Asset Manager

In Luxembourg—a glorified back office—we all know someone who toils away in fear of financial regulators, mindlessly crunching numbers and churning out reports, yet unable to explain the fund industry’s role in society. And that’s a real shame.

When Friedrich Merz echoed Mario Draghi’s ‘whatever it takes’, he signalled a historic shift: economist Michael Hüther explains Germany’s big bold bet on infrastructure and defence.

Saxo Bank has a new majority shareholder: Swiss private bank J. Safra Sarasin, part of the Brazilian J. Safra Group. The private bank is acquiring the stakes held by Chinese automotive group Geely and Finnish asset manager Mandatum, taking its ownership to 70 percent.

On 10 March 2000, the Nasdaq peaked at 5048.6 points – a moment that no one recognised as such at the time, but which, in retrospect, marked the beginning of a freefall that would wipe out 77 percent of the market’s value. Now, 25 years later, inevitable parallels arise between the dotcom hype and the current AI revolution. But are these comparisons justified?

While some players are abandoning quant investing, others are expanding their positions in this domain. Scale is becoming increasingly important in quant investing, says Weili Zhou, Deputy CIO and Head of Quant Investing at Robeco, home to the largest quant team in the Netherlands.

The markets were already on edge, and there seems to be little sign of that changing any time soon. Geopolitical tensions have reached fever pitch, culminating in an outright shouting match in the Oval Office in Washington. This development could have significant consequences, as Trump currently appears unwilling to provide aid to Ukraine.

World financial markets remained in a radical readjustment phase on Thursday as the implications of Germany’s fiscal shift continued to reverberate across global debt markets.

Women are reshaping wealth management, yet remain underrepresented in investment decisions. As female investors gain financial power, wealth managers must adapt—or risk missing out on a trillion-dollar market.

Yields on 10-year US treasury bonds and government bonds in Europe remained high coming into 2025, and continued with 2024’s historically tight spread levels versus corporate credit. Still, some investors appear reluctant to take large directional macro bets as uncertainty around the possibility of policy changes in the US remains high.

The range of active ETFs in Europe is growing rapidly and Robeco is also investing heavily in the development of this asset class. The Rotterdam-based fund house brought in Nick King from Fidelity to roll out its ETF strategy, resulting in the launch of four equity ETFs last autumn. In 2025, the focus will be on bonds.