Investment Officer

The European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA) has today published its latest monthly Investment Fund Industry Fact Sheet, providing data on net sales of UCITS and AIFs sold in June 2021, at a European level and by fund domicile.

Where growth stocks won the “battle” of value stocks for many years, value stocks recovered well late last year. Although growth stocks have recently regained ground, several fund houses are still expecting a continuation of the rally by value stocks. 

T. Rowe Price, for example, sent out a market outlook last week in which it wrote to stick with value stocks despite the recent gains by growth stocks. According to the fund house, the valuations of growth stocks are too high and value stocks have a chance to get some support.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is investigating DWS. The stock market watchdog is investigating an accusation that the German asset manager falsely made certain sustainability claims.

Sachin Vankalas, the Managing Director of LuxFlag, has passed away unexpectedly. The LuxFlag Board of Directors and the LuxFlag team are deeply saddened to learn of the sudden passing of Vankalas, the organization said in a brief press release. 

The general manager of LuxFlag, Luxembourg’s sustainable finance lobby group, has died of Covid-19 after battling the disease in hospital, a spokesperson confirmed. Vankalas, who worked at LuxFlag for 10 years, died at the age of 38.

During question time after the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) rate decision, Jerome Powell made a very bold statement about monetary policy in the future. When asked when we should expect a less aggressive monetary policy, Powell replied that the economic recovery is far from complete (labour market and unemployment) and that we should not expect any monetary tightening before the end of 2023. 

Acolin, a Zurich-based provider of regulatory and cross-border fund distribution services across Europe, has acquired Luxembourg-based Global Fund Analytics (GFA), a SaaS-based data collection and analytics platform for asset managers and distributors.

The Netherlands’ NN Group announced on Monday it is reviewing “strategic options” for its asset management division, NN Investment Partners (NN IP). These include a sale, merger and listing.

The number of institutional investors implementing ESG criteria has risen by almost 20% in two years, and almost 9 in 10 fund selectors want to maintain or expand their ESG offering. This could easily turn into a bubble, Natixis Investment Managers has warned.

Management fee revenues by European asset managers climbed by 10% during the second half of 2020 thanks to an increase in assets under management and stronger fund inflows, according to research by Moody’s Investor Service.

ING has merged the bank’s investment offices in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. ‘The aim of the operation is to become stronger together,’ says Bob Homan, who heads up the Investment Office which now employs 50 people.

The rationale behind the merger is that the investment offices of the country organisations actually do the same work. ‘They focus on research, asset allocation, selection of instruments and communication,’ says Homan in an interview with Investment Officer. The merger did not cost any jobs.