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. Investors Want Transparency, Ethics, and Performance, CFA Institute Survey Reveals
Investors are expecting higher levels of transparency than ever before, holding their investment managers to the highest ethical standards, and are laser-focused on returns, according to a newly released study “From Trust to Loyalty: A Global Survey of What Investors Want,” by CFA Institute, the global association of investment professionals, that measures the opinions of both retail and institutional investors globally.
The findings reveal that investors want regular, clear communications about fees and upfront conversations about conflicts of interest. The biggest gaps between investor expectations and what they receive relate to fees and performance. Clients want fees that are structured to align their interests, are well disclosed and fairly reflect the value they are getting from their investment firms.
“The bar for investment management professionals has never been higher. Retail and institutional investors, as always, crave strong performance, however both groups also demand enhanced communication and guidance from their money managers. Building trust requires truly demonstrating your commitment to clients’ well-being, not empty performance promises or tick-the-box compliance exercises. Effectively doing so will help advance the investment management profession at a time when the public questions its worth and relevance.” said Paul Smith, president and CEO of CFA Institute.
“While an increase in overall trust in the financial services industry is a net positive for financial professionals,” continued Smith, “performance is no longer the only ‘deal breaker’ for investors. They are continuing to demand more clarity and service from financial professionals and, with the rise of robo-advisors, they have more alternatives than ever before. Further, if investment professionals don’t provide this clarity, then regulators may force them to, for better or worse.”
The study also shows that investors are anxious about global markets, and do not believe their investment firms are prepared. Investors revealed a growing anxiety about the state of global finance. Almost one-third of investors feel that another financial crisis is likely within the next three years (33 percent of retail investors/29 percent of institutional investors), with significantly more in India (59 percent) and France (46 percent). In addition, only half of all investors believe their investment firms are “very well prepared” or “well prepared” (52 percent retail investors/49 percent institutional investors) to manage their portfolio through a crisis.
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. The Majority of New Assets in European Equities Have Landed in The Most Active Funds
Average active share for European large-cap funds was 69.6% in the three-year period through March 2015, with a median of 72.4% when measured against the funds’ appropriate style indexes. That is the finding of a new study from Morningstar.
“Our results show that between 2005 and 2015 “closet indexing” has become rarer among European large-cap funds, and those funds with higher active shares have received the lion’s share of new assets. We find that funds with higher active share have delivered better investment results than the least active funds in most of our research period, but not unambiguously. Because dispersions in returns and risk characteristics become much wider as a portfolio’s active share rises towards 100%, investors should not rely solely on active share when selecting funds”.
Among other findings of the report, the percentage of funds with a three-year average active share below 60% (so-called closet indexers) was 20.2%. The portion of funds that can be characterized as closet indexers has been falling in the researched categories in recent years. The majority of new assets in European equities have landed in the most active funds.
Although funds in the most active quartile charge 33 basis points more on average than those in the least active quartile for their retail share classes, we find that when price is measured per unit of active share, European investors are overpaying for low active share funds. Investors should compare fees carefully as dispersion in fees among funds with similar active shares is high.
Morningstar finds a strong inverse correlation between active share and market risk. Active share numbers dropped considerably during the financial crisis of 2008-09 but have been rising at a steady pace since then.
Funds across the board lowered the share of mid- and small-cap stocks in their portfolios in 2008-09, but this was especially the case for the most active funds.
The funds with the highest active shares have done better, on average, than those in the least active quartile in all of the five-year periods tested between 1 July 2006 and June-end 2015. However, the difference in excess returns between the most and the least active quartile has decreased recently, which implies that the strength of active share as a selection tool is time-period dependent. Invariably, however, the funds with the lowest active shares have been the worst performers.
The study finds that funds in the highest active share quartile have displayed much stronger style biases than the average fund. This may not always be desirable from a fund investor’s point of view, and complicates the use of active share in fund selection. The style effects have been especially strong in the small group of funds with an above 90% active share. After controlling for style effects in a four- factor regression model, we find their alpha to be lower than for any other group in the most recent five-year period researched.
