Investment funds are supplies of capital that a number of individual investors pay into, which are used to collectively invest in stocks and bonds. In France, the value of money market funds' financial assets has been fluctuating over the last few years, but has generally decreased since 2017. It had reached 326 billion euros in the second quarter of 2020. Moreover, the local investment fund's capital inflow has decreased since 2016, reaching 125 million euros as of 2019.
Another type of investment used by the French is private equity. It consists of investors and funds investing directly into private companies or conduct buyouts of public companies. In 2019, private equity companies invested a total of 19.3 billion euros in France, and these investments were mostly made through buy-out transactions. In contrast, the amount of private equity divestments increased since 2007, reaching over seven billion euros in 2019.
Environmental and social responsibility are criteria which gain more and more importance among the French population when it comes to investment, making socially responsible investments rising players in the financing industry. In France, 31 percent of socially responsible outstanding investment funds were monetary investment funds in 2019, and 38 percent of SRI outstanding investment funds were connected to institutional investors.
When it comes to financing, another channel and instrument is emerging outside of the traditional financial system: alternative finance. In 2019, 1.406 billion euros were collected through alternative finance, using different type of platforms, such as P2P consumer lending or P2P business lending.
