Sixteen Australian fund managers are among the world's top 300 investment managers in Watson Wyatt's World 500 Ranking survey of 2006.
Colonial First State remains the largest of Australia's fund managers. Since 2005 the manager climbed 0 places to rank 128. Macquarie was the second largest manager (ranked 141) followed by AMP (ranked 145).
Together the 16 Australian investment firms manage $US581 billion ($653 billion) in assets which account for 1 per cent of the world's investments.
Watson Wyatt head of manager research Roz Amos attributed the growth of Australia's funds management industry to strong market returns and a compulsory superannuation system.
Amos noted, however, that Australian fund managers' focus on local products may limit their growth.
"We have not seen many Australian-based managers have significant success in developing non-Australian focused products, which has limited their appeal to non-Australian investors and also restricted their growth to a certain extent," she said.
The three largest asset managers in the world were UBS, Barclays Global Investors and State Street Global.
Globally, assets managed by the 500 fund managers grew by 19 per cent in 2006 to $US63.7 trillion ($71.7 trillion).
