Esma faces uphill battle to emerge as European SEC
In an interview with Investment Officer, Esma chair Verena Ross outlined her vision and the significant challenges ahead as the regulatory body aims to become Europe’s equivalent to the US SEC.
Another wave of price pressure hits European fund managers
Europe’s fee war is entering a new phase. Morningstar’s latest European Fund Fee Study finds that while the steepest cost declines are over, new competitive forces are reshaping the industry.
French political turmoil underlines ‘desynchronized growth’ in Europe
French assets came under renewed pressure on Monday after Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu resigned just hours after unveiling his cabinet. The selloff in equities and widening OAT–Bund spreads reinforced what economists and strategists describe as a new normal: a volatile, fragmented France where politics, not policy, drives market sentiment.
CSSF presses fund managers to tighten ESG disclosures
The CSSF has ordered all Luxembourg-based investment fund managers to review and, if necessary, correct their sustainability risk policies and disclosures, following a Europe-wide supervisory exercise that found compliance broadly satisfactory but still in need of significant improvement. The order also applies to managers of so-called Article 6 funds, which do not claim ESG characteristics.
Van Lanschot Kempen partners with State Street for active ETFs
Van Lanschot Kempen is preparing to enter the active ETF market through a new partnership with State Street Investment Management. The Amsterdam-based boutique, known for its smallcap and euro credit strategies, will rely on State Street’s infrastructure and distribution networks to launch its first exchange-traded funds within six to nine months.
ESG is losing its shine but gaining weight
Once seen as compliance or ideology, ESG is becoming part of ordinary risk management. Interviews with asset owners, managers and analysts in Amsterdam, the UK and the Netherlands show how sustainability is increasingly embedded in long term investment strategies.
UK ESG fund labels seen as poor example for SFDR 2.0
The United Kingdom’s new ESG fund labels have struggled to gain traction. As Brussels prepares an overhaul of the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), a senior Morningstar expert warns Europe not to copy London’s model.
Weak dollar brings classic FX hedging back into play
With the euro expected to strengthen further, portfolio strategies are increasingly being shaped by how much, not whether, to hedge U.S. exposures.
Critics fear EuroPension repeats mistakes that doomed PEPP
Europe’s pensions supervisor is relaunching the failed Pan-European Personal Pension Product under a new label, EuroPension. Critics warn the project risks repeating past mistakes: too complex to compete with low-cost ETFs, too weak to rival national schemes, and too focused on capital markets at the expense of statutory pensions.
German savers turn head-on to ETFs, pressing fund managers
German retail investors put nearly all equity fund inflows into exchange-traded funds in the first half of the year, cementing the country’s role as Europe’s largest ETF market.