Asset Management Marketing Focus #19

Kurtosys expresses their best wishes to all starting in their new positions.

Website Spotlight: AMG Funds

It’s starting to look a lot like Christmas, and with us at Kurtosys getting into the festive spirit, we’ve added a new site to our 50 Best Designed Asset Management Websites gallery.
It comes in the form of a brand new rollout from AMG: AMG Funds, and it’s an offering which goes to exemplify one of our core favourite site features here at Kurtosys: a perfect blend of content and data.

The home page works as an advert mainly for AMG’s fund products; the filtered search to the right of the screen helps the user to navigate to specific products straight away, but offers the ability to browse. Following on from before, these data features are also backed up by plentiful examples of regular content from their ‘Research & Insights’ sub-section.

Homing in on the Products page: the user can peruse the funds on offer from an intuitive fund explorer where, in keeping with the home page, each fund is accompanied by appropriate literature. The fund pages are extremely noteworthy, housing multiple interactive graphs, and the insights pages also feature a sleek layout, accompanied by toggle bars and more filters for maximum user experience.

One valuable feature is the ‘Shopping Cart’ on the Resources page. Users can order different pieces of their literature here and accumulate it, much like online shopping. E-commerce and fund websites in sync.

It’s responsive, snappy, and overall a well designed data-n-content package; a worthy newcomer for our favourite asset management sites.

Fund in Focus: Man Group China Hedge Fund

Our last AMMF of the year has to go off with a fund-related firework display, and UK-based Man Group have provided the goods by being the first foreign investment firm to launch (and then run) a quantitative investment fund in China.

The group’s first onshore investment strategy has been launched by the Man Investment Management (Shanghai) Co. Ltd. This immediately follows its Wholly Foreign-Owned Enterprise status and successful registration with the Asset Management Association of China as private securities investment fund manager, which occurred in September of this