Brief : Jerome Powell pledged to get the U.S. back to a “great economy” and invoked a homeless encampment in downtown Washington to make the point that the recovery remains incomplete. Playing down the risk that inflation could get out of control as the pandemic recedes, the Federal Reserve chair told a virtual panel Thursday that his commute home takes him past a “substantial tent city,” and that he thought of the millions of Americans who are still trying to get back to work. “So we just need to keep reminding ourselves that even though some parts of the economy are just doing great, there’s a very large group of people who are not,” he said during the International Monetary Fund panel. “I really want to finish the job and get back to a great economy.” Fed officials have repeatedly stressed that the U.S. economy continues to need aggressive monetary policy support as it recovers from the pandemic, even as the outlook brightens amid widening vaccinations
Brief: UK investors added record levels of capital to equity funds in March as they bet on the post-Covid economic recovery, according to the latest data from funds transaction network Calastone. In total, UK investors committed a net £2.96 billion (€3.42 billion) to equity funds surpassing the previous record seen in the post-crash bounce of April 2020 by over a tenth, the firm said. UK-focused equity funds saw a net £610 million added to holdings marking a "startling" turnaround for the asset class, while global equity funds took in £1.84 billion. Meanwhile, global ESG equity funds attracted new capital to the tune of £1.15 billion. Edward Glyn, head of global markets at Calastone highlighted that equity fund managers have enjoyed their best ISA (Individual Savings Accounts) season in years. “New capital has flooded in from investors keen to capitalise on the post-Covid economic recovery,” he said. Active funds took in the lion’s share of investment, attracting over three quarters of overall net inflows (£2.32 billion). It was their best monthly performance since July 2015.
Brief: The distribution of COVID-19 vaccines is fueling optimism that Americans will increasingly return to the ways they used to shop, travel and work before the pandemic. That would be a welcome change for companies that own office buildings and hotels, or those that lease space to restaurants, bars, department stores and other retailers. These have been the hardest-hit areas of commercial real estate over the past year as the pandemic forced many businesses to shut down temporarily or operate on a limited basis. But even as the U.S. economy appears set to roar back to life this year, as many economists now predict, demand trends for commercial real estate could take longer to recover as businesses reassess their post-pandemic needs. This means higher vacancy rates and declining rents this year, especially for retail and office property owners, said Thomas LaSalvia, senior economist with Moody’s Analytics.
Brief: The rise of sustainable finance, the impact of Brexit, EU regulation and the fallout of the pandemic all have the potential to shape considerations around alternative fund domicile selection, according to new research published this month by IFI Global and supported by Jersey Finance. Based on the views of alternative managers, law firms and advisors from across North America, Europe and Australasia, including some of the world’s largest investors in alternatives, the research for this new report – entitled ‘The Future of International Fund Domiciliation 2021’ – was carried out between October 2020 and February 2021. Building on the first IFI Global report in this series, published in April 2020, which found that investors and managers want stability when it comes to fund domiciliation, this new report explores how investor and manager attitudes have changed in light of some key developments in the investment space landscape over the past twelve months, including ESG acceleration, Brexit and regulation. Overall, the survey found that investors continue to be the key driver behind domiciliation decisions, and they want to allocate to funds that are domiciled in well-known jurisdictions that have a good reputation.
Brief: Royal Bank of Canada is giving employees an extra paid day off this year, and its top executive acknowledged that staff are more burned out now than at any time during the COVID-19 pandemic. Chief Executive Officer Dave McKay said in companywide memo on Thursday that many employees have said they’re exhausted and that the bank needs to “eliminate the stigma associated with asking for time to focus, concentrate, and in some cases, log off and recharge.” Burnout has become a more pressing issue for financial firms as the pandemic moves into its second year and some lines of business, including mergers and acquisitions, see a sustained boom in activity. Last month, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. CEO David Solomon said the firm would improve enforcement of a rule designed to ensure junior bankers don’t have to work on Saturdays. His memo came after junior analysts gave managers a presentation showing that some worked 100 hours in a week. RBC, Canada’s largest lender, is also giving its roughly 86,000 employees worldwide a free, one-year subscription to Headspace, a meditation and sleep app. An annual subscription costs US$69.99, according to Headspace’s website.
Brief: Former Schroders COO Markus Ruetimann has called on fund managers to use the pandemic to assemble a more diversified workforce with greater emphasis on IT specialists and data scientists. Writing in the latest edition of the FundsTech quarterly report, Ruetimann stated that the move to remote working had shown the need for “new, more inclusive hierarchical structures and communication channels”. “Future talent pools will need diversifying. IT pioneers and data scientists are likely to play a bigger role than fund managers and data administrators going forward,” stated Ruetimann, chief executive of advisory practice Hardy London and also chair of Aprexo, a data management provider. However, while the institutional asset management industry has talked about the need to reinvent itself in view of the ever-expanding digital economy, few firms have replaced their legacy systems with new technology or hired talent from outside the industry to cater for a more tech and data-dominated operating environment.