Asset Servicing

Investors continue to shun EUR cautious allocation funds as fixed income regained popularity.

This week’s people update includes news from law firms DLA Piper and Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer, as well as appointments at RBC Bluebay, JP Morgan Asset Management, Anthos and Blackrock.

With the restoration of the negative correlation between equities and bonds, the structure of strategic asset allocation is once again under debate among asset owners and asset managers. Was the shift away from the traditional 60/40 portfolio towards a permanent allocation to private markets a lasting course correction — or merely a temporary response to an extraordinary period? Investment Officer spoke to four leading investment professionals.

Luxembourg’s financial regulator has updated its supervisory priorities for sustainable finance for 2026, reinforcing scrutiny of sustainability disclosures, governance frameworks and portfolio alignment across the financial sector.

Markets enter the week facing not simply another geopolitical headline, but the prospect of a structural energy repricing. After US-Israeli strikes killed Iran’s supreme leader and Tehran retaliated across the region, investors are bracing for a sharp adjustment in oil and gas markets when trading resumes. The issue is no longer whether risk premia rise, but how disruptive and persistent they may become. “The implications for energy markets and commodities, especially for crude oil and LNG flows, are asymmetric and could trigger severe market reactions very soon,” said Cyril Widdershoven, a senior advisor at Blue Water Strategies.

AI is not a bubble by definition. But the investment wave surrounding it is. The first hairline cracks are now clearly visible, and comparisons with the run-up to the global financial crisis are becoming hard to dismiss.

Washington is rewinding the clock on investor protection. Under chair Paul Atkins, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has rolled back a series of rules, scaled back enforcement and curtailed shareholder rights. According to former senior counsel Benjamin Schiffrin, who spent nearly two decades at the agency, the regulator is now siding more with Wall Street than with investors.

Over the 12 months to February 2026, the US dollar weakened by 12.6 percent against the euro, a move mirrored across several emerging-markets currencies, including the Brazilian real, South African rand, Mexican peso and Malaysian ringgit. This currency shift has pushed managers in the Morningstar Global Bond – Diversified category toward local-currency emerging-markets debt to capture both rate differentials and currency appreciation.

On the eve of the recent meeting of EU leaders on how to make the European economy more innovative, more competitive, and less dependent on foreign countries, participants were sent a note from the European Central Bank (ECB). In it, the bank outlined what it considers desirable policy to achieve those goals.

As real estate returns to favor as an asset class, sourcing investment opportunities is not necessarily the biggest challenge that wealthy families face. The real hurdle is conducting thorough due diligence—but this can be tackled by joining forces with other family offices.