
Amundi, Europe’s biggest asset manager, is calling on investors to reassess their global asset allocation in light of deep structural changes in the world economy, with its top investment leaders highlighting Europe’s growing role as a safe and opportunity-rich destination.
Against a backdrop of shifting geopolitical alliances, trade fragmentation and inflation uncertainty, Amundi’s chief investment officers on Thursday urged investors to rebalance away from an over-reliance on US assets and prepare for a new era of diversified, Europe-focused portfolios.
Speaking in Paris at the Amundi World Investment Forum, Group CIO Vincent Mortier stressed that the long-standing tilt toward US assets is increasingly hard to justify.
“More and more investors are starting to realise that their allocation to US assets may be oversized,” Mortier said, noting that the US makes up around two-thirds of global indices, but accounts for only 26 percent of world GDP, and just 15 percent on a purchasing power basis.
Europe’s moment
Mortier, alongside deputy CIO Philippe d’Orgeval and Monica Defend of the Amundi Investment Institute, described a Europe regaining self-confidence thanks to reform momentum, monetary policy clarity and a reconfiguration of global supply chains that favour regional production and trusted partners.
European equities have outperformed US counterparts by 15 percent year to date (in euro terms), and that trend could continue, they argued.
“Europe is taking greater control of its destiny, and that is strengthening investor confidence,” said d’Orgeval. Key factors include high household savings, low corporate debt, and stabilisation in peripheral eurozone countries, all of which make the region more attractive in turbulent times.
Amundi also sees investment potential in small and mid-cap companies, which currently trade at 20-year lows relative to large caps. With inflation on track to fall below 2 percent and the ECB poised to ease policy, European bonds, with yields at decade highs, are also regaining favour in diversified fixed income portfolios.
Rebooting the investment mindset
Monica Defend framed the global economy as not simply “slowing, but rebooting.” She urged investors to integrate geopolitical shifts, longevity trends, and demographic changes into their investment approach.
“We are going to live longer, but we want to live larger,” she said. That will reshape consumption and retirement patterns across Europe, requiring a more forward-looking allocation strategy.
Vincent Mortier closed with four investor recommendations: broaden exposure beyond traditional indices and fashionable sectors, manage currency risk actively, favour medium-duration bonds, and diversify across real assets, including energy, gold, and private debt.
Letta: EU must back SIU with a clear deadline
Echoing the theme of European renewal, former Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta addressed the audience of approximately one thousand asset owners from Europe and Asia and issued a call to arms for EU leaders: give the long-discussed Savings and Investment Union (SIU) a clear deadline: 1 July 2027.
Letta argued that Europe’s previous integration milestones, such as the single market and the euro, succeeded because they had binding timetables.
“Our generation grew up with clear deadlines,” he said, referencing the 1992 single market and the phased launch of the euro. “If we are able to do so again, I think the markets will believe in Europe.”
The SIU aims to tear down financial barriers between EU member states and link Europe’s deep savings pool with its investment needs, particularly in infrastructure, defence and innovation. Letta insisted that setting a firm date is essential to overcoming fragmentation and unlocking the full potential of Europe’s financial ecosystem.
His message was clear: strategic autonomy requires more than rhetoric. It needs binding commitments, and trust from investors will follow.
‘Extraordinary change, extraordinary flux’
Former U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken offered a sobering assessment of the current geopolitical landscape, describing it as “a moment of extraordinary change, extraordinary flux, the kind of moment that we see every 70, 80, maybe 100 years.”
Blinken emphasized the enduring importance of American leadership in an increasingly complex world, noting that “the world doesn’t organize itself. If we’re not part of the organizer, then I think either someone else comes in and does the organizing, and probably not in a way that reflects our own interests and values, or maybe just as bad no one does it”.
Former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen addressed Europe’s defense capabilities, stressing the urgent need for consolidation of European defense industries and faster delivery times. Rasmussen proposed creating “D7” defense cooperation between the EU, the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and South Korea to counter the US-China trade war. D7 as a defence partnership that could also inspire cooperation in trade.
Both Blinken and Rasmussen underscored the necessity of international collaboration in addressing global challenges. Blinken articulated the concept of “enlightened self-interest,” explaining that “the success of others is actually to our net benefit. And we made those investments, and those investments came back to us 10 times, 100 times, 1000 times, new markets for our products, new partners to deal with these global challenges, new allies to deter aggression”.
Amundi, which called itself “Europe’s only global asset manager”, had brought into approximately one thousand asset owners from Europe, South Korea, China and Japan, for its annual event at the Louvre. The firm has some 2,000 trillion euro in assets under management, some 450 trillion of which stems from Asia.