Investors who use active share as a fund selection tool should exercise caution. As active share increases, dispersion in returns and risk levels rises sharply; the best and worst performing funds are to be found among the more active ones. Therefore, we advise using active share only in combination with other quantitative and qualitative tools.
Combining active share with tracking error adds a useful dimension to the analysis, and we find this to be an adequate analytical framework in the European large-cap space. Confirming results in US markets, we find that funds that exhibit a large tracking error but a low or moderate active share (so- called factor bet funds) have underperformed.
“We find that funds with Positive Morningstar Analyst Ratings tend to have above-average active shares and tracking errors”, says the study.
“In less than a decade, “active share” has become a widely used concept in fund analysis. However, much of the available active share research references only US-domiciled funds. In this paper we study a subset of European funds investing in European equities to see how their active share has developed over time, and evaluate how the active share measure might be used as a tool to aid fund selection within the European fund universe. The study encompasses the period 1 January 2005 through June-end 2015. By including only large-cap funds, we reduce the difficulties arising from benchmark selection and the impact of the small-cap effect”.
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. Basel III Fundamentally Changes How Asset Managers Are Connected To The Financial System
Basel III reforms have fundamentally changed how asset managers are connected to the financial system, with hedge funds challenged to understand expense, usage and access to the financing power grid, according to a joint survey and report by the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA), the global representative body for alternative asset managers, and S3 Partners, a leading financial data, analytics and services firm.
Jack Inglis, CEO of AIMA, commented: “There is no doubt that the Basel III banking standards are having a significant impact on hedge funds and other alternative asset managers. Financing costs are rising and the fund manager / prime broker relationship is changing fundamentally. It is our hope that this timely and important report will provide clarity and direction to those who have felt the impact of the recent regulations, and to give context to issues that are being felt across the industry.”
Bob Sloan, CEO of S3 Partners, commented: “New bank capital regulations are creating downstream financing challenges and opportunities for asset managers and hedge funds. The survey clearly shows how plugging into the financial power grid is getting more expensive.”
Mr Sloan continued: “Managers of all shapes, sizes and strategies now seek to answer the question: How can we maintain access to the grid, while optimizing for the right amount of efficiency? As the survey results show, access to unbiased data, comprehensive Return on Assets/Return on Equity analytics, and a common language are critically important towards determining fairness – as rates, margin, spreads and contracts will be a key determinant for an asset managers’ success.”
Rising financing costs. The survey of fund managers worldwide found that:
Financing costs have risen for 50% of firms, with an even split between those who quantify the level of cost increase as being greater than 10% and below 10%.
75% of firms expect further cost increases over the next two years.
The impact is consistent regardless of a fund manager’s size, investment strategy or location.
Rethinking prime brokerage relationships:
Fund managers responding to the survey said they are having to rethink their prime brokerage relationships due to Basel III.
75% have been asked to change how they do business with their prime brokers, while more than 67% have had to cut the amount of cash they keep on their brokers’ balance sheets.
Importantly, the survey found that:
Most alternative asset managers over the last two years have either maintained or increased the number of prime brokers they use, with the average number of financing relationships found to be four.
Only 20% of fund managers have a clear understanding of how their prime brokers calculate their worth in terms of the revenue they provide relative to balance sheet impact, known as “return on assets” or RoA. Fewer still have the data necessary to calculate this themselves.
Photo: Youtube. BNY Mellon Names Mitchell Harris CEO of Investment Management Business
BNY Mellon recently announced that Mitchell Harris has been named chief executive officer of the company’s Investment Management business, effective immediately. Harris, who already had responsibility for the day-to-day oversight of the company’s investment boutiques globally and wealth management business, will report to Gerald L. Hassell, BNY Mellon’s chairman and CEO. BNY Mellon Investment Management amounts $1.6 trillion in assets under management.
Harris succeeds Curtis Arledge, who led the company’s Investment Management business and Markets Group and has decided to pursue other opportunities outside of the company.
Harris, most recently president of BNY Mellon Investment Management, joined BNY Mellon in 2004 and has had a distinguished career in investment management and private banking spanning more than 30 years. Harris was CEO of Standish, a BNY Mellon investment boutique, from 2004 to 2009. He joined Standish from Pareto Partners, where he served as chief executive officer from 2000 to 2004 and as chairman from 2001.
