Asset Owner

Europe’s fund market is on the brink of a major reshuffle. Under SFDR 2.0, the European Commission’s revised sustainability rulebook, non-sustainable Article 6 funds are set to become the dominant category at the expense of the most popular sustainability category, Article 8.

European equities are getting more interesting, say asset management and private banking experts at Quintet, Pictet and Artemis Investment Management.

At the World Pensions Conference in London, experts pointed to Australia and Canada as models Europe can no longer ignore when it comes to investing in private markets.

The ECB has given stablecoins a place in its Financial Stability Review. In a report containing the term stability assessment, you would expect the focus to be mainly on risks, but even then the ECB’s approach is striking. The unapologetic desire to favor the traditional banking sector is more than telling.

The classic 60/40 investment strategy is still alive and well, though its merits have been a matter of debate in recent years.

Blackfin Capital Partners will become the majority shareholder of Arendt Investor Services in a deal valued at 500 million dollars that is aimed at accelerating the Luxembourg firm’s growth across Europe.

Our weekly coverage of people moves.

For decades, we have embraced the rise of passive investing (hammock investing) as the ultimate democratization of the financial markets. The gospel of low costs, broad diversification, and market returns seemed infallible. But while passive assets under management have climbed to astronomical levels, a wave of critical academic research reveals a troubling paradox: the instrument designed to help investors may be structurally distorting the market and ultimately diminishing their wealth.

Fund passports were built on the same vision that shaped the Schengen Zone: shared trust and borderless movement. Luxembourg remains at the center of that idea.

It was a master plan. The Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation was supposed to send massive private capital flows into green investments, finance the Green Deal, and allow Europe to set an example for the rest of the world. Not a nonbinding directive, but an ambitious framework meant to discipline the financial sector and crush greenwashing.