Asset Owner

“Climate change is not a scenario for the distant future; it’s already affecting all asset classes,” said Lisa Backes, deputy CEO of Hauck & Aufhäuser Fund Services, during the LuxFlag Sustainable Investment Week in Luxembourg. For banks, sustainability has become a strategic and regulatory issue at the core of risk management and client relations.

The title of this column is the Chinese word for “mirage” or “illusion.” Hot air, in other words. Just like the impressive Chinese growth figure that was proudly announced this week.

During the third quarter of 2025, investors who assumed moderate credit and duration risk were rewarded, as the European Central Bank kept interest rates unchanged at its July and September meetings, while the U.S. Federal Reserve cut rates once in September.

Bhavneet Ahluwalia, investment specialist at M&G, says value investing in Europe is reasserting itself in a changing global landscape.

Last week, the French government survived two motions of no confidence, mainly by promising not to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 for the time being. For S&P, however, this was reason enough to downgrade France’s credit rating from AA- to A+. It may seem like a minor detail, but for managers of fixed income funds that require at least AA-rated investments, it created an immediate problem. Did all those French government bonds suddenly need to be dumped?

Lucienne Andring of Banque de Luxembourg champions a new era in private banking, where wealth transfer becomes a family dialogue, not a transaction.

Disrupted supply chains, volatile market conditions, and lagging investments have made investing in the water theme challenging. In recent years, European investors have withdrawn billions from water funds.

This week’s overview of people moves in the investment industry includes new leadership appointments at Debevoise & Plimpton, Arendt, LPEA, and Eversheds Sutherland.

As active ETFs grow beyond niche status, some of the last traditionally active managers, including Columbia Threadneedle and M&G, are entering the European market with strategies that blend research conviction and daily oversight.

Since President Trump began his second term, the US government has increasingly taken stakes in companies considered strategically important for national security. Investors are worried about what this means for market efficiency, but in the short term they are profiting from rising stock prices.