By Elliot Gulliver-Needham The number of actively managed funds launched in the UK is dropping, fast. While the number of passive funds, which track indexes, has been fairly consistent recently, the number of active ones has almost halved in the last five years, from 146 in 2018 to just 79 last year. What’s worse, only 32 have been launched this year, according to data to 18 September from Morningstar Direct. City A.M. has heard of at least two funds that tried and failed to launch in recent months, mainly due to lack of investor interest. Ben Yearsley, director of Fairview Investing, said the…