The fund companies Union Investment and Deka see each other as main competitors, even if they operate in different worlds.
Union funds are mainly sold by cooperative Volksbanks and Raiffeisenbanks, while Deka funds are sold by public savings banks, even if their discipline to sell investments from their own securities house is not quite as great as in the cooperative sector.
But since the savings banks bought the Landesbanken out of Deka a good ten years ago, identification has grown.
In the first half of 2022, Deka's net sales of EUR 14.3 billion were significantly higher than Union's of EUR 9.6 billion.
It suits Deka that, unlike Union, it not only sells funds but also certificates, which are particularly popular in times of volatile capital markets.
However, the short-term comparison of net sales should not obscure the fact that Union is still ahead of Deka in many respects, also thanks to the customer clientele who have a greater affinity with the capital market.
Union usually delivers more profit than Deka, and its managed customer assets are higher at 416 billion euros than Deka's at 367 billion euros.
But Deka is making up ground: in the first half of 2022, its net sales among particularly critical institutional investors were twice as high as Union's.