On April 11, 2000, the first two exchange-traded funds (ETF) based on the EURO STOXX 50 and the STOXX Europe 50 were listed on Deutsche Börse in Germany. With this listing, Merrill Lynch International brought a product to Europe which had been established in the U.S. since 1993. In addition to Germany, the trading of ETFs also began in Sweden, Switzerland, and the U.K. over the course of the year 2000. Even as the first reactions to these new products were positive, no one at that time really expected the future success that ETFs would experience. The following is a

European investors bought further back into mutual funds and ETFs in July. Since the global equity markets stabilized further, investors returned to long-term mutual funds because they expect the massive stimulus packages from central banks and governments globally to keep interest rates low and to foster global economic growth after the lockdowns caused by the outbreak of COVID-19 are lifted in more countries around the globe. As a result, long-term mutual funds posted overall net inflows for the month. Bond funds (+€24.2 bn) were the best-selling long-term asset type for July, followed by equity funds (+€14.4 bn), mixed-assets funds (+€4.9

Refinitiv Lipper Fund Awards 2020 Best Group over 3 years: OVERALL In the course of the decade-long bull run, many investors have found it easy to make returns by simply putting their money with index funds. However, the flood of passive money has caused bigger dislocations between the price of securities and their fundamental value, says Paras Anand, chief investment officer, Asia Pacific at Fidelity International. With the current volatility, it is an opportunity for active returns and active strategies to outperform. “The return opportunity to active selection is higher today than it has been at any time in recent

European investors switched to a risk-off mode in February due to uncertainties over a possible shortage in supply chains caused by the outbreak of the coronavirus in China and the respective increased volatility on the global equity markets. Nevertheless, long-term mutual funds posted net inflows for the month. Bond funds (+€30.4 bn) were the best-selling asset type in the long-term mutual funds segment, followed by mixed-assets funds (+€6.2 bn), commodity funds (+€1.0 bn), and “other” funds (+€0.1 bn). Conversely, equity funds (-€1.4 bn), real estate funds (-€2.3 bn), and alternative UCITS funds (-€4.3 bn) faced outflows. These fund flows added

The positive fund-flows trend in Europe accelerated in July. Consequently, July was the fifth month long-term mutual funds posted net inflows this year. Taking the current interest rate environment into account, it was surprising that bond funds (+€37.7 bn) were once again the best-selling asset type in the segment of long-term mutual funds, followed by equity funds (+€9.4 bn) and commodity funds (+€0.9 bn). All other asset types faced outflows: alternative UCITS funds (-€3.5 bn), mixed-asset funds (-€1.3 bn), real estate funds (-€0.04 bn), and “other” funds (-€0.004 bn). These fund flows added up to overall net outflows of €43.2

The European asset management industry had a rather rough start in 2019. In regard to this, it is not surprising there is a lot of discussion around current sales trends. From my perspective, these discussions may lead in the wrong direction since sales trends are often driven by the respective market environment and, therefore, are not under the control of the fund promoters. That said, there are topics which can make a difference between the single fund promoters and, therefore, drive sales. One of these topics is the discussion about fees and expenses. Some asset managers complain about increasing regulatory

The financial services industry is often indicted for a lack of employee diversity. At the recent Lipper Fund Selector Forum, Jake Moeller moderated a panel which examined this important issue. The entire panel is showcased here. Jake was joined by Bev Shah, founder and CEO of CityHive; Maike Currie, Investment Director at Fidelity; and Natalie Kenway, Deputy Editor at Investment Week. The panel outlined the importance and benefits of improving gender, sexuality, ethnicity, disability, and age diversity. Running order Run Time Topic 00:00 Introduction 01:00 What do we mean by “diversity”? 03:15 How does cognitive diversity benefit a company? 07:00

The fourth annual Lipper Fund Selectors Forum was held at the Thomson Reuters Auditorium, Canary Wharf, on July 4, 2018. Mutual fund research and selection, along with portfolio construction, are crucial components of the investment distribution value chain. Increased due-diligence and governance requirements imposed by regulators mean the fund selector and portfolio constructor have more influence on–and responsibilities to–investors than ever before. Lipper was pleased to host again this flagship industry event showcasing the challenges faced by the fund selection and portfolio construction industry in 2018 and the benefits it brings to the financial services industry. Once again, we were

Finally, the year 2018 has begun and the European mutual fund industry now faces the start of the MiFID II regulation. This new regulation puts a lot of pressure on the fund industry, especially on some of the boutiques that run smaller funds, since the additional costs might eat up a lot of the overall profits of these funds. The managers of large funds also complain that their revenues will be hit by costs coming from the new regulation, since not all of these costs can be passed on to investors. Since it is hard for small companies that already

The All Cap Growth style ranks sixth out of the twelve fund styles as detailed in our 4Q17 Style Ratings for ETFs and Mutual Funds report. Last quarter, the All Cap Growth style ranked sixth as well. It gets our Neutral rating, which is based on an aggregation of ratings of 11 ETFs and 478 mutual funds in the All Cap Growth style as of October 17, 2017. See a recap of our 3Q17 Style Ratings here. Figures 1 and 2 show the five best and worst rated ETFs and mutual funds in the style. Not all All Cap Growth

ETFs have written a success story in Europe over the past 15 years, and the market does not yet seem to be oversaturated. Instead, the opposite seems to be true: the European ETF industry has witnessed a number of new players in the market, despite there being high competition in general in the European ETF market, and some market observers suppose that a number of ETF promoters are not at all profitable. That said, there is a sweet spot (the “smart beta segment”) where the competition is not that high and the pressure on management fees is quite low. Fund

Over the last few weeks the fund markets have seen two major players in active fund management changing their views about the pricing models of their actively managed funds. Allianz Global Investors (AGI) (for three new funds in the U.S.) and Fidelity (for its equity funds in Europe) announced they are moving the pricing of their actively managed mutual funds from a rather fixed management fee to a performance-based variable fee with a very low minimum fee applied in all circumstances. On the same topic AB (AllianceBernstein) announced earlier this year that it will change the management fees for a