Assets under management at the largest global asset managers have piled up to a record USD104.4 trillion, rising almost 15 per cent from the previous year, according to new research from the Thinking Ahead Institute. 

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. 

In March, London asset manager IBIS Capital announced that the merger of its Nasdaq-listed acquisition company, EdtechX Holdings, and a growing Chinese education technology group, Meten, had finally completed.

CACEIS, the asset servicing banking group of Crédit Agricole and Santander, has migrated Popular Asset Management and Popular Pensiones business, while all staff worked from home.

Ocorian and Estera have combined to create a ‘global leader’ in corporate and fiduciary services, fund administration and capital markets. The enlarged business will operate under the Ocorian name with refreshed branding.

Inflexion Private Equity is to acquire Estera, a global provider of funds, corporate and trust services from Bridgepoint. Following completion of the investment, Estera will be merged with Inflexion’s existing portfolio company Ocorian, forming a global corporate service and fund administration leader of significant scale. 

Investment consulting and advisory firms Meketa Investment Group (Meketa) and Pension Consulting Alliance (PCA) have completed the formal combination of the two firms. 

Finnish Invesdor Oy, a leading digital equity funding platform in the Nordics, and Austrian Finnest, a digital mid-size (Mittelstand) financier in the German speaking countries, have revealed plans to merge their businesses.

Investment consulting and advisory firms Meketa Investment Group (Meketa) and Pension Consulting Alliance (PCA) have entered into an agreement to join forces. The integration is expected to happen in the first half of 2019 and the combined firm will be called Meketa Investment Group, Inc.

The Post-Trade Distributed Ledger (PTDL) Group, which brings together major post-trade industry participants and regulators to share information and ideas about how distributed ledger technology can transform the post-trade landscape, is to merge with the Global Blockchain Business Council (GBBC), a trade association for the blockchain technology ecosystem.