Foto cedidaEvento Global Markets Outlook de StoneX
Copyright: Stonex. ..
StoneX held its Global Markets Outlook at the Hyatt Regency in Orlando on March 3rd, where they presented the most important topics to watch out for this year.
In a context of inescapable war, the most important topics were based on inflation, ESG investment, commodity prices and the explosion of the crypto world.
The event was attended by almost 500 people from the following countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, France, Great Britain, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Spain, United States, Dominican Republic and Uruguay.
Inflation call to Switzerland and the emerging markets
Inflation is the talk of the industry, and the StoneX event was no exception.
In this regard, Vincent Deluard reviewed the macro view and came to several conclusions. The first, and the one that has been heard the most in recent days, is that it is very difficult for inflation to moderate in the first boreal.
Moreover, Deluard explained that bank credit, labor shortages and wealth shock will drive inflation in 2022.
On the other hand, a devaluation of Asian currencies, especially China, is to be expected and he also concluded that monopolies and the rise of the Gig Economy will create a direct dependence between prices and wages.
Finally, the expert stressed that a portfolio of Swiss and emerging assets should be the new 60/40 portfolio.
Commodity prices and South America
One cannot talk about commodities without taking China into account. In this regard, Blu Putnam, Chief Economist of CME Group, commented that the Asian giant generated a super revolution in the price of commodities, but warned that it is not the same economy of a few decades ago.
On the other hand, Putman talked about South American farmers. The expert said that normally when we see high prices “we think that farmers will have good yields”.
However, the CME Group executive warned that producers will have many high costs, such as fertilizers.
“Farmers will have to think very, very carefully, because although they will sell at higher prices, they will have much higher costs,” he said.
Finally, he made a point about the weather and the La Niña phenomenon in Argentina that could bring problems with drought to producers in that South American country.
In relation to the criteria for ESG investment, Vincent Deluard, Director of Global Macro Strategy at StoneX and economist Andrew Busch, former CMIO and former US government official, discussed the pros and cons of this type of investment and its performance in portfolios.
Among several of the arguments made in favor of ESG, the importance of following company ratings was highlighted. On the other hand, it was noted that if demand continues to grow, production will have to respond to that demand, making it more difficult to maintain parameters.
In our view, dividends are one of the most powerful engines of shares markets and this statement reflects the convictions I have forged since 2008.
Since then, I have devoted my career to this issue of dividends to fully capitalise on it. And my convictions have stood the test of fifteen years of practice marked by many challenges and two crises in the financial markets: the 2008 financial crisis and the 2020–2021 pandemic.
In the face of inflation returning, this strategy could reveal its good results and protective qualities.
I am often asked, rightly, why it is relevant to focus on firms that pay dividends – because dividends do not increase shareholders’ assets, contrary to a preconceived idea.All else being equal, the price of a share should decrease in proportion to the coupon paid when it is clipped.
The main reason for this is that firms struggle to reinvest all their profits optimally and it is also hard for them to identify the right projects without ever making mistakes.
Over time, our opinion is that they become less disciplined. They make mistakes and become exposed to projects that do not pay well or even cause loss. This ends up putting their shareholders at a disadvantage. However, in my opinion, firms that aim to pay dividends, usually keep a tighter rein on their spending and they try to choose projects more wisely.
Still, we prefer growth dividends to high dividends. High dividends can betray the woes of a struggling firm – one too bogged down in debt or going through a critical change.
The average rate of dividends in our strategy is in a reasonable range of 3% to 4%. But we aim for a potential annual growth of 5% to 10%*.
I have always managed this strategy in a context of stability or falling consumer price indexes. But this strategy now seems to prove its worth with the return of inflation. I believe that only growth dividends have the potential to offer real positive yields. High dividends are tempting at first glance, but in my view, they are unable to grow so they do not protect against inflation.
To ensure your assets do not decrease in value, in my view you have to invest in good stocks, of course, but also in firms whose dividend growth rate is the same as, or exceeds, the rate of inflation.
Our approach should continue bearing fruit in coming years – provided the right stocks are chosen. That is the challenge we rise to.
To meet this challenge, a good starting point is to look in the rear-view mirror to identify boards that take dividend growth seriously.
Yet this policy has to be pursued going forward in the firms concerned. And we operate with this in mind, focusing on the firms we feel more promising in the next ten years.
The US represents the biggest share of our investment universe, even though Wall Street is more associated with major growth stocks. Hundreds of US shares are eligible for dividend investing. A considerable pool is also available in Western Europe, Australia and Canada. And prospects are brightening up in Japan after some tough years.