“Mitchell has an impressive track record in the investment management industry, having led several successful firms during his career and most recently in overseeing our industry leading line-up of investment boutiques globally. He is well regarded across our client base, and I am confident he will lead our investment management business with great insight and success,” said Hassell. “I want to thank Curtis for his many contributions and helping to position our Investment Management and Markets businesses for growth and success moving forward.”
Michelle Neal,president of the Markets Group, who reported to Arledge, will report to Hassell, effective immediately. In her role, Neal leads the company’s foreign exchange, securities finance, collateral management, and capital markets businesses.
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. Are Markets Right to Worry?
Lower oil prices would normally be expected to benefit the global economy through aiding both consumers and corporates in oil-importing economies, says Stefan Kreuzkamp, Chief Investment Officer, Deutsche Asset Management. He remains constructive on global growth, but thinks there is still some risk of the benefits of lower oil prices being overshadowed by continuing financial- market turbulence. “Perhaps most importantly, lower oil prices have reopened the Pandora’s box of concerns about the longer-term negative side effects of looser monetary policy. In the ancient Greek fable, of course, Hope lies at the bottom of the box – but many more problems fly out first.”
His message is that the changing structure of the oil market and uncertainty about what this means will continue to have market implications. Oil can no longer be seen as a “known problem” that can be assessed in terms of known fundamentals, he adds. Therefore the firm has reduced its forecasts for major equity indices and increased its end-2016 spread forecasts for U.S. high yield. Although they have slightly adjusted the euro high-yield spread forecast as well, they see much lower risks of defaults in this segment.
“We caution that it is still too early to invest in oil-related equities. But this, in a sense, is the easy part.” Declares Kreuzkamp. What is more difficult is to assess the timing to re-enter or to build up positions. For U.S. high yield, for example, implied default rates look excessive, in his view. But the tag-war between markets and fundamentals might well continue, in high yield as in other areas, and impair fundamentals in the process.
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. Henderson Global Investors Hires Stephen Deane to Join Emerging Markets Equities Team
Stephen Deane has joined Henderson Global Investors from Stewart Investors (previously known as First State Stewart) as a senior portfolio manager. He will work alongside the head of emerging markets equities, Glen Finegan, and the wider emerging markets equities team. Stephen will be based in Henderson’s Edinburgh office.
Most recently Stephen spent over five years at Stewart Investors where he worked as an analyst and co-manager of the worldwide Equity funds. In this role, Stephen was responsible for generating ideas for global, emerging markets and Asian portfolios.
Previous to this, Stephen spent 13 years at Accenture and during this time he completed an Executive Masters in Business Administration (MBA) at INSEAD, Fontainebleau in France, with distinction.
Glen Finegan, head of emerging markets equities at Henderson, said: “Stephen and I worked closely together at First State and, given our shared experience, I feel the hire is a very good fit for the team. We share a similar investment philosophy and Stephen’s disciplined approach will be of great benefit to our clients.
“Stephen’s hire evidences Henderson’s continued commitment to the emerging markets equities asset class and signals the further strengthening of Henderson’s franchise working out of Edinburgh. We are certain Stephen’s global insights will be invaluable going forward.”
Stephen Deane adds: “I believe that there is a significant opportunity to help build Henderson’s emerging markets franchise based on its philosophy of long-term quality oriented investing, something Glen and I both share. This combined with Henderson’s reputation for excellent client service, global distribution and a client-led culture made joining the company a straightforward decision”.
As part of the team build-out in Edinburgh, Michael Cahoon has been promoted from analyst to portfolio manager, effective immediately, having contributed significantly to overall performance during the past year. Additionally he has been named co-manager on the US mutual fund, the Emerging Markets Fund. Nicholas Cowley will also be named as co-manager on the Henderson Gartmore Emerging Markets Fund.
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. The Morningstar European Institutional Conference Will Focus on Long-Term Investments
The Morningstar Institutional Conference, to be held in Amsterdam on 17 and 18 March 2016, will explore key themes relevant to long-term investors and will provide a holistic view of the current investing environment through a diverse program of presentations from leading investors, academics and industry experts. The organization expects more than 200 investment professionals from across Europe to attend.
