The closet-tracking scandal, the Icelandic crash and sustainable investing are perhaps the three best descriptors to sum up the background to Scandinavian and Nordic asset management – although the industry says the story has moved on since 2015’s benchmark-hugging revelations.
Some years ago, I visited a yoga retreat in Portugal. Late at night, two women arrived in a taxi. They were from California and so had had a long journey.
With the closet tracking controversy largely behind it, a steady economy and the relaxation of Icelandic capital controls, the Nordics’ funds industry is looking in rude health, finds Mark Latham.
Despite massive outflows from absolute return strategies in recent years, there will continue to be a market for such funds in the future, Aviva Investors’ Euan Munro tells Mark Latham.
In the US, low-fee passive business has gone a step beyond offering funds for free and into the realm of ‘negative’ fees. Could it happen in Europe? Nick Fitzpatrick finds opinions differ.
Fund managers sound optimistic about a continuation of the market rally, given improving economic prospects in the US and China. And there’s plenty of cash on the sidelines that missed the rally, says one.
Data analytics will revolutionise investment funds and their distribution when the industry learns the value of coherent, qualitative datasets. By Maxime Aerts, chief operating officer at Fundsquare.
By one measure, and despite the Brexit issue, French equity funds have been hit harder than UK equity funds since the start of 2016. Cameron Brandt, a fund flows specialist at EPFR Global, looks at the problem with France.
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