Asset Owner

What could hardly be considered a surprise anymore still turned into one. The annual revision of US job growth came in even bigger than expected. As anticipated, it triggered a flood of reactions—though often the wrong ones.

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.

Since 8 August, Belgian taxpayers have been able to declare untaxed income and assets through a new procedure for fiscal regularisation

This week’s overview of people transfers and appointments includes updates from Marguerite, Quintet, CenterSquare and the European Investment Bank.

France’s government is adrift after Bayrou’s resignation, yet its bonds still draw buyers. Investors point to global tailwinds and deep liquidity, but warn that if sentiment turns, France could be hit harder than its peers.

European smallcaps have delivered significantly better results this year than their US counterparts. Yet smallcaps weighed on ING’s portfolio returns.

In a world where climate risk is becoming an increasingly prominent factor, I argue that the psychological perception of this risk has a significant and measurable impact on asset prices.

It has been an eventful year so far for emerging market debt. Investors have enjoyed strong returns in US dollars, with the JPM GBI-EM Global Diversified index gaining 11.4 percent through July. India’s weighting in the benchmark has increased, but not all fund managers are equally enthusiastic about the country’s prospects.

The fee structure of an investment fund is more than a contract: it is a barometer of trust between fund manager and investor. Nothing frustrates a client more than paying a performance fee in a year with a negative total return, even if the manager has outperformed the benchmark.

Robinhood, the Silicon Valley-based brokerage known for disrupting Wall Street with zero-commission trading and meme-stock mania, is making a bold play for Europe. Its strategy? Rewire equity markets using blockchain.