Max Severijns

From Tuesday, US trades of stocks, bonds and ETFs will need to be settled within a single day, not two, presenting significant challenges to European funds dealing in US securities.

Speaking at an ALFI event in New York, the U.S. Securities and Exchanges Commission, SEC, and Luxembourg financial supervisor CSSF have jointly voiced significant concerns about “increasingly complicated fee structures” in the fund industry, warning that these practices may be obscuring the true costs for investors. 

Brendan Ballou’s book “Plunder” exposes how private equity firms, like Carlyle, harm businesses and evade legal responsibility, despite promising high returns. In this interview, Ballou discusses the alarming frequency and impact of these practices.

Publicly listed companies with the highest ESG scores and substantial investments from ESG funds often pay the least in taxes. In many cases, they pay even less than required by law, and according to Professor Gideon Parchomovsky, institutional investors play a role in this.

As Wall Street’s financial giants approach their annual shareholder meetings, the calls for restraint and closer alignment of executive pay with company performance and shareholder interests signal a potentially contentious voting season.

Steffen Pauls led KKR in Germany for over eleven years before becoming CEO of Moonfare. In 2015, he left the American investment company with a new goal: making private markets accessible to individuals. He understands all too well this target group sometimes has ethical concerns regarding this sector.

The returns generated by private credit funds seem to primarily benefit fund managers, not investors. According to a recent study published by three economists from the American National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) there is no extra return left for investors after accounting for costs and risks.

The study “Risk-Adjusting The Returns To Private Debt Funds” analyzes cash flow data from 532 private credit funds established between 1992 and 2015. The researchers compared incoming capital to distributions to investors.

While it must frequently adjust its predictions, the market yet anticipates two reductions in the Federal Reserve’s rates within the year. Should these occur, the implications for the S&P 500 are a matter of considerable speculation.

“At some point a kind of repetition creeps in, fatigue too, like over that eternal ECB watch, whether a comma has shifted somewhere. Take US interest rates. Do you remember whether or not it was raised in March 2018?”

As the U.S. presidential election nears, the markets are bracing for heightened volatility, particularly within the S&P 500, signaling the first significant movement in the Volatility Index (VIX) in several months. Investors are turning their gaze toward the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) Volatility Index futures, anticipating notable fluctuations in the S&P 500 as election day approaches.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has revised its climate reporting requirements under pressure from politicians and the business community.