Asset Servicing

This week’s overview includes updates from Simmons & Simmons, Clifford Chance, Carmignac, Northern Trust, and NBIM.

Investing is a game of mistakes; the one who makes the fewest mistakes wins. In that sense, investing has more in common with soccer than one might initially think. And that’s exactly what made Johan Cruyff so uniquely suited to share his genius—with insights both on and off the field—with investors.

The latest automatic salary hike in Luxembourg landed on Workers’ Day. Cheers all around, but will rising costs hurt the fund industry?

With mounting pressure on housing, cybersecurity, and talent retention in an increasingly complex banking landscape, Luxembourg’s bankers are calling for a policy reset.

I remain endlessly amazed by how traditional investors continue to cling to outdated assumptions and clichés. Just last week, another firm once again refused to honor a client’s strong desire to expand their limited mix of just two asset classes. For tactical reasons, I’ll refrain from sharing the usual fallacies used to justify this.

Morningstar’s flexible allocation category includes a diverse group of funds with largely unconstrained mandates. These strategies typically have significant leeway to adjust weightings between equities and bonds and to incorporate alternative asset classes into the mix. Private markets have recently garnered more attention, and the rally in gold hasn’t gone unnoticed by investors either.

This week’s overview of people transfers and appointments in and around Luxembourg includes updates from Linklaters, M&G Investments, Triodos Investment Management, Flow Traders and Goldman Sachs Asset Management.

The investment fund Belfius Wealth is dissolving its sub-fund JP Morgan AM Convictions, citing “structurally low performance” and “lack of investor interest” as key reasons. Belfius is offering affected investors the option to transfer to a Blackrock sub-fund.

The prospect of foreign investors reducing their exposure to U.S. assets due to concerns about the dominance of U.S. Treasuries as a safe haven is fueling discussions about the very concept of a safe haven. Significant shifts in correlations between various asset classes, particularly between U.S. equities and the dollar, are at the heart of this debate.

Investors are pulling out of U.S. equity ETFs en masse, while European trackers are experiencing a record inflow.