Standard & Poor’s annual reviews of the sub-sectors within fixed interest will be combined into a single report from next year, following a drop in the number of managers offering their funds for rating.

The pool for S&P’s review of the international fixed interest sector fell from nine to seven this year, as managers focused on diversified fixed interest and higher yielding products. The ratings-house’s report said that the diminishing rated universe of international fixed interest funds over the past 12 months had made it difficult to identify trends, and the different benchmarks did not allow comparisons across different fixed-interest sectors. Many of the managers in the international fixed-interest sector also failed to meet their annual performance benchmarks, most receiving three- or four-star ratings. David Erdonmez, fund analyst for S&P, suggested that performance should be viewed over the medium-to-long term as short-term performance had not been exemplary. “Some managers have had trouble over one year, but over five years their performance has been much more in line with their objectives,” he said. Only one manager, PIMCO, received a five-star rating in the last separate international fixed interest review.