Headlining speakers include John C. Bogle, Founder and former Chief Executive of Vanguard and creator of the first index mutual fund. In a conversation with Morningstar’s Scott Cooley, transmitted live from Pennsylvania, Mr. Bogle will share his views on building effective portfolios for long-term investorsand will challenge assumptions about active management. Attendees will also hear from James Montier, member of GMO’s asset allocation team, renowned author and expert on behavioral finance and value investing, who will explore the features of an independent-minded approach to investing and the challenges of implementing such a strategy in a multi-asset environment.
Haywood Kelly, Head of Global Research, of the organising firm will examine the landscape for sustainable investing and explain what the firm is doing to help individuals, advisors, and asset managers invest in ways that are meaningful to them. In addition, Thomas Idzorek, Head of Investment Methodology and Economic Research, Morningstar Investment Management group, will update and expand upon his ground- breaking research on the use of popularity as an investment tool.
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. An Ocean Divides European and U.S. Banks
When the market was “throwing its tantrum” in February, Brad Tank, Chief Investment Officer, Neuberger Berman, was in Canada and witnessed how the local financial press marveled at how strong Canadian banks were, having “only” lost 7-10% of their equity value year-to-date while their European and U.S. counterparts were down 20-30%.
“To be frank -he says-, I was marveling, too. One of the many explanations offered for the panic around U.S. bank securities was the amount of bad energy-industry debt they may be exposed to. But if anything, Canada’s banks are even more exposed to these risks. Muted loan demand, negative benchmark rates, flat yield curves, oil and gas exposures—there’s a bit of truth in all of these explanations for the global banking sell-off. By far the most important thing, however, was simple technical selling pressure.”
When the core business is borrowing money short-term and lending it long-term, the current environment is not great for profitability. That is meaningful for shareholders, “but in most businesses profitability has to deteriorate a lot before it affects creditors—in fact a small hit to profitability can be good for bondholders because it can make management more cautious.”
The expert considers banks are different. Because bank leverage is increasingly tightly regulated, sentiment that hits equity valuations can be very damaging if it brings a highly-leveraged bank close to its minimum regulatory-capital ratio. That can make nervous bondholders demand a bigger premium to take the risk of being “bailed-in” in the event of a bank failure. Additional tier-1 capital in Europe’s banks can even be written-down or converted to equity before a bank fails.
But the fact is, he explains, that U.S. banks are not highly leveraged. Since the financial crisis, capital-to-asset ratios have climbed from around 9% to 12%, on average. Moreover, after plummeting in the aftermath of the financial crisis, return on equity has climbed back above 9%. Finally, he adds: “U.S. banks are the best-managed in the world and most have good succession plans in place”. That is why the firm thinks U.S. bank debt is such good value now.
It’s more difficult to enthuse about Europe’s banks although there are bright spots. Many Scandinavian banks entered the 2007-09 crisis efficient and well-capitalized, and have since captured more market share, Tank points out. Elsewhere, high costs, a fragmented international market that discouraged competition and a greater focus on less profitable relationship-based businesses led to structurally lower return on equity and, to compensate for that, higher leverage than in the U.S.
He considers as a reaction to the crisis, Europe’s regulators were much slower to demand action—Eurozone banks still run with only an 8% capital-to-assets ratio, on average—and return on equity has barely recovered from the 4-5% levels it fell to in 2008-09. “That is why we saw a much sharper reaction in European bank bonds than we did in U.S. bank bonds. Some additional tier-1 capital convertible debt fell in value by 20%, in line with the equity itself—just as it was designed to do when things got tough.”
Europe’s banks find themselves straining to build regulatory capital ratios and drive efficiency to raise return on equity—while their regulators get bogged down in politicized debates about banking unions. “It’s do-able, but it’s hard and painful, and it’s the sort of thing that U.S. banks went through much more quickly six years ago within a much simpler regulatory framework.”
