Fidelity To Invest More In Foreign Markets

The group's international funds performance is good relative to its peers, but the $22bn is relatively small beer. According to Standard & Poor's, rival American Funds currently invests around $93bn outside the States.

The international funds business now has more than 200 analysts worldwide and looks set to further broaden its exposure to global markets.

The international business did experience some problems in the early to mid 1990's and, as a result, Fidelity became a low risk manager, pulling back to its domestic market. New technology and control procedures will now permit cautious expansion in non core markets.