Italian asset management companies: products and governance

The importance of the asset management sector has prompted many studies to highlight the need to promote its growth and development. This is even more so following the recent financial crisis, considered by many authors the most severe recession after World War II. Contributions existing in literature have emphasized the importance of investigating the corporate governance system of the Asset Management Companies (AMCs), considering that the Italian financial system is characterized by a "vertical integration" between production and distribution. In particular, the purpose of our research is to establish whether the products offered by Italian AMCs affect their governance structure. We use a statistical multi–equation method called Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR) and analyze the period 2006-2010. Results show that mutual fund categories offered by Italian AMCs are very important because they may affect their corporate governance system and, therefore, the italian asset management market.