Databank's money market mutual funds yielded positive returns in the first half of the year, signalling a general return to positive growth territory. Epack, the oldest and most patronised, recovered from returns of -3.68% and Ø5.11 % in 2008 and 2009 respectively to achieve a positive return of 4.46% per annum at the end of June 201 O. While the fund's shareholders increased by 13% to 81,919 in 2009, its total assets under management decreased by 39% from GH~85.8 million to GH~52.6 million. This was largely due to the high rate of redemptions as investors got jittery about' the fund's performance in both 2008 and 2009. The annualised yield on the Mfund was 20.42% in the first half of the year, a performance that trounced the 91-day Treasury bill, which returned about 13% and savings accounts, which paid an average interest of 7 -9%. In 2009, the yield per annum was 28.06% as against an average rate of 25.39% for the 91-day Treasury bill. These higher returns were mainly the result of higher inflation and interest payment son government securities. The Balanced Fund, which fairly balances investments in both fixed income instruments and equities, recovered strongly to yield 21.86% annualised returns after taking a dip to ˆ3.56%in2009. Started in 2008, the fund returned 18.10% in its first year, but was hit by the turbulence on African stock markets in the wake of the global financial crisis. However, it has chalked positive cumulative returns of 38.79% from when it started to the end of June this year. In 2009, Databank introduced an ethical mutual fund known as the Ark fund. Since then, it has achieved cumulative returns of 30.6% to date. In his address to shareholders at the funds' annual general meetings in Accra, Ken Ofori-Atta, the Executive Chairman of the Databank Group, was optimistic about the outlook for 2010. "The global economy is expected to grow by •4.25% whilst Africa's forecast growth is even better at 4.7% and improving in the foreseeable future. In the specific case of Ghana, it is likely that GDP growth will bounce back to about 6% from a low of 4.7% in 2009." He added, "so far this year, some markets have started picking up and we expect this to continue beyond 2010. We are therefore bullish and remain optimistic about the future direction of your investments." New innovations are also in the offing to make topping-up into investment accounts more efficient and convenient for clients. More banks will soon be on board to enhance the ongoing partnership with the banking sector, while payment technologies such as "Txt n Pay" and "Zain's Zap" are going to be added to existing mCommerce facilities. The investment bank is also geared up for the implementation of the new three-tier pension scheme in order to provide private sector support to managing retirees' wealth and savings. Source: B&FT