Tag: ESG

New podcast: How does innovation happen in the Investment Management industry?

Posted on by Eva Keogan

It’s December and we are pleased to share a new episode of the Reseo State of the Art podcast, and our final one of this year.

We are ending 2024 on a high note with an exciting conversation about innovation in the industry, which spans regulation, ESG, AI, and even Space.

Pierre Yves-Rahari is on hand to kick start the conversation, with his first set of questions: How do the best innovators in the industry operate? Do they create as individuals, or are they championed by corporations, or a combination of both? Is there any correlation with the funding model or talent pool available to innovators and what are the implications of for the future of innovation?

We are delighted to be joined once again by guests Mark Cummins, Professor of FinTech and a Principal Investigator within the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab (FRIL), and Dr James Bowden, Senior Lecturer in Financial Technology, who both hail from the University of Strathclyde.

Presenter
Pierre Yves-Rahari, Co-Founder and Director, A-Lab Solutions (Reseo)

Guests
Mark Cummins, Professor of FinTech and a Principal Investigator within the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab (FRIL), University of Strathclyde

Dr James Bowden, Senior Lecturer in Financial Technology, University of Strathclyde

Producers

Eva Keogan, Reseo

Melanie Lopes, Reseo

Enjoy listening and don’t forget to come back in the New Year when we go live with our 2025 schedule of discussions about the state of the industry.

Catch up on all our other episodes on Spotify and Apple podcasts.

Industry conferences: Innovation is also about taking a different perspective

Posted on by Pierre-Yves Rahari

I have just returned from a short Summer break. Disconnecting from my emails and app notifications, even for only a few days, has given me the space to look at a few things with a slightly different perspective. After all, this is the bedrock of new discoveries and the innovation we profess and encourage at Reseo. I am taking this approach to think about the Investment Management conferences I have attended this year and reflect on a nagging feeling that something is missing in the conversations held by and with my peers.

Secular and cyclical topics

On that basis, I perused through the agendas of several conferences and observed that most conversations in our industry evolve around two main pillars, one that I would call the industry “core” or secular concerns, and the other one, the more cyclical questions. “Core” or secular concerns include a review of the fundamentals affecting the industry; investment trends; product development; macroeconomic and geopolitical issues; and of course, the ongoing regulatory updates. On the other hand, cyclical questions – at least for the most recent conferences – include conversations about private markets (and “retailisation” of thereof) and alternative asset classes; anything and everything technology, innovation, blockchain and AI; and of course, anything ESG[1] (with a marked decrease in the volume of conversations on this topic lately). Besides these secular and cyclical topics, space is made for a few conversations on governance and leadership, and more sporadically on people and talent.

All these topics are interesting and relevant, but I can’t help but notice that most of our industry conferences are designed on the same model, bar a few exceptions. Which often leaves me with a feeling of déja-vu or repetition, despite the high professionalism of most events, and the fantastic learning and networking opportunity they offer.

My wish list

With that in mind, what innovation would I like to see in our industry conferences?

  • Diverse speakers: For once, I would very much promote a greater diversity in the pool of speakers. The pay-to-play model that now prevails in most industry conferences tends to favour established corporations and exclude smaller start-ups[2] from panel conversations. Established corporations offer extremely valuable insight from their experience, yet I firmly believe that the industry would strongly benefit from alternative, equally innovative voices which deserve to participate in the public debate.
  • Focus on people: Then, I would very much table more topics on people, talent and leadership, which includes looking at these questions not only within the organisations within our industry, but also from an external viewpoint. For example looking into the demographics and motivations of our investors; understanding the perspective of our stakeholders and so on.
  • Macro and systemic analysis: My bias is that understanding people and talent cannot be divorced from looking at the organisations within which they operate, and even further, from an examination of the macro systems within which our organisations operate. I would encourage more of these conversations within our industry conferences. These would offer more opportunities to compare and contrast our industry with others as well, and allow us to engage in more societal and sense-making conversations[3].

From an innovation perspective, I see great benefits in these gentle questioning of our industry, in contrast to the too often self-congratulatory tone of our conversations.

Call for action

What other topics or questions would you like addressed in our industry conferences? Please share your thoughts at reseo@reseo.global , which we will compile and publish in our next article.

 

 

[1] ESG: Environmental, Social and Governance

[2] With limited marketing budgets to participate in conferences

[3] CogX comes to mind, as a model of cross-systems conference

 

The dream team: When the Investment Management industry and Regulators see eye-to-eye …

Posted on by Eva Keogan

Funds Congress, which took place in London on February 8, marked the opening of the conference season for the Investment Management industry in UK-Europe. Attendance was remarkable, especially during the live broadcast of Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart’s podcast, “The Rest Is Politics.” Congratulations to the organisers.

When introducing the two hosts, star broadcaster Kristy Wark referred to them as a “dream team” that managed to avoid being an “odd couple.” This drew genuine big laughs from the audience, but I couldn’t help but draw a parallel with a theme that was recurring during the conference: Investment Managers and Regulators are seeing eye-to-eye on a number of hot industry topics, and for once, complaints on a “regulatory tsunami” were quite muted. Instead, everyone was supportive of one another.

For example, there is a consensus across the continent that private assets will contribute significantly to the financing of the transition to a green economy. As a result, the industry is creatively creating products to attract retail investors towards this segment, which regulators are all supportive of. In our jargon – we like jargon in our industry[1] – this is called “retailisation of private assets.” Furthermore, there is a recognition that asset owners are increasingly scrutinising the ESG[2] credentials of asset managers, using the extensive sustainability data that the latter more and more willingly publish at the request of regulators. When an odd couple turns into a dream team …

But not all is perfect in dreamland. I rephrase. Work is still in progress. There was much discussion on the merits and benefits of digitalisation and AI for investors and the industry alike during the conference, yet, despite a few calls for caution on total reliance on machine intelligence, there was scarce mention of initiatives underway to regulate AI, on which the UK and Europe lead the conversations. It is maybe just a question of timing, as one regulator suggested, but I couldn’t help but notice the gap.

Why do these topics matter to us at Reseo? Because they touch on the core of our mission, which is to blend technology and investor-centric services to ensure continued financial trust while future-proofing the investment management industry for the digital generation. And for that to happen, we definitely need the industry and the regulators to see eye-to-eye.

Let’s hope for more and continued constructive debates in the course of this year.

And here’s to an encouraging start of the year for the industry.

PS – Please send me your favourite industry jargon, at psrahari@reseo.global. I will happily include it in my upcoming article.

 

 

[1] Industry jargon … this could be the topic of a full article in the future …

[2] ESG: Environmental, Social & Governance

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