Financial advisers in the UK, Australia, Hong Kong, Canada and the US have reported that working in the industry is getting harder mainly due to regulatory changes, and they expect to see a shake-out in the next three to five years, according to a survey by Vanguard.
Axa Life Insurance has lost its head of international brokers in Singapore, while the private banking arms of HSBC and JP Morgan have named regional heads of various European countries.
Seeking returns from some of Japan’s undervalued big companies, replicating indices, and using a benchmark-agnostic approach are some of the favoured strategies of Japanese funds with substantial assets under management.
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.
Brooks Macdonald’s co-founder is to step down as chief executive after 25 years, with his replacement coming from HSBC. Principal Global Investors has named a new head of funds distribution for Asia, while Vanguard has also shuffled its Asian operations, with a focus on China.
Vanguard has followed BMO Global Asset Management in cutting costs associated with its Hong Kong-listed ETFs with the aim of attracting more capital.
Vanguard has launched four UK-domiciled actively managed funds.
ETFs could get a boost when they are allowed to be traded through the stock connect programmes, according to James Martielli, Vanguard’s head of portfolio review for Asia.
Assets invested in exchange traded funds and products globally have broken through the $3trn mark for the second time, according to data from ETFGI.
More assets will be invested in alternative investment funds than in fixed income globally by year-end if the current fund flows trend persists. Net flows into alternative funds saw double-digit growth for the second year in a row, according to a Morningstar report.
Asia showed the strongest organic growth of fund inflows at 18.6% among the regions analysed by Morningstar in its annual research paper on flows.
Vanguard has expanded its exchange traded fund range with the launch of four low-cost fixed income ETFs on the London Stock Exchange.