We find firms that best meet our criteria in the most defensive sectors, especially in everyday consumer goods and health.
For more cyclical sectors, it is a bit harder to select stocks but we could find interesting pockets for instance in technology transportation or semiconductors..
Opinion tribune by Stuart Rhodes, fund manager at M&G Investments
Foto cedidaJosé Castellano dará el relevo a Jamie Hammond como responsable de Distribución Internacional de iM Global Partner.. José Castellano abandona su puesto como Deputy CEO y responsable de Distribución Internacional de iM Global Partner
José Castellano, until now Deputy CEO and Head of International Distribution at iM Global Partner, is leaving the firm. As of April 4th, 2022, he will remain as Senior Advisor of the firm.
According to iM Global Partner’s statements to Funds Society, his mission will be to assist the firm in its future developments. Jamie Hammond will take over from Castellano as head of International Distribution.
“Jose has decided to distance himself from the intense daily management required by his role as ‘Deputy CEO, Head of International distribution’. From April 4th, 2022, he will become Senior Advisor of iM Global Partner with the main mission of helping the company in its future developments,” the company explains.
From the firm, they add: “We would like to strongly thank Jose for his very significant contribution within iM Global Partner in building its international distribution network. We are also happy that he has agreed to remain active on behalf of iM Global Partner.”.
Castellano said: “Obviously I also thank Philippe Couvrecelle for envisioning and leading very passionately and successfully this amazing company.”
Jamie Hammond will take over from Castellano as head of International Distribution. Hammond is a veteran and one of the best-known distribution executives in the business, with a great track record and experience, and who fully shares iM Global Partner’s vision and values. He currently heads the firm’s EMEA Distribution area and is Deputy CEO.
Extensive experience
Castellano joined the firm in March 2021 to support iM Global Partner’s development outside the United States. At that time, he joined directly for the dual role of Deputy CEO and Head of International Business Development. He has extensive experience in the sector, having spent 25 years in the distribution business in this industry.
Within his professional career, it is worth highlighting his time at Pioneer Investments, where he spent 17 years and was one of the main distribution executives for the Asia Pacific, Latin America, United States and Iberia regions. Under his leadership, these regions experienced the highest growth worldwide, making the fund manager one of the most important players in each of these markets. Prior to joining Pioneer Investments in January 2001, he was head of Morgan Stanley’s private equity group for two years and head of Wealth Management for another seven years at Morgan Stanley. José Castellano holds a degree in finance from Saint Louis University and several postgraduate degrees from Nebrija University and IE.
Hammond has more than thirty years of experience in the sector. Prior to joining iM Global Partner last summer, Hammond worked at AllianceBernstein Limited (UK) as Managing Director and Head of the EMEA Client Group. He joined AB in January 2016 as head of EMEA Sales, Marketing and Customer Service Functions. Prior to that, he spent 15 years at Franklin Templeton Investments, where his last positions were CEO of UK regulated entities and Managing Director for Europe. He joined Franklin Templeton in 2001 following the acquisition of Fiduciary Trust Company International, where he was Sales Director responsible for mutual fund development in Europe. Prior to that, Hammond held the position of Head of National Sales at Hill Samuel Asset Management, the asset management division of Lloyds TSB Group.
Rafael Guimarães Lopo Lima took over as the new regional director of the Brazil section of Santander Private Banking International’s subsidiary.
Guimarães moved to Miami in January from São Paulo where he was Head of Commercial Private Banking for UHNW clients of the spanish bank.
The promotion follows the promotion of Beltrán Usera to Head of Santander Private Banking International’s new office in New York.
Guimarães has worked at Santander since April 2008 where he started in the role of Senior Private Banker, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Prior to Santander, the banker worked for ABN Ambro Bank in two periods (2006-2008) and (2001-2005). He was also Senior Product Manager at Bank Boston between 2005 and 2006.
Just as the Covid crisis has begun to fade, a conflict in Ukraine is erupting. The question investors now face is the degree to which Russia’s invasion will undermine the global economic recovery. The next few weeks will offer some clarity.
Even so, as long as Russia’s invasion doesn’t result in a drawn-out conflict, any consequences to global markets are likely to be manageable. Neither the Ukraine crisis nor the spike in oil prices is enough to derail what continues to be robust global growth.
