Investment Officer Luxembourg

“Providers are gearing up to launch their crypto-ETFs in America, Europe and Asia, as soon as the regulator gives permission. As the custodian bank of some of these trackers, State Street is counting on about 20 new products initially, with a variety of products over time, including single asset crypto funds and baskets of cryptos,” said State Street’s Swen Werner, in a conversation with Fondsnieuws, Investment Officer Luxembourg’s sister publication.

Every day, Natixis IM’s head of multi asset James Beaumont and his team wonder how much higher the equity markets can go. Yet, according to him, the issue that is keeping multi asset investors awake at the moment is something else. What should they do with government bonds? 

Industrial, technology and healthcare stocks now offer a good mix between yield and defensive characteristics. China is undergoing an intensive reform phase, moving from “the end of poverty” to “common prosperity”. This offers opportunities for investors, as the country is a long-term challenge. However, investors have quickly priced in the uncertainty surrounding the regulations.

Contrary to what many central bankers and economists expect, “supply chain disruptions” are still ubiquitous. Indeed, a quick glance at delivery times, inventories and freight costs shows that supply chain disruptions are getting worse rather than less. That could put an end, at least temporarily, to the equity rally, has written Jeroen Blokland, multi-asset specialist and founder of the research platform True Insights, in his first weekly contribution to Fondsnieuws, Investment Officer Luxembourg’s sister publication. 

The 300 largest pension funds in the world together had 21,700 billion US dollars under management in 2020. An increase of 11.5 percent, according to a study by Willis Towers Watson, in cooperation with the American platform Pensions & Investments. Prevailing trend: becoming more complex, but above all more holistic. 

“Why Luxembourg is still a tax haven” was the headline in Monday’s Luxemburger Wort, the country’s leading daily. The evidence for this statement was a report from the EU Tax Observatory think tank which identified the Grand Duchy and 16 other jurisdictions as helping multinational banks dodge taxes.

A majority of nearly 3,000 risk managers admit that the pandemic has led to more careless due diligence checks and a more sloppy handling of the Know Your Customer (KYC) principle. In addition, 71 per cent of respondents report that cybercrime is harder to contain because of remote working.

Newton’s second law states that impact equals mass times speed. It is my conviction that sustainable investors have a greater impact than they often think. Not so much because of the speed, but because of the increasing mass. In the financial markets, it is the marginal buyer and the marginal seller who determine the new balance and it is here that sustainable investors give the right push.

An active fund that mainly invests in green and social bonds from emerging markets was not available until last month, when the BlackRock Emerging Markets Impact Bond Fund was launched. The new fund is one of the first two EMD funds with an Article 9 rating under the SFDR.