Asset Managers

This week’s overview of transfers and appointments in the fund and asset management community in and outside Luxembourg includes updates from Quintet Luxembourg, Candriam and Zedra Group.

Luxembourg’s financial regulator CSSF has delivered a sharp warning to the country’s Investment Fund Managers (IFMs) regarding weaknesses in oversight practices when delegating portfolio management. The CSSF’s latest review highlights specific shortcomings, particularly in conflict of interest management and contingency planning, that could expose IFMs to regulatory risk and potential operational failures.

As the shift towards passive investing continues to reshape the asset management industry, active managers are exploring new strategies and product formats to maintain their edge. In an interview, Joseph Pinto, CEO of M&G Investments, outlined how the UK-based firm is adapting to the changing landscape.

As investors grapple with the potential market impact of the upcoming U.S. presidential election and simmering geopolitical tensions, Greg Peters, co-chief investment officer of PGIM Fixed Income, is closely monitoring a unique set of derivatives to gauge the Federal Reserve’s future policy path.

Franklin Templeton has secured approval from Luxembourg’s financial regulator, the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF), to launch the first fully tokenised UCITS fund in the country.

Private equity is under increasing pressure to innovate in response to growing competition, according to Hylke Hertoghs and Bastiaan van Slobbe, managing partners at Marktlink Capital.

More than half of the investment funds and ETFs sold in Europe now consist of passive investments. Over the past three years, this market share has increased from 34% to 56%. This trend is largely driven by two major US firms, BlackRock and Vanguard.

This week’s overview of transfers and appointments in the fund and asset management community in and outside Luxembourg includes updates from State Street, Clearwater Analytics, Axa Investment Managers, Blackrock and S&P Global.

With the hype around artificial intelligence and despite its high-profile failures and misuses, it’s clear the global financial sector has plenty of interest in AI, especially in hopes of finding yet another way to outsource low-complexity work. Many large financial firms have set up special departments to explore and lead the introduction of the technology in its various product offerings.