI reclassifies funds based on changes in prospectus language, and periodically—about once every 10 to 15 years—ICI refreshes all of its database classifications.
“We monitor the industry, and when significant changes occur, we undertake a full fund reclassification to reflect current market practices. With improved consistency and reflecting modern industry terminology, the reclassification allows us to provide ICI members and the public more detail to examine current industry investment trends,” said ICI Chief Economist Brian Reid.
Significant Dates and Historical Timeframes Impacted by Reclassification
The new series of data will be released later today with February 2014 data in the monthly Trends in Mutual Fund Investing report and the weekly report on estimated long-term fund flows, followed by the March 27 weekly money market fund asset report.
Two different levels of historical data are available, going back to 1984 and 2000. On a macro level—domestic equity, world equity, taxable bond, municipal bond, hybrid, taxable money market, and tax-exempt money market funds—data is available beginning in January 1984, as ICI has provided before this reclassification effort. Macro-level categories will include consistent data, from 1984 to the present. Data at most IOB levels will be available from January 2000 to the present.
ICI’s extensive body of mutual fund data serves as a tremendous resource, and this comprehensive reclassification will give users more detail to examine current industry investment trends. Please visit our frequently asked questions on this reclassification for more information.