“As a result, looking at fundamentals today, we see an ocean between European and U.S. banks in more ways than one. That the market sometimes fails to register this allows steadier hands the opportunity to build positions at potentially very attractive valuations,” he concludes.
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. Have You Received a FATCA Letter?
Many U.S. expatriate taxpayers are receiving “FATCA” letters from offshore banks around the world. The banks are sending the letters in anticipation of their I.R.S. FATCA reports of U.S. taxpayer offshore financial information, explains Foodman CPA’s & Advisors. A FATCA letter is a letter from a Foreign Financial Institution (FFI) requesting certain information about a taxpayers’ U.S.A. tax filing status. “The letter will most like have a W-9 or W-8 BEN form which the foreign bank will want back relatively quickly within a certain time limit. The foreign bank wants the signed filled in forms back confirming whether the letter recipient is a U.S. taxpayer and subject to FATCA reporting,” they add. Moreover, receipt of FATCA Letter means that the taxpayer has already been identified as a U.S. taxpayer by the FFI, and his or hers name and financial account information will be disclosed to the I.R.S. Chances are, if the account holder’s account is in certain countries, that this information has already been released to the I.R.S., as the first FATCA exchange of information took place in September of 2015.
Banks annually review their client records. If the bank records contain certain indications of a U.S. taxpayer connection, i.e. – a Power of Attorney (POA), or third party authority in favor of a person with a U.S. address, or a birthplace in the United States (which automatically makes an account holder a U.S. citizen) – the bank will write to inquire about the taxpayer’s U.S. tax, and residence status, say the experts of Foodman CPA’s & Advisors. Banks that fail to disclose account data of a “U.S. Person” are penalized under FATCA. In sum, banks have been drafted to act as third party reporters for the I.R.S.
It is very important NOT to ignore a FATCA Letter. Here is what to do, or not do, according to the firm:
If the taxpayer is fully compliant and receives a FATCA Letter, simply reply back to bank, and provide the information requested.
If the taxpayer ignores the FATCA Letter, then the bank account could very well be closed by the foreign bank. In addition, the taxpayer’s detail will still be sent to the I.R.S. The taxpayer will be red flagged and labeled as uncooperative or recalcitrant. This approach is never recommended and will only yield very negative results.
If a U.S. taxpayer is not U.S. tax filing and reporting compliant, it is best to contact a qualified tax professional, and take advantage of I.R.S. programs designed for minimizing potential negative consequences for offshore non-compliant U.S. taxpayers.
The taxpayer would still need to respond to the Bank, and inform them that they are in the process of filing. Banks usually provide a 30 – 45 day extension.
U.S. offshore non-compliant taxpayers should not be victims of their own making. They should consider taking advantage of the I.R.S. Voluntary Disclosure Programs available to them now. This is especially urgent if they have received a FATCA Letter.
Photo: Thomson Reuters. Seilern Investment Management Wins Two Lipper Awards
Seilern Investment Management, the long-term investment management company, won two awards at the Thomson Reuters Lipper Fund Awards in Switzerland. For its range of equity funds it won the Best Equity Group award (in the Small Company category) and for its flagship fund, Stryx World Growth GBP, Seilern won the 5 Year Performance award out of 358 Global Equity funds.
These awards, coming shortly after Stryx World Growth reached its 20-year milestone, may be attributed to Seilern’s highly focused strategy; commitment to investing in quality growth businesses and holding them through the business cycle.
Seilern combines a rigorous process and proprietary research to identify the highest quality growth companies with superior business models, stable and predictable earnings, and a sustainable competitive advantage. The resulting shortlist, of no more than 70 companies in the world, forms the ‘Seilern Universe’, and from this pool of companies the fund managers select 17-25 stocks per fund providing investors with a concentrated high-conviction portfolio. Once invested, these companies are then held by the funds for the long-term, often for a period of many years.
Peter Seilern-Aspang, founder of the company and architect of the investment process commented: “It is very much a team effort at Seilern, so these awards mean a tremendous amount. We are very focused on finding the best companies and leaving them to grow, an approach that has worked well over the last 20 years.”
Capital Strategies Partners has an strategic agreement to cover Spain, Italy, Switzerland and LatAm market for Seilern Investment Management.
