Among a series of impressive speakers lined up for the ALFI European Asset Management Conference, Jon Beckett, affectionately known as ‘JB’, a thought leader in the field of fund strategy, research and governance, hunted down the value chain between fund buyers and fund managers and tackled the difficult issues head-on with the aim to show the audience how to think differently about buying funds, multi-manager and the way the industry works.
European Asset Management Conference
Bringing Asset Managers and Investors centre stage
21-22 March 2017European Convention Center Luxembourg
The future development of Asset Management will depend on its ability to adapt to a rapidly changing environment. Industry drivers are shifting, and are now dominated by innovation and alteration, especially around the following themes:
- Product development in a zero-interest environment
- Industry digitilisation
- Evolving investor demographics
- Geopolitical influences
- Margin pressures and the quest for yield
Of course, the Asset Management industry is eager to meet these challenges head on. As ALFI – being the Association representing the largest Asset Management and Investment Fund industry in Europe – we felt an obligation to offer our members and the industry a unique forum to debate current affairs and to share best practice with peers.
For this reason, our former ‘Spring Conference’ has evolved into The ALFI European Asset Management Conference
What do clients want from their Asset Managers?
The growth in the passive sector has a spill-over impact on active managers and gives rise to product innovation and rationalisation. Professor Amin Rajan, CEO, Create-Research, moderated two panel discussions on FUND DESIGN & STRATEGIC TRENDS, exploring how technology is blurring the boundaries between actives and passives and what active managers are doing to retain their relevance in the fast changing investment landscape.
The Big Picture – what’s driving the Asset Management world today?
There are many factors impacting the business models and strategies of asset managers: geopolitical influences, demographic changes, technology, low interest environment, transparency, governance… Xavier Lépine, Chairman of the Board, La Française, investigated how asset managers are coping with all these challenges and how the new asset management strategic requirements and trends look like.
Short & Sharp or Lunch & Learn session during your lunch break
FundChain – The genesis of the future fund distribution
PwC Director Patrick Hennes presented the Fundchain initiative launched in the summer 2016 with 10 key market players of the fund industry: BIL, BNP Paribas, CACEIS, European Fund Administration (EFA), HSBC, ING Luxembourg, Pictet, RBC Investor & Treasury Services, Société Générale Bank & Trust, PwC Luxembourg, the University of Luxembourg (SnT) and the Blockchain Luxembourg-based startup, Scorechain.
The aim was to prove the potential of blockchain in the Investment Fund arena, to develop solutions using Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) and smart-contracts, to act as the innovation pioneers for the fund distribution value chain in Luxembourg. Beginning February 2017, FundChain presented to the Luxembourg regulator, the CSSF, the SMART TA 1.0, a distributed transaction processing application running on a Ethereum private blockchain.
Cybersecurity
In today’s business world, it’s difficult to find an area that has not yet been touched by the unstoppable advance of the digital wave. Businesses now operate in an interconnected world, and rely on digital technologies that bring along new and advanced threats. PwC Partner Vincent Villers analysed how this trend will reshape the asset and wealth management industry going forward?