Both countries make up only a small proportion of world GDP and, apart from Russian energy exports to Europe alongside some other commodities, have fairly modest roles to play in global trade. Some global industries will be potentially affected – apart from commodities: car manufacturers, food producers, steelmaking and chipmaking – but it is the second-round effects on European inflation and consumer confidence that need to be monitored.
The conflict might prove concerning enough to stay some of the more hawkish elements at the world’s major central banks, not least the US Federal Reserve. So while the trend clearly remains towards monetary tightening, it could be at a slower pace than the markets have been pricing recently.
With all that in mind, in the very short term, it makes sense for investors to show some caution. Which is why we have taken a few risk mitigation measures within our equity positioning. But overall, our main asset allocations – overweight equities, underweight bonds – remain unchanged.
Our business cycle indicators point to a positive outlook for the global economy during the next year, with all major economies expected to grow at between 3 per cent and 5 per cent. World retail sales may have peaked, but they remain above trend. Industrial production and exports are accelerating. And services affected by Covid are poised to boom – not least travel and mass events.
The US economy, which is least likely to be affected by Ukraine, shows strong underlying consumer demand and a resilient housing sector. Europe is vulnerable to its reliance on Russian gas, but the overall trend is towards recovery and monetary policy is likely to remain supportive. And China is starting to recover.
Meanwhile, even with the latest spike in oil prices, inflation should peak towards the end of the first quarter or early in the second across all major regions.
Our liquidity indicators offer mixed signals. Set against a the vast pool of global liquidity that has been built up during the Covid pandemic, central banks are starting not only to turn off the taps, but to drain some of the excess – we expect a net contraction of central bank liquidity this year to reach 3 per cent of global GDP. The Fed is poised to undertake a quadruple tightening – exiting quantitative easing, starting quantitative tightening and hiking rates even as inflation peaks and starts to slow. Offsetting this, however, is growth in the provision of credit from private sector banks. And central banks might find it prudent to talk down some of the markets’ excess hawkishness, particularly in light of global events.
Our short-term valuation indicators show that both equities and bonds are trading at close to fair value, with only commodities looking expensive among the major asset classes. For the first time in a long time equity markets do not exhibit extreme relative valuation readings in either regions or sectors. The US remains the most expensive stock market, but only moderately so. The upward move in real rates was behind the recent outperformance of value stocks over growth – future earnings are worth less today as rates head higher – but that trade might be running its course. And while there may be further downward pressure on price to earnings (P/E) ratios, a 20 per cent decline in 12 month P/Es since September 2020 suggests there’s limited scope for further contraction in stocks’ earnings multiples for the rest of this year – so, for instance, our model suggests P/E ratios will stabilise over the coming year (see Fig. 2).
Our technical indicators suggest that equities are oversold – particularly after the Ukraine-inspired drops. But there are no real signs of market panic. US equity sentiment is particularly gloomy, a bearish shift that’s been confirmed by the latest Bank of America fund manager survey. To us, this indicates the scope for a further sharp decline in US stocks is limited.
Opinion written by Luca Paolini, Pictet Asset Management’s Chief Strategist.
Information, opinions and estimates contained in this document reflect a judgment at the original date of publication and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those presented herein.
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Unexpected regulatory actions and concerns over China’s property market were just a couple of reasons for the volatile year in China; however, there are reasons for optimism in 2022. One sign is a clear easing cycle that is already developing in Beijing, which should result in stronger economic performance and improved sentiment among Chinese investors, who drive their domestic exchanges.
Please join us for an interactive discussion with Matthews Asia Investment Strategist Andy Rothman and Portfolio Manager Winnie Chwang as they discuss how last year’s experiences can help us plan for the year ahead and why we believe China’s vibrant, entrepreneurial economy remains well-positioned for dynamic growth. Topics will include:
The state of China’s economy and its economic prospects in 2022
The progress of monetary, fiscal and regulatory policy easing
Key trends and sectors that may impact growth prospects
How our investment team has traversed the regulatory environment
Why an all-share approach may provide proper exposure to the region
Speakers
Andy Rothman
Andy Rothmanis an Investment Strategist at Matthews Asia. He is principally responsible for developing research focused on China’s ongoing economic and political developments while also complementing the broader investment team with in-depth analysis on Asia. In addition, Andy plays a key role in communicating to clients and the media the firm’s perspectives and latest insights into China and the greater Asia region. Prior to joining Matthews Asia in 2014, Andy spent 14 years as CLSA’s China macroeconomic strategist where he conducted analysis into China and delivered his insights to their clients. Previously, Andy spent 17 years in the U.S. Foreign Service, with a diplomatic career focused on China, including as head of the macroeconomics and domestic policy office of the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. In total, Andy has lived and worked in China for more than 20 years. He earned an M.A. in public administration from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs and a B.A. from Colgate University. He is a proficient Mandarin speaker.
