The UK has the biggest funds industry in the world, proportionately, according to new analysis that picks out some interesting data-points about the business and economic significance of the country's money managers. With £4.1 trillion under management at the end of 2009, the UK's fund managers look after money that's equivalent to 273% of the country's gross domestic product. That is the biggest ratio in the world, ahead even of the US, whose money-management firms look after funds worth 252% of total economic output.

Other nations that punch above their weight in terms of funds managed include Switzerland, in third place, and the Netherlands, in fourth, both of which countries look after funds worth over twice as much as their economies.