The volume of assets of the investment companies themselves increased 15 percent to €47 million in the fourth quarter of 2016. As customers were given a loan for buying securities, the loan portfolio grew by one half and constitutes 39 percent of all assets, the Estonian Financial Supervision Authority reported.

Half of the assets consisted of savings in banks and financial institutions. In addition, investment companies held 8.5 percent of their assets in debenture bonds to fill the liquidity standard. The bond portfolio increaed by 20 percent in the fourth quarter.

The earned profit and collected revenue in the fourth quarter of 2016 were much bigger than usual. The quarterly profit reached €3.7 million. As the sector experienced a loss in the first three quarter, the total profit for 2016 totaled €2.6 million. Despite the bad start to the year, the yearly profit was 88 percent bigger than in 2015.

The net income of the fourth quarter was €7.6 million, nearly three times as much as in the third quarter. This increase was supported by the significant increase in the profit made from trading with derivative instruments. Despite the particularly large revenue, the sector earned approximately the ame in net income a they did in 2015, as the first three quarters of 2016 saw a consistent decrease in income.