Winnie Chwang
Winnie Chwangis a Portfolio Manager at Matthews Asia and manages the firm’s China Small Strategy and co-manages the China and Pacific Tiger Strategies. She joined the firm in 2004 and has built her investment career at the firm. Winnie earned an MBA from the Haas School of Business and received her B.A. in Economics with a minor in Business Administration from the University of California, Berkeley. She is fluent in Mandarin and conversational in Cantonese.
A confluence of competitive threats, including an industry-wide shift away from brokerage, broader adoption of financial planning, and the popularity of independent business models, is eroding the registered investment advisor (RIA) channels’ key differentiating factors, according to Cerulli’s latest report, U.S. RIA Marketplace 2021: Meeting the Demand for Advice.
In response, more RIAs are considering whether to extend their service offerings to deepen their impact with existing and prospective clients.
To unlock the RIA channels’ success formula and protect against advisor movement to independence, broker/dealers (B/Ds) are increasingly developing independent affiliation options, promoting financial planning, and creating more opportunities for advisors to conduct fee-based or fee-only business.
By 2023, 93% of advisors across all channels expect to generate at least 50% of their revenue from advisory fees. Likewise, over the past five years, the number of financial planning practices across all channels grew at a 5.3% compound annual growth rate (CAGR).
As a result, B/Ds are impinging on what has historically been viewed as largely unique to the RIA channels—an independent, fee-based business centered on financial planning. In addition to this convergence of business models, investor influence, democratization of services, and client acquisition challenges are encouraging RIAs to reevaluate their position in the marketplace. For some, this means expanding their service offerings to combat value differentiation concerns and capture emerging opportunities.
According to the research, trust services (19%), digital advice platforms (17%), and concierge/lifestyle services (16%) rank as the top-three areas of anticipated service expansion for RIAs within the next two years.
“While implementing these additional services may help RIA firms move upmarket and generate greater revenue, RIAs will need to reinvest in the business by hiring more staff, adding technology tools, producing marketing materials, or paying a third-party provider for outsourced support,” says Marina Shtyrkov, associate director.
To preserve profitability levels as they add services, advisors can either adjust their fees upward or implement alternative pricing structures. These nontraditional fees are not correlated to portfolio performance and can help RIAs offset the increased costs of delivering additional services, thereby reducing profit margin pressure. For RIAs that offer financial planning, nontraditional fees also ensure that the firm’s pricing is more closely aligned with its value proposition.
Ultimately, value differentiation challenges will become a question of firm economics—one that RIAs must be ready to answer.
While Cerulli does not believe that all RIAs must expand their service set to remain competitive, under the right circumstances, additional offerings can help firms capture new opportunities and tackle competitive challenges.
“Like any business decision, the addition of a service should allow advisors to better address their target market and achieve stronger alignment between that segment’s needs and the firm’s offerings,” says Shtyrkov and added: “RIAs will need to consult their strategic partners (RIAs custodians, asset managers, service providers) to help them navigate these choices, weigh the tradeoffs of service expansion, and mitigate the risks of thinning profit margins.”
In a new report published by Preqin, the Women in Alternatives 2022, shows that although the alternatives industry has not seen a major drop in the proportion of female employees during the COVID-19 pandemic, there is more work to be done to rectify the marked gender imbalance, especially in senior positions.
Gender balance has improved, albeit slowly, across the alternative assets industry as a whole. According to Deloitte, one woman in the C-suite leads to three promotions of women into senior management roles; simply put, the lack of women in leadership positions can negatively affect the prosperity of women in the industry as a whole.
Preqin data shows that a 12.9% of senior positions in the alternatives industry are held by women. As of January 2022, 20.9% of the alternative assets workforce is female – and when looking at investors alone this rises to 24.2% (up from 20.3% and 24.0% respectively a year earlier).
When looking at the female representation in different asset classes, regionally, European private debt fund managers employ the most women – up from 21.6% in 2021 to 22.8% this year.
Rest of World real estate fund managers have the lowest proportion of women on staff – down from 17.3% in 2021 to 15.1% in 2022. In terms of asset classes, infrastructure leads the way with 28.6% female workforce, compared with 24.1% globally; and private equity trails the pack, employing 23.6% women in North America and 21.9% globally.
