Geert Dekker

The European ETF market grew in January by a record 46.9 billion euro. In the shadow of that growth, a price war is taking place: mainstream ETFs are now being offered with an expense ratio of 0.03 percent. Will Europe soon welcome the “free” ETF, as in the US?

With the Dutch House of Representatives (Tweede Kamerlid) passing the Actual Return Box 3 Act last week, the Netherlands will introduce “paper gains” as a basis for taxation starting in 2028. That is entirely unique in Europe. The patchwork of solutions Europe has devised for this tax will therefore gain a new addition.

Asset manager L&G is planning to set up hybrid “crossover” funds alongside its extensive passive business. These funds will contain both public and private investments. With this in mind, the British asset manager is working with specialists such as Blackstone.

Stay away next year from “long” government bonds and from corporate bonds, both high yield and investment grade. Profligate governments and poor risk-return profiles will spoil the mood in those markets.

Buy-and-hold and active management remain the preferred investment strategies among family offices in the Benelux. More than half of their portfolios are allocated to private equity and listed equities.

AI is going to change the world, but which companies will benefit most from that trend? Investors who put money into trends and themes such as AI look for a solid benchmark to determine the purity of their investments. The goal is high purity. That does not always work out.

Disrupted supply chains, volatile market conditions, and lagging investments have made investing in the water theme challenging. In recent years, European investors have withdrawn billions from water funds.

Driven by steadily declining yields and increasingly strict capital requirements, Dutch, Belgian, French, and German insurers have in recent years largely divested from government bonds. The freed-up capital has mainly been invested in corporate bonds and private debt.

ABN Amro’s private banking operations are a key asset for parties considering a takeover of the bank, even though the division’s financial results are generally weaker than those of its competitors.

Government bonds from countries that score high on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals have outperformed the global market-weighted bond index over the past three years.