The investment fund boom reaches medium-sized banks. Institutions such as Bankinter, Unicaja or Caja Rural have strengthened the sale of this type of financial products in 2025, with growth rates of between 15% and 21%. The good momentum of the stock and bond markets combines with the desire of more and more people for this type of savings.
Investment funds registered in Spain already accumulate more than 445,000 million euros, according to the latest data published by Inverco, the sector association. 49% of all this assets is concentrated in the managers of the three large Spanish banks: CaixaBank (101,000 million), Santander (64,000 million) and BBVA (57,000 million). But mid-sized institutions are cutting costs.
One of the most notable is Bankinter. In the first nine months of the year, the orange bank managed to market funds worth 2.2 billion euros, which allowed it to increase assets under management by 18%, exceeding 18 billion euros. This led its asset manager and broker to increase commissions received by 13%, up to €381 million (between January and September). More than half of the revenue from bank commissions comes from this source. Among the products that have sold the most are those of their range of profiled funds, the Bankinter Premium, with which they have broken all deposit records.
Unicaja Banco also takes off in the marketing of investment funds, with net subscriptions of over 1,900 million euros, in the best year in its history, which led it to exceed 12,500 million euros of assets under management. The increase compared to the data at the beginning of the year is 21.8%, the best among Spanish managers with more than 10 billion euros. In 2024, its asset manager, Unigest, has already broken its own record for raising new funds, with over 1.5 billion, and this year it will most likely exceed 2,000.
Several factors explain this sharp increase in the sale of investment funds. The first concerns the way Spanish banks are financed. Before the severe crisis of 2008-2012, everyone turned to retail financing, generously remunerating their customers’ deposits and accounts. Now, after the deep sanitization of the sector, they no longer have that financial dependence and do not have to pay much for these savings products. For this reason they have chosen to direct their clients’ money towards investment funds, for which they charge commissions of between 1% and 2% per year.
Furthermore, the long period of zero rates is now behind us and investment funds that invest in bonds can now offer attractive returns. This has meant more money than ever has flowed into Conservative funds.
Another major change in the industry is the commitment to discretionary portfolio management contracts. With this service the customer accepts that the bank or management company manages part of his assets according to agreed parameters. Often the assets invested in are the company’s own funds. Gescooperativo, the manager of the Caja Rural group, which managed to increase its assets by 17% in 2025, up to 11,450 euros, now wants to bet on this formula. “We want to leverage the full power of our trading network and new IT capabilities to facilitate large-scale portfolio trading,” says Asier Díez Hierro, president of the manager.
The three financial giants (CaixaBank, Santander and BBVA) continue to be the absolute leaders in the wealth management sector, thanks to their large client base. But their growth is no longer that strong. According to Inverco data, between January and September they increased their portfolio of Spanish funds between 5% and 7%.
In addition to the important medium-sized banks, there are two other entities that have had a very strong commitment to investment funds for several years: Kutxabank and Ibercaja. Its managers compete to be in fourth place, after the banking giants, and with a volume of managed savings that is already approaching 30,000 million euros, with a very uniform growth in assets under management: 9.4% and 9.5% respectively.
Another of the players that has gained greater importance in the asset management sector is Mutua Madrileña. Its manager Mutuativos already manages almost 12 billion euros in investment funds, which rises to 18 billion if other products are taken into account. The insurer also controls two other companies, EDM and Orienta Wealth. So far this year, through its three investee companies, the group has accumulated deposits of 2.7 billion euros and has become the most important non-bank operator in the country.