As of February 2022, just 20.5% of total private equity fund manager employees were women, the Preqin report shows.
While that proportion has increased for the past three years in North America, Europe, and Asia — although by less than one percentage point annually — Rest of World recorded a decline from 18.9% in 2020 to 18.3% in 2021. At senior levels, there are even fewer women; only 9% of CEOs and 8.2% of board members are female.
Women continue to be underrepresented throughout the workforce in financial services.
Deloitte estimates that 24% of senior roles were held by women across financial services in 2021. In alternative assets, the figures are worse still, with Preqin data showing only 12.9% of senior positions held by women.
At fund manager level, the proportion of women in the workforce ranges from 18.9% at real estate firms to 21.1% at venture capital, private debt, and natural resources firms.
The proportion of women in senior positions ranges from 13%, in venture capital, to just 9.8% in real estate. Interestingly, real estate boasts the highest proportion of female employees at junior level (36.3%), making the drop between junior and senior level even more pronounced.
Investors have better female representation throughout the workforce, with 34.4% of junior positions, 26.1% of mid-level positions and 16.7% of senior roles filled by women.
Venture Capital Pulls Ahead
Women have been more successful at launching and managing venture capital funds than in any other alternative asset class.
The number of female-owned funds holding their first close jumped from 32 in 2013 to 158 in 2022, an increase of almost 400% in a decade, which is considerably faster than in private equity (where the increase was 32.1%), and real estate (133.3%) — the only other asset classes where the number of first closes for 2022 is in double digits.
Furthermore, female-founded start-ups backed by venture capital funds raised an average $935,000 (compared to men-founded ones: $2.1mn) and generated $730,000 in revenue (men: $660,000).
A study by Boston Consulting Group and MassChallenge, a US-based network of business accelerators, looked at 350 companies and found that start-ups with at least one female founder raised less money than those with male founders, but generated more revenue over a five-year period. The same study found that, expressed in revenue per dollar invested, female-founded start-ups backed by venture capital outperformed their male-founded counterparts by a considerable margin, returning 78 cents per dollar against 31cents for companies with male founders.
Key Women in Alternative Assets 2022 Facts:
Private Equity:
20.5% – Women account for one-fifth of total private equity fund manager employees
23.6% – North America has the highest proportion of female fund manager employees in private equity
33.4% – A third of junior employees in private equity are women, over double the 13.9% the proportion of senior employees
Venture Capital:
17.4% – China has the highest proportion of female senior employees at venture capital firms in the top 10 locations by aggregate capital raised in the past 10 years
21.1% – Venture capital fund managers have one of the highest percentages of female employees among alternative asset classes
8.1% – The proportion of board members at venture capital fund managers who are women
Private Debt
22.0% – The proportion of female senior employees at private debt firms in China – by far the highest of any location
6.4% – The proportion of female board members in private debt firms
28.0% – More than a quarter of CFOs at private debt firms in Asia are women, compared to a global average of 20.4%
Hedge Funds
10.0% – of portfolio management staff at hedge fund GPs are female
18.6% – Chinese hedge fund firms have the highest proportion of female employees in senior positions
7.1% – of hedge fund firm board members are women
Real Estate
17.4% – France has the highest proportion of women in senior positions at real estate firms
18.9% – Real estate has the lowest proportion of female fund managers across alternatives
4.9% of board members at real estate GPs are women
Infrastructure
4.5% – Proportion of board members at infrastructure GPs that are women
19.1% – France has the highest proportion of female senior employees in infrastructure
23.4% – Almost a quarter of executive directors at infrastructure firms are women
Natural Resources
18.1% – France has the highest proportion of women among its total employees at natural resources firms
36.0% – North America is the region with the highest proportion of female junior employees in natural resources
19.3% – North America also has by far the highest proportion of women in senior positions in natural resources
Banco Santander announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire 80% of WayCarbon Soluções Ambientais e Projetos de Carbono, a Brazil-based ESG consultancy firm.
WayCarbon has been advising public and private organizations on their energy transition for 15 years, with 170 employees serving clients across 18 countries.
The business provides three core services to help clients develop and implement strategies to increase their sustainability: ESG consultancy; management software to support the tracking and implementation of ESG strategies; and carbon credit trading.
