Funds Hub
Money managers under the microscope
Risk Management: Did fund managers learn their lesson?
By Detlef Glow, Head of EMEA Research at Lipper. The views expressed are his own.
In the last decade investors and fund managers faced two major crises in the stock markets, the popping of the technology bubble in 2001 and financial crisis starting in 2006.
Portfolio managers suffered average losses of about 50 percent in the wake of both crises, leading investors to question what their fund managers learned.
A Lipper and Avana Invest study on the maximum drawdown of actively managed funds found that those fund managers must have introduced new risk management tools after the bust of the technology bubble. Still, they failed to meet investor expectations on managing risk.
Morning Line-up: London quant funds, end of QE, death of stock-picking
News and views on the asset management industry from Reuters and elsewhere:
London funds seek an edge in ‘quant’ market – FT
Morning Line-up: Smaller hedge funds, state meddling and board diversity
News and views on the asset management industry from Reuters and elsewhere:
Average fund of hedge funds size drops by half – Financial News
Rising state meddling in EM companies irks investors – Reuters
Morning Line-up: Investors get picky with emerging markets, BlackRock sets sights on U.S. retail
News and views on the asset management industry from Reuters and elsewhere:
Warier investors seek specialized emerging market funds – Wall Street Journal
Morning Line-up: Hedge funds flatline, investors vet banker pay
News and views on the asset management industry from Reuters and elsewhere:
Hedge funds failing to handle choppy markets – Reuters
Spain’s bank rescue hits headwinds – WSJ
Investors turn spotlight on bank staff paycheques – Reuters
Morning Line-up: Japanese ETFs, UK non-doms, Swiss hedge fund
News and views on the asset management industry from Reuters and elsewhere:
U.S. investors place record wager on Japanese funds – New York Times
UK wealth industry relief at new rules on non-doms – Reuters
That’s all folks
The mood at this year’s Fund Forum, if not exactly upbeat, has been less sombre than last year’s introspective summit, with a few more cocktail parties around the stands, but asset managers remain on the whole subdued.
The continuing market volatility has a lot to answer for, with renewed worries about a double-dip recession overshadowing events. But if nothing else, the recession has forced exhibitors in the Forum’s trade hall to be a bit more imaginative in their freebies this year.
Piggy in the middle
Fitch’s annual review of the European asset management industry dished out some home truths for fund firms hoping they can begin to put that horrible financial crisis behind them.
Unveiling highlights from Fitch’s upcoming report at a briefing this week, Manuel Arrive, a senior director at Fitch Ratings, said he expects assets under management to rise more slowly and pressure on revenues to continue as investors shift to lower margin products. “Asset managers remain vulnerable to a renewed market downturn,” he said.
from Summit Notebook:
Time private bankers got professional
It's hard to imagine that a banker who represents multimillionaires would be anything but professional - but a top executive at a leading global bank thinks that's precisely the wealth management industry's problem.
"There is so much mediocrity in the industry we have to raise the bar here," said Gerard Aquilina, vice chairman of Barclays Wealth, at the Reuters Global Wealth Management Summit in Geneva.
