The number of sustainable fund launches fell sharply in the first three months of 2023, Morningstar data has revealed. According to the firm’s latest quarterly report, there were 113 new sustainable funds launched in the quarter around the world – the lowest number since the start of 2020. Previously, Reuters wrote, new launches had exceeded…
The lawsuits over UBS’s ‘shotgun wedding’ rescue of Credit Suisse are growing in number. US law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan has already been instructed by key holders of Credit Suisse’s ‘additional tier one’ (AT1) capital instruments to represent them in discussions with the Swiss authorities and in any possible litigation. Now, however, it…
The national bank of Sweden has said it will raise its policy rate to 3.5%, with further increases expected. In a statement, Sveriges Riksbank said the rise would become effective from 3 May after the executive board gave assent to the increase of 0.5 percentage points. It added the rate would be raised by another…
The European Parliament and EU Member States have reached agreement on the European Chips Act, which seeks to make the market competitive with the US and Asia in the production of microchips. A statement from the European Commission said the continent’s dependence on chips from Taiwan and South-East Asia had been illustrated by the shortage…
Two lawsuits have this week been filed in Luxembourg against the European Union over its decision to include gas and nuclear in its guide to ESG investing. One of the suits has been filed by Greenpeace; the other by a coalition including Client Earth and the World Wildlife Fund. In the former, the argument being…
Savills Investment Management has agreed to buy €100m worth of residential property in Sweden, adding the buildings to its European Living platform. The firm said the deal would comprise six buildings across the cities of Uppsala, Västerås and Gävle, all of which were built in the last four years. It added that five out of…
The European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) have issued a joint consultation paper on the Delegated Regulation of the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR). The 158-page report – co-written by the European Banking Authority (EBA), the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) and the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) – contains a raft of proposed…
Asset managers on the continent that develop private asset products can expect to see “significant business” within the next five years, a report from Cerulli Associates has suggested. According to European Alternative Investments 2023: Helping Investors Diversify, while institutional investors remain the region’s major allocators to private assets, “a latent market” for high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth…
Asset manager DWS has restructured some of its senior management team, reports from Germany have indicated. As reported by the German site Fonds Online, Björn Jesch, the firm’s global head of investment, has seen his duties transferred to Vincenzo Vedda, head of active at the firm, with immediate effect. Fonds Online quoted a message it…
The implications of UBS’s takeover of Credit Suisse last month is continuing to roil the Swiss financial space, according to reports throughout the country’s media. UBS will look to shed between 25,000 and 36,000 roles within the company, with 11,000 of those being in Switzerland, Sonntags Zeitung has reported. The newspaper went on to note…
Analysis from the European Central Bank (ECB) has highlighted the importance of real estate investment funds (REIFs) in commercial real estate (CRE) markets across the continent. The piece, published here, said REIFs provided “a valuable channel of financing and investment in euro area CRE markets, reducing reliance on bank financing and thus diversifying the investor…
The European Sustainable Investment Forum (Eurosif) has said it will exclude from its next tally of the continent’s sustainable investing market those asset managers offering hard-to-define strategies around ESG. Speaking to Bloomberg earlier this week, Eurosif said it was revising its methodology, given the size of the market, which previous estimates from the forum have…
