Investment Officer

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.

Fund platform Allfunds has announced its intention to list its shares on the Euronext Amsterdam stock exchange “in the coming weeks”. The announcement comes just days after it became public that Allfunds is planning to launch its first 12 mandate solutions on its fund platform.

Amundi has entered into exclusive negotiations with Société Générale for the acquisition of Lyxor for a total cash consideration of €825m, or €755m excluding excess capital, Amundi announced on its website on Wednesday.

Elon Musk’s announcement by tweet that Tesla’s customers will soon be able pay for their car in bitcoin has triggered a discussion about the viability of the digital currency between investment banks and asset managers. Should bitcoin be included in investment portfolios or shouldn’t it?

The number of cross-border funds registered globally recorded its slowest growth since 2009 last year. At the same time, however, Luxembourg strengthened its position as leading global fund hub according to the PwC Luxembourg Global Fund Distribution survey.