Saudi Arabia is leading the growth of asset management in the Gulf to $2.7 trillion in 2025
A recent report showed that Saudi Arabia still leads the region’s markets in terms of mutual funds and Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) directed to individuals, whether at the level of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries or the Middle East region, followed by the UAE and then Kuwait.
He pointed out that the General Organization for Social Insurance in Saudi Arabiamaintains its position as the largest pension fund in the region, while the Kuwaiti Wafra Investment Company came in second place, while the Kuwait Investment Authority recorded the largest size of externally managed assets among sovereign wealth funds, followed by the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.
Growth of Investment Management Assets
The report, entitled "Global Asset Management Report 2026: A Growth Imperative"The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is consolidating its position as a major driver of sector growth in the region.
The report indicated that the individual investor sector in the Gulf countries recorded a strong performance during the past year, after growing by 14%, compared to a growth of 9% for institutional assets.
Although institutions continue to dominate the asset management market in the region, and account for 93% of the total assets managed, the assets of individual investors are growing at a faster pace, to currently constitute about 7%. Of the total market.
The report pointed out that the global asset management industry is witnessing profound structural changes, represented by the increasing importance of distribution channels, the expansion of artificial intelligence applications, in addition to the emergence of asset encoding technology (Tokenization) as one of the most prominent engines that will reshape the sector in the coming years.
Distribution channels
It explained that competition no longer depends solely on the design of investment products, but rather control of distribution channels, such as digital platforms, financial advisors, and relations with institutional investors, has become the decisive factor in achieving Growth.
With regard to artificial intelligence, the report expected that global asset management companies will be able to reduce operating costs by between 25 and 35% during the next three to five years, while doubling the scope of investment research between two and five times, and increasing the number of clients managed by each relationship manager by the same percentage, while providing more personalized services.
It indicated that artificial intelligence will allow companies to achieve growth without the need for similar increases in the number of employees, but most companies are still in the early stages of application, and rely on Pilot projects instead of implementing a comprehensive transformation in their business models.
Coding digital assets
The report highlighted the growing role of digital asset coding, expecting the value of global tokenized real assets to reach $14 trillion by 2030, rising to $55 trillion by 2035, which would bring about radical changes in the methods of asset distribution, ownership and management, and open the way for the entry of new competitors.
The report issued by Boston Consulting concluded The asset management industry is entering a new phase in which competition moves from relying on market growth to competing to attract new investment flows.
He stated that building strong distribution networks and adopting modern technology will constitute the decisive factor in determining companies capable of achieving growth in the coming years.
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