‘Euro stablecoin stands or falls with support from major banks’
A dozen major European banks have joined forces to offer a euro stablecoin to clients by the end of this year. “We have a better chance of creating a broadly supported stablecoin than fintechs,” said Floris Lugt, CFO of Qivalis, the joint venture that will issue the crypto payment instrument.
Value investing is growing up
For much of the past decade, value strategies have been widely dismissed. Ultra-low interest rates, scarcity of growth, and the relentless rise of Big Tech left value investing looking like a relic of a financial past.
Eastern Europe outpaces the West, but investors remain absent
Eastern Europe has been growing faster than the West for years. Western European companies are benefiting from that growth through large-scale factory investments. International investors, however, have completely missed the bull market. They left after the war in Ukraine and have not returned. According to analysts at Fidelity International and Karoll Capital, it is time to come back.
The shift in how the world sees farmland
In the past Farmland struggled to sit comfortably with traditional asset classes. This short piece explores why that matters, and what it reveals about how investors are reassessing risk and long term value.
Adding private markets can increase overlap in risk exposure
Investors seeking to diversify their portfolios and reduce dependence on traditional equity indices are increasingly turning to private markets. However, through their public holdings they already have exposure to those same markets. The additional costs associated with private funds do not structurally deliver higher returns.
Higher rates weigh on EMD more than geopolitics
The unrest in the Middle East has affected Emerging Market Debt (EMD) through rising rates and higher risk premiums. There is no indication, for now, of a structural deterioration in credit risk.
Neobrokers and neobanks are putting pressure on wealth management margins
Neobrokers and digital banks are advancing into wealth management and are putting further pressure on margins in the sector. Firms must choose between scale or differentiation to avoid ending up in a so-called “Valley of Death.”
How data is reshaping infrastructure
Infrastructure is shifting because the data coming from real systems is changing. What was once
a purely physical asset class is now shaped by information that is not immediately visible.
Shipping slows as fuel costs surge, credit strain spreads
Global shipping is slowing as surging fuel costs and mounting risks in the Persian Gulf begin to strain the industry’s finances, forcing companies to cut speeds, seek emergency credit and rethink whether voyages are still viable.
The Great Monetary Illusion: Why equity markets soar in a fragile world
Many investors today look at global equity indices and wonder how markets have risen so sharply over the past two decades in an environment marked by tepid economic growth, recurring geopolitical shocks and rising public debt burdens.