At the end of the third quarter 35,017 funds were registered for sale in Europe, with Luxembourg continuing to dominate the market hosting 9,183 funds and France next in line with 5,245 funds domiciled there.
Lipper said since the beginning of the year 2,383 funds had been created for sale in Europe, but during the same period 1,513 were closed and 1,260 merged.
In the third quarter there was a net decrease of 121 funds, which Dunny P Moonesawmy, head of Western Europe and Middle East Research, said was "mainly due to continued rationalisation of fund families resulting from the Ucits IV directive rather than weaknesses in the new funds dynamic".
The third quarter, which was a volatile period for stock markets, actually saw an increase of over 10% in the number of new funds launched, compared with the first quarter.
At the end of the third quarter, 37% of funds registered for sale in Europe were equity funds, 23% were mixed-asset funds and 18% bond funds. The remainder consisted of money market funds, real estate funds, commodity funds, and funds of hedge funds.
Equity funds also represented the largest group of new funds launched, with 791 since the start of the year, compared with 481 bond funds and 524 mixed-asset funds.
Lipper said it expects the process of rationalising and merging fund ranges to continue over the coming months, as revenue for the industry is hurt by the eurozone crisis.
