Singapore asset managers managed to handle record high assets valued at $1.2 trillion at the end of the year 2009, which exceeded even the pre-crisis climax of 2007.

In the year 2008, they managed $864 billion of assets, said Mr. Ong Chong Tee, Deputy Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore on Friday.

Speaking at the OCBC Global Treasury economic and business meeting, he said that the Asia Pacific section carried on being the important investment markets for Singapore-based asset managers, which accounted for 61%of the total assets under management (AUM) in 2009.

This mirrored an augmentation of 9% points from the 2008 MAS review, highlighting the increasing interest in the Asian markets.

Mr. Ong said the increase in assets was steady with the recuperation of market sentiments from the latter half of the previous year.

Asia's financial flexibility through this latest emergency period stood in bleak contrast to the more powerful economies, he noted.

This was the foremost time that Asia has been able to lead a global revival. In Q2 2009, most Asian economies opted out of the recession when U.S. and Europe were still in tightening phase.

Indeed, the big economies in Asia for example China, India and Indonesia, continued to develop all through the financial calamity.