In the last decade, the popularity of open ended funds has grown. We have seen many of our real assets clients launch such funds in recent years. One of the attributes investors appreciate is the diversity of property types. However, in recent years, we’ve seen the Internet of Things have an impact on various property types. The transition to online shopping, for example, has had an obvious effect on the retail sector.
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The hedge fund industry has adapted to many changes over the years—from new regulations to the massive shift to work-from-home operations in the spring of 2020. In a new whitepaper, we examine the factors that have enabled hedge fund managers to keep pace with those changes and rise above the competition.
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Despite financial and political risks and the COVID-19 pandemic, the appetite for Infrastructure Investing continues to rise. Increasing population, aging transportation, outdated data centers and the availability of more efficient green technologies highlights the need for infrastructure investment. Healthy infrastructure has a huge impact on global communities’ ability to thrive and for local economies to prosper. While it seems that managers have been successful in raising funds, deployment has been slow for many managers.
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One of the biggest impacts of COVID-19 has been on the banking sector, as indicated by the increased level of provisions for loan losses recorded in the first two quarters of 2020. Bank executives that were successful acquirers during the Global Financial Crisis of 2007-2008 and those looking to build franchise value are beginning to prepare for the potential to become active acquirers once again.
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COVID-19 and the resulting work-from-home (WFH) mandates have all but eliminated the benefit of maintaining in-house investment operations. This benefit is often described as control: the ability to “look over a shoulder” to ensure operations are running smoothly and issues are resolved quickly. Unfortunately, in-person control is no longer an option.
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While we don’t know when the business world will return to some sense of normalcy, we know a time will eventually come when offices are reopened and in-person meetings will resume on scale. And while we don’t know precisely how much will change for wealth managers and asset managers, advisors in our recent SS&C Advisor Insights survey, conducted in association with Horsesmouth, expressed that fundamental changes are happening and will continue once they reopen their offices to asset managers.
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Six months ago, the lending industry was operating much as it had done for many years. Where other financial services organizations have seen significant advances in the availability and adoption of technology to automate and streamline operations, paper forms are still commonplace for lenders. These forms are often walked from one side of the office to the other, and handed from one staff member to another, with a notable lack of straight through processing.
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The Middle East (defined here as the Arabian Gulf and its periphery) has long flourished as one of the wealthiest regions of the world. Sustained current account surpluses (i.e., when the value of exports is higher than the value of imports) and low domestic absorption capacity has meant that the region has one of the highest investible surpluses in the world. This surplus has propelled the region as an influential player on the global commercial stage, complementing its already-important political presence.
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