Asset Allocation

Europe’s banks are heading into 2026 with solid balance sheets, but with less room for error. After an unusually long credit cycle, risks are building just as the economic environment becomes more uncertain, according to Scope Ratings’ European Bank Outlook 2026.

In private credit, institutional investors face their biggest risk not in the asset class itself, but in selecting the general partner. Interviews with private market insiders suggest the real danger is a lack of scrutiny of managers.

The global race to dominate artificial intelligence may feel a world away from Luxembourg, yet the Grand Duchy’s private banks and asset managers are watching the frenzy with growing interest.

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 problem with private credit is not that it might blow up the financial system. It’s that it might just not be a very good investment.

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

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.

Triodos Investment Management is betting that nature-based solutions, still a niche segment, will mature into a full-fledged asset class within the next decade.

Artificial intelligence has unleashed an energy race across big tech, one investors can no longer ignore.

Despite growing awareness, nature remains a hard sell for investors.