The acquisition is an important step to further enhance Santander’s own sustainability offerings to support the bank’s clients across all markets in their energy transition. It will also help Santander progress further in its own ESG objectives by engaging in the voluntary carbon market, reforestation and forest conservation programmes and other emissions trading schemes, the company’s press release said.
The carbon markets allow companies, non-profit organizations, governments and individuals to buy and sell carbon offset credits, an instrument that represents the reduction of a specific amount of emissions.
José M Linares, global head of Santander Corporate & Investment Banking (Santander CIB), said: “As an industry leader in ESG, WayCarbon will help us with our own objectives and our clients´ in their transition to more sustainable business models. Santander has vast experience in sustainable projects and is a global leader and pioneer in renewable energy finance. This deal will help maintain Santander at the forefront of this critical space”.
On the other hand, WayCarbon CEO Felipe Bittencourt said: “WayCarbon, which has B-corp certification reflecting its commitment to generating profit with a purpose, is focused on catalyzing the transition to a low-carbon economy and has been growing fast in the last few years. This agreement with Santander will expand our business’s global scale, with specialized products and services for a wider range of companies in its ten core markets in Europe and the Americas, so we’ll have a greater impact”.
Santander aims to raise or facilitate $130 billion (120 billion euros) in green finance between 2019 and 2025 and $239 billion (220 billion euros) by 2030 as part of its responsible banking agenda and its support for its customers transitioning to a low-carbon economy.
It is already carbon neutral in its own operations. To reach net-zero emissions for the whole group by 2050 in support of the Paris Agreement objectives and the transition to a low-carbon economy, Santander will align its power generation portfolio with the Paris Agreement by 2030.
The transaction, which is expected to close by the second quarter of 2022, subject to closing conditions, will have a negligible impact on the group’s capital and deliver a return on invested capital of 30-50% in 3-4 years.
BNY Mellon Investment Management commissioned an independent global study examining investment attitudes and behaviors, and concluded that women are less likely to invest.
The Pathway to Inclusive Investment study, was the first in a new series that will address diversity, set out to understand the barriers to higher levels of women’s participation in investing and the potential impact if investing were more accessible to women, the firm’s release said.
The research surveyed 8,000 individuals in 16 markets, as well as 100 asset managers, with combined assets under management of nearly $60 trillion.
Pathway to Inclusive Investment reveals that women are less likely to invest than men, exacerbating existing financial disadvantages and limiting women’s collective influence as investors.
It also shows that women want to invest in a way that has a positive social and environmental impact, and that if women invested at the same rate as men there could be more than $3.22 trillion of additional capital to invest globally, with more than $1.87 trillion going to more responsible investments.
By encouraging higher levels of female investment, capital could flow even further into funds with ESG objectives. More than half of women (55%) would invest-or invest more-if the impact of their investment aligned with their personal values, and 53% would invest-or invest more-if the fund they invested in had a clear purpose for good.
This is even more pronounced among younger women. According to the study, seven in ten women under 30 (71%) who already invest prefer to do so in companies that support their personal values, compared to 53% of women over 50 who invest.
On the other hand, the research identified three key barriers to women investing:
The income barrier: On average, women around the world believe they need $4,092 in disposable income each month – or $50,000 a year – before investing some of their money.
The perception that investing is inherently high-risk: Only 9% of women say they have a “high” or “very high” level of risk tolerance when it comes to investing, while 49% have a “moderate” level and 42% have a “low” tolerance for risk.
The commitment crisis: Globally, only 28% of women feel confident about investing some of their money. The industry must find ways to attract and inspire more women to invest, which in turn could increase confidence and participation in investing.
The survey of asset managers highlights the extent to which the investment industry remains male-oriented. Nearly nine in ten asset managers (86%) admit that their default investment client – the person their products are automatically targeted at – is a man.
Nearly three-quarters of asset managers (73%) believe the investment industry could attract more women to invest if the industry itself had more female fund managers, who could also be important role models. However, half of the asset managers in the survey revealed that only 10% or less of their fund managers or investment analysts are women.
Anne-Marie McConnon, Global Chief Client Experience Officer at BNY Mellon Investment Management said: “As women, we all have different obstacles to overcome to achieve our individual financial goals. Some of these are influenced by demographics and personal circumstances, but others are the result of the way the investment industry has traditionally targeted women.”
She added that the study, Pathway to Inclusive Investment, underscores that the traditional stereotype of the investment stakeholder is outdated and that young women should be considered.
“Young women are also interested in investing, but they need to be inspired to do so,” she concluded.
