China is seen as the jewel in the asset manager’s crown after foreign ownership restrictions in the industry were relaxed in April. Global firms including BlackRock, Fidelity International and Vanguard have applied to set up wholly-owned mutual fund units in China, hoping to tap the country’s fast-growing USD2.6 trillion retail fund market.
The European asset management industry is back on track for another year of growth, according to industry body The European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA) – with assets under management rebounding strongly after being hit by the coronavirus crisis in the first quarter of 2020.
Financial stability across the world could be under threat from climate change, with the Financial Stability Board (FSB) warning that environmental deterioration could hit asset prices, financial liquidity, and borrower creditworthiness.
Institutional investors allocated USD220.5 billion to fixed income strategies in the third quarter of 2020, with most of this going toward US bond managers, as rising coronavirus cases and the run-up to the US election kept appetites for risk low.
Pension funds in the UK are being urged to step up their infrastructure investment, as speakers at a pensions conference this week emphasised the need to preserve the long-term sustainability of the UK economy.
By Francesc Balcells, CIO of EM Debt at FIM Partners, an institutional asset manager focused on emerging markets.
The FED and other central banks launch massive asset purchases, equities and global bonds rally, the market piles on inflation hedges, industrial commodities strengthen, and the dollar dips.
Diversity and inclusion have become a priority for institutional investors in the UK, two thirds of which say their firms are excluding companies from their investment portfolios if they fail to meet certain thresholds.
Companies that have promised publicly to run their business for the benefit of all stakeholders have handled the Covid-19 crisis and social and racial inequality worse than companies with no such commitment, a new report from The Test of Corporate Purpose finds.
Written by Sacha Bernasconi, portfolio manager of the SYZ Green Bonds Fund.
The catastrophe of Covid-19 has given the world one silver lining. A wake-up call. A sobering vision of the future, and the economic and social devastation climate change will bring. As responsible investors, we must be mindful of this portent of the future and accelerate our efforts in delivering progressive action. It is time to move the dial.
Investors continued to prefer “safe haven” money market funds as they shifted assets back into all types of open-ended funds in the second quarter, buoyed by a strong recovery in global financial markets, according to data compiled by The European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA).
Pension assets could support the UK economy in the fight against coronavirus, if they were invested in infrastructure such as social housing and environmental protection, according to Baroness Altmann, who spoke at a pensions conference this month.
The world’s three largest asset managers, BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street, have either voted against or abstained from voting on all efforts to halt deforestation by shareholders of consumer brands and agribusiness companies since 2012, a new report from environmental advocacy group Friends of the Earth finds.
