Investment Officer

Regulatory uncertainty that the industry is contending with as a result of the complex range of interacting legal requirements, Efama, the EU’s main trade body for asset management, said. Luxembourg’s Alfi argued that “the element of intent” needs to be considered when making judgements on greenwashing.

The oh-so-popular post-war 60/40 portfolio is worn out - passé. So say many asset allocation strategists. The alternative is 60/40/20: equities, bonds and alternatives. Nay, says Zoltan Pozsar, strategist at Credit Suisse. The future is the 20/40/20/20 portfolio, consisting of cash, equities, bonds and commodities. He explains why in his formidable analysis War and Peace.

A lack of financial literacy and unfamiliarity with digital technologies are key drivers of financial vulnerability and exclusion, Europe’s three financial sector supervisors said in a collective report.

Access to digital channels and digital infrastructure has become a prerequisite for consumers to make use of financial services, the report said, adding that a lack of digital financial skills also makes consumers more prone to be targets of digital scams and fraud.

Unlike the Federal Reserve itself, investors believe the “Fed pivot” moment is approaching rapidly. Forward swaps point to a peak in interest rates of up to five per cent. Some market experts however are “uncomfortable” with the view and don’t exclude a level of six percent of the US benchmark.

Manfred Dietrich has been appointed as funds and investment management partner at the Luxembourg office of global law firm Maples. He brings more than twenty years of experience in the investment funds, asset management and regulatory industries. 

Dietrich joined Maples in November from Norton Rose Fulbright. Maples said his appointment ”follows a period of exceptional growth at the firm and is in direct response to increasing demands for Luxembourg legal services from new and existing international clients.” 

Following an accident in December, Antonio Corpas, chief executive officer of The OneLife Group, passed away last Saturday, the company has announced. He was 54 years old. 

The European Union’s top supervisory authority for financial markets has started the new year with a new visual identity and logo that underlines its drive for efficient and resilient markets, the role of sustainability and innovation in its mission, and that should make the organisation“more accessible” to the public.

As the year ends, asset managers across Europe are anticipating the launch of even more stringent requirements for sustainable investments. At the same time, it’s increasingly becoming clear that EU regulation leaves ample room for investment managers to choose for themselves how they describe their ESG or impact investments.

In a year when war broke out in Ukraine, the S&P 500 lost about 20 percent of its value, the US Federal Reserve raised interest rates seven times and when the global inflation rate spiked, investors looked for wisdom in market research reports on bubbles, grey swans and investing in niche markets, a look at the most popular reports downloaded from Investment Officer shows.

Commodities will be the best-performing asset class next year, achieving returns of more than 40 per cent, analysts at Goldman Sachs said in their recently published Commodity Outlook for 2023, ‘An underinvested supercycle’. The first three months will be “bumpy”, but then scarcity will ensure rising prices.