Investors continue to divert flows from equity strategies into fixed income

A coalition of investors including Fidelity International, Aviva Investors, and Nomura, with a total of EUR1.8 trillion in assets under management, are calling on companies to end deforestation in their supply chain and improve transparency. 

At a time when governments around the world are burning through billions attempting to rescue citizens from the financial pain of coronavirus, which has created severe crises in healthcare and employment, Big Society Capital says there is a crucial opportunity to use private money to fund social causes. 

The asset management industry has reached a critical period for nurturing gender diversity, industry experts have advised, as investment firms choose how they will adapt to new challenges caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

A new wave of consolidation has started sweeping the asset management industry, and is expected to accelerate as sharper fee compression and rising costs turn up the pressure on investment firms. 

Institutional investors are spending 30 per cent of their time on tasks that do not add value to the investment process, including searching for documents on shared drives, and typing up handwritten notes from meetings.

The tide may be starting to turn for Japanese equity funds, as Japanese companies’ cash-rich balance sheets and improvements in corporate governance reduce scepticism from global investors.

The Bank of England has fuelled speculation over whether it will introduce negative interest rates in the UK by asking banks to detail how ready they are to deal with rates going negative.

A mentoring programme has been launched to address the “striking absence” of senior Black professionals at all levels in investment management, by bringing together experienced Black managers with chief executives and chief investment officers from across the industry.

The investment industry needs to go beyond measuring impact, says The Thinking Ahead Institute, and instead focus on linking those metrics back to the process of creating value for stakeholders. 

The world’s five largest asset management companies, BlackRock, Vanguard, UBS, State Street, and Fidelity International, hold USD22.5 trillion in assets combined, which is higher than the GDP of the United States.