For asset managers, selling funds through distributionplatforms in Singapore is a highly competitive business. In most cases thisleads to a focus on established products that are easy to distribute - althoughrecent developments hint at the potential for innovation.Regional Disparities in Product DemandCrisil Coalition Greenwich’s 2025 Asian IntermediaryDistributors Study highlights some interesting disparities between Singapore-baseddistributors and their regional counterparts when it comes to productpopularity.For example, the distributors surveyed for the Asia-widestudy exhibited significantly reduced enthusiasm for US equities, with morethan a third of respondents projecting a significant decrease in flows. YetKillian Lonergan, head of distribution intelligence at BBH, says demand forgrowth exposure among investors in Singapore remains strong, particularly forglobal and US equity strategies.“What sells best are recognisable, core exposures such asglobal large-cap, US equity and dividend-focused strategies,” he adds.Similarly, while the Asian distributors surveyed by CrisilCoalition Greenwich projected a third consecutive year of significant netoutflows from emerging markets debt, one of the most popular product categoriesfor FSMOne Singapore (the business-to-consumer division of iFAST) is fundsoffering targeted sector or geographic exposure toemerging markets.Innovation Takes a Back SeatOne area where there is greater consensus is the extent towhich innovation is a factor in the launch of a fund. Respondents to the AsianIntermediary Distributors Study ranked product innovation below performance,investment capability, fund size, capability in the relevant market and investment processand only just ahead of information transparency in terms of importance.Lonergan explains that the most popular products inSingapore are those that align with how distributors operate and how advisersconstruct portfolios. Outcome-oriented funds that are operationally simple,easy to position and compatible with suitability frameworks consistentlyoutperform more complex or niche strategies in commercialterms.“In Singapore, funds don’t succeed because they areinnovative - they succeed because they are easy to distribute,” he says.“Income-oriented funds continue to attract the most consistent inflows acrossprivate banks and retailplatforms. Global and Asian credit, investment grade bond funds andmulti-asset income strategies remain staples and this demand is structuralrather than cyclical.”Income and Stability Drive FlowsAccording to Lonergan, investors in Singapore value incomevisibility and capital stability, while distributors favour products that canbe positioned around outcomes rather than market timing. Balanced and targetrisk multi-assetfunds play an outsized role in Singapore distribution, simplifyingportfolio construction, fitting neatly into suitability frameworks and scalingeasily across client segments.“Liquidity, transparency and suitability constraintscontinue to limit how far demand can move into more complex structures,”suggests Lonergan. “Thematic strategies such as technology, healthcare orsustainability typically generate strong initial interest but are often usedtactically rather than as long-term holdings.”Similarly, ESG-labelled funds are increasingly expected bydistributors - particularly in retail channels - but ESG alone is rarelyenough to drive sustained inflows.Lonergan reckons share class structure is one of the mostunderappreciated factors in Singapore, noting that funds offering Singaporedollar-hedged share classes and regular income distributions tend to be farmore commercially successful than otherwise identical strategies offered onlyin US dollar accumulation formats.Timothy Liew, head of investments at OCBC, agrees that thereis continued strong demand for income-focused products, driven in part by morecautious investor sentiment as a consequence of concerns around geopoliticaland policy risks.“Furthermore, bond yields continue to stay relativelyelevated despite the Fed cutting rates, presenting attractive opportunities forincome,” he says. “Accordingly, we have seen strong inflows into global fixed income anddividend-focused equity funds. Predictable income from bonds helps mitigatevolatility in the broader portfolio, while dividend stocks present a lessvolatile avenue to gain exposure to constructive growth.”ETFs and Multi-Asset MomentumLuke Lim, managing director at Phillip Securities, refers tothe popularity of multi-asset portfolios and observes that traditional mutualfunds remain in demand, especially when human advice shapes asset allocation.He also refers to continuedinterest in ETFs. The latest data from SGX indicates that Singapore-focusedETFs saw record multi-asset inflows in 2025, with equity ETFs recording tenconsecutive months of net inflows and investor interest in REIT ETFs picking upsignificantly in the second half of 2025.The latter segment attracted net inflows of S$557 million(approximately $433.6 million), lifting total assets under management to arecord high of S$1.65 billion ($1.285 billion) by the end of the year.Amid heightened market volatility, money market funds haveretained strong demand due to a combination of high liquidity and stablereturns over the last few years, with a number of new funds hitting the marketin 2024 and last year.Tokenisation and New Structures EmergingHowever, the relative unimportance of product innovationamong fund distributors does not mean that new lines are not emerging.Elaine Tan, head of asset owners & asset managers clientlines for Asia Pacific, securities services, BNP Paribas, notes thattokenisation was one of the topics strongly linked to money market funds inSingapore in 2025.“Fund managers have introduced digital units of money marketfunds on private permissioned blockchains such as tokenised share classes andon-chain funds,” she explains.Tokenization creates competition between markets that were never able to compete before.A market in Singapore will compete with a market in New York, because settlement windows and local infrastructure no longer matter. pic.twitter.com/s6uDIyMlmj— Chris Barrett ⬡ cbone 🎖️ (@ChrisBarrett) December 19, 2025In 2026, equity-focused products will be added to the equitymarket development programme launched by the Monetary Authority of Singaporein February 2025, expanding the retail investment horizon beyond large-capstocks.“In addition, the forthcoming long-term investment fundscheme is expected to further diversify retail asset allocation, potentiallyshifting a portion of retail capital from ultra short-term vehicles such asmoney market funds to long-term private asset exposure,” adds Tan.Traditional actively managed funds remain the most popularproducts in Singapore but there is growing momentum around expanding access toprivate market funds, supported by the proposed long-term investment fundstructure, according to Justin Christopher, head of Asia at Calastone.“Looking ahead, increased tokenisation of fund productscould further influence product popularity,” he concludes. “While adoption willnaturally align with the pace of digital distribution, the continued growth ofdigital investment channels suggests an increasingly supportive environment fornew product structures over time.”This article was written by Paul Golden at www.financemagnates.com.