REFILE-UK retail fund assets highest on record in August -IMA

(Clarifies in first paragraph that funds are retail; adds explanation of figures in 3rd paragraph)

* Funds under management highest on record

* Net retail sales 2.3 billion pounds in August

LONDON, Sept 29 (Reuters) - British retail fund assets reached their highest levels on record during August, boosted by recovering equity markets and strong sales with investors flocking into bonds, figures show on Wednesday.

Sales figures from Britain's Investment Management Association (IMA), show funds under management reached 516.1 billion pounds ($815.7 billion), up from 439.3 billion pounds a year earlier with bond funds the best selling asset class.

The figures measure retail funds available for sale in Britain, and include a small number of products domiciled in the EU outside the UK. The bulk of the about overall 3 trillion pounds UK industry comprises segregated pension fund mandates and other institutional money and EU-domiciled funds.

Net retail sales of bond funds were 1.2 billion pounds, the highest rate since May last year, the IMA said.

"Bond fund sales in August once more reached the peaks experienced in the first half of last year, surpassing the 1 billion pounds mark for the first time since May 2009," Richard Saunders, chief executive of the IMA said in a statement.

Equities were the second highest selling asset class at 479 million pounds, but fell short of the 596 million pounds monthly average for the last 12 months.

Total net retail sales of all funds were 2.3 billion pounds, the highest rate on record for August and above the monthly average for the last 12 months of 2.1 billion pounds.

Net retail sales have exceeded 2 billion pounds for 14 out of the last 17 months, the IMA said.

Retail sales for the year to date stand at 15.5 billion pounds, compared with 16.1 billion pounds from January to August last year. (Reporting by Chris Vellacott, editing by Sinead Cruise) ($1=.6327 pounds) (For the Funds Hub blog: blogs.reuters.com/hedgehub) (For Global Investing: here)