France Added 1.1 Million Retail Investors over Last 3 Years

The Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF), which oversees the French financial markets, revealed that more than one million new retail investors have entered the equities markets in the country over the previous three years.

“In three years, the AMF has recorded a little over 1.1 million new retail investors on equity markets,” the regulator stated. “Transaction volumes remained close to the high levels recorded in 2020.”

The regulator found out that the demand in the French retail equities market remained high throughout 2021. Around 1.6 million individuals in the country placed at least one buy or sell order last year, which is 19 percent higher than the previous year.

The demand peaked in the second quarter with several public offerings in the French capital markets. In the following two quarters too, the retail demand remained solid with approximately 743,000 active investors in the final quarter of the year.

Around the Peak

The number of retail transactions on French equities touched almost 13 million in the fourth quarter of 2021 with the yearly figure at more than 55 million.

Additionally, the report detailed that 217,000 investors last year were either first-time investors or have been inactive since January 2018. “The flow of new investors remained steady but seems to have leveled off at around 50,000 per quarter,” the AMF stated.

These statistics were revealed over a month after the French regulator revealed that the number of retail investors has significantly increased since the start of the pandemic. Moreover, it pointed out the rapid growth of neo banks in the country.

Then, the regulator pointed out that the average age of French retail investors dropped below 50 years since 2018, while it stood at 36 years old when only neo-broker platforms are considered.