Institutional Asset Management News and Insights
Fixed Income Market Update
The Fed acts in line with its broader mandate and introduces three significant, game changing policies in time for them to have an impact:Unlimited purchases of US government debt and Mortgage Backed Securities. Buying of corporate bonds issued by US companies in the...
Macro Outlook Q1 2020 | 20/20 End of cycle postponed, but vision far from perfect
2019 will be remembered as the year when major central banks staged a significant turnaround in monetary stance. The easing was precipitated by the US Federal Reserve’s (Fed) dovish pivot in January, and since then we have seen both the Fed and European Central Bank...
Note from the CIO November 2019 | FOMO + QE = Fuel for the markets, but for how long?
The herd is thundering back into risk-taking. The sudden improvement in investors’ sentiment has come as the Fed has reversed its policy of five years, and started to expand its balance sheet again. It did this to restore liquidity to the repo market, where banks...
Macro Outlook Q4 2019 | The Japanification of the Global Economy
On the back of the screeching handbrake turn by major Central Banks, financial markets are showing signs of extreme confusion: while equity markets still seems to be in “insurance policy” mode, bond markets have moved to price in a higher likelihood of recession. It...
Macro Outlook Q3 2019 | Monetary Policy in Full Swing
On the back of the screeching handbrake turn by main Central Banks (led by the Fed), financial markets are exhibiting signs of extreme confusion: equity investors’ thinking about the Fed still seems to be in “insurance policy” mode, while bond markets are pricing in a...
Note from the CIO June 2019 | Heading for recession or long slowdown?
Recent market events are shaping our outlook: The value of global sovereign bonds with negative yields has doubled since last October to $11 trillion in May (only $1 trillion below the all-time high registered in mid-2016). And all this while the US economy is...
Environmental, Social and Governance Risk (ESG) Investing: An insurance perspective
As ESG takes a more prominent role in investment many related terms and approaches have emerged. Usually when ESG is discussed the focus is on the wider benefits of building on ESG portfolios. Whilst these are numerous, there can also be ESG impacts on many types of...
Finding Value: How smaller insurers can compete
‘Finding Value: how smaller insurers can compete’ outlines how small and medium insurers can derive value in the evolving insurance environment. The challenges which the insurance industry has faced in recent years, have been amplified for smaller insurers. As a...
Macro Outlook Q2 2019 | The Fed blinks: tightening policy postponed
Throughout the past quarter, US Fed Chair Jerome Powell executed the monetary policy equivalent of a screeching handbrake turn. After suggesting late last year that interest rate hikes and balance sheet reductions were on a pre-set path, Powell has dramatically...
Pau Morilla-Giner, CIO on Bloomberg
Our Chief Investment Officer, Pau Morilla-Giner discusses de-risking portfolios and the Fed’s rate decision on Bloomberg Surveillance. Watch the video here At London & Capital, we understand that protecting and growing your wealth involves thoughtful...
Macro Outlook Q1 2019 | It’s cold without the QE blanket
What a year 2018 has been: US GDP growth hit 4%, Global Earnings Per Share (EPS) rose to all-time highs, US taxes were cut by $1.5tn, US corporates bought $0.8tn of stock, unemployment fell to multidecade lows in the US, UK, Europe, Japan… …And yet… Cash outperformed...
A Capital Question
The last ten years have been something of a lost decade for the investment portfolios of niche insurers such as captives and mutuals. The recession of 2009 and the ultra-low interest rate environment that has persisted in its wake, has translated into precious little...