research

Fund managers are beefing up their exchange-traded fund (ETF) ranges, to judge from a recent flurry of product launches. Luxembourg’s fund industry faces a dual threat: these ETFs launched in Ireland and are taking market share from traditional Ucits mutual funds, its core product.

Both Paris-based AXA Investment Management and Boston-based Fidelity Investments have recently launched products offering active management and research at a lower cost.

When investing in unlisted real estate, funds that focus on a single country or on a separate sector within a country outperform funds that diversify across countries and/or sectors, according to a Cambridge University study. By contrast, real estate funds that focus purely on one sector do not outperform diversified funds. This research was named the best of 2021 by industry body Inrev.

The European Commission will relax a number of financial market rules to enable stock exchanges to play a greater role in the recovery from the coronavirus crisis.