Regulatory costs are expected to increase while clients increasingly prefer digital channels for financial advice, suggesting wealth managers rethink traditional business models, according to Elliot Shadforth, Hong Kong-based Asia-Pacific wealth and asset management leader at EY.
Private banks in Hong Kong and Singapore ask bond fund managers to explain any short-term underperformance and to provide stable income streams, according to Boston-based Brian Kennedy, vice president and portfolio manager at Loomis Sayles.
Mainland-owned Overseas Chinese Investment Management has a hedge fund operation in Singapore that hopes to benefit as China loosens capital controls and opens its financial industry.
Mainland-listed companies still need to improve transparency, which remains an obstacle to institutional investment, said Greg Kuhnert, portfolio manager at Investec Asset Management.
Data protection regulations, particularly in Europe, are expected to provide a boost to IT security company earnings, according to Yves Kramer, London-based senior investment manager for thematic equities at Pictet Asset Management.
Emerging market value stocks are overdue for a catch-up with the two-year-old rally in emerging market growth equities, argues T Rowe Price’s Ernest Yeung.
Artificial intelligence, blockchain and big data create a lot of buzz, but many fintech opportunities lie in old technologies, such as banks’ core systems that are in desperate need of updating, argues Partick Lemmens, senior portfolio manager at Robeco.
The growth and proliferation of locally domiciled mutual funds in Hong Kong is not a threat to the popularity of Ucits funds, already widely used in the territory, argues Camille Thommes, director general of the Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry (ALFI).
BNP Paribas Asset Management plans a big build-out of its regional fixed income team, including a portfolio manager in Singapore and analysts in Hong Kong and mainland China.
Post-1MDB, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has reinforced its focus on anti-money laundering (AML). Damayanti Shahani provides a snapshot of what a fund management firm can expect.
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