Selin Bucak

Some businesses were driven to quickly put systems in place as the pandemic drove a sudden move to remote working. This has however meant that despite most businesses having a cybersecurity strategy in place, they haven’t had the time to understand everything that these new technologies can do, according to George Ralph, global managing director at RFA, a cybersecurity provider to the financial services sector.

Asset managers are increasingly turning their attention to addressing biodiversity loss, but moving beyond just exclusion and actively making investments that improve the landscape will be an uphill battle. 

It has been a year since a damning report from ShareAction claimed that asset managers are blind to biodiversity loss, which pointed out that none of 75 of the world’s largest asset managers had a dedicated policy on the matter. 

If Europe’s nations decide to enforce different local guidelines when it comes to the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) it would be detrimental not just to asset managers but also investors, industry insiders have warned.

The SFDR came into effect on 10 March, when asset managers in the European Union had to decide whether their funds fit into one of three categories set out by the regulation, designating the level of sustainable characteristics. But that was only the beginning.

In a lot of funds investing in illiquid assets, such as property, daily dealing is likely to disappear. “The idea that you can have property in a fund you can buy or sell shares in on a daily basis has been exposed to be a lie.”