BlackRock has lost an ex-Barclays chief executive from its board after he was charged by the UK’s Serious Fraud Office. Deutsche Bank has ramped up its anti-financial crime divisionwith two senior hires, while Aviva has appointed its chief executive of international insurance to the company’s board.
Wealth managers traditionally allocate meagre chunks of their portfolios to passive, but with assets in exchange-traded funds passing the $4trn (£3.2trn, €3.6trn) mark globally last month, that could be set to change.
BlackRock has acquired a significant minority stake in digital investment manager Scalable Capital.
Record inflows in May powered total assets invested in exchange trade funds (ETFs) around the world across the $4trn mark. And Europe is picking up the pace.
Emerging market equities and bonds have outperformed their developed rivals by a large margin year-to-date, resulting in a surge in inflows. An acceleration in global growth and the absence of immediate macro concerns seem to underpin the current rally, but there are some obvious elephants in the room.
US asset management giant BlackRock has revealed a major shake-up of its actively managed equity funds, including job cuts and a greater use of technology in stock picking.
BlackRock and Vanguard have called on US officials to delay the introduction of landmark rules forcing financial advisers to act in the best interests of their clients, raising concerns the new regulations will confuse investors and add unnecessary costs to the financial service industry.
Copia Capital Management, the discretionary fund management division of Novia Financial, has launched a range of managed portfolios purpose-built for decumulation.
Blackrock’s iShares Core S&P 500 Ucits ETF has become the first European ETF to top $20bn (£16.1bn, €18.9bn) in assets, coinciding with new highs in the S&P 500 index as the reflation trade continues.
The European ETF market hit a new record in terms of total funds under management last year though the flow of money in the asset class slowed from the record levels of 2015, according to new data from Thomson Reuters Lipper.
BlackRock has hired former chancellor George Osborne for a part-time role. Pimco has named a head of Asia Pacific and head of US global wealth management, while Manulife Asset Management has appointed a chief executive for Thailand.
BlackRock has agreed to pay $340,000 (£278,844, €318,931) to settle charges that it forced soon-to-be ex-employees in the US to waive their ability to claim financial rewards for whistleblowing.
