Arthur Wu, senior investment analyst, attended the Asian Wealth Management Forum 2016 earlier this month, and discussed a few issues in the panel.
1) Against the backdrop of markets being shaky and uncertain at best in 2016, rather than trying to “time” our offering, we try to focus on the opportunities that arise out of structural market developments in Asia. Globally we are rolling out an ESG rating on funds, leveraging on our visibility into portfolio holdings.
Here in Asia, given the structural growth we have seen in Asian fixed income markets we have further expanded our research coverage into Asian fixed income funds. We are also expanding our coverage into Asian small cap, multi-asset, which has been getting a lot of investors’ attention in recent years.
2) In terms of the active/passive mix change, the growing availability of ETFs and the cost advantage that it offers means that passive options are here to stay. This will put greater scrutiny on active managers’ fees and the value-add they provide to investors.
3) Some people wonder if there is room for that many product providers in Asia. Our view is although the Asia market is smaller today, as it grows over time, there is certainly room for more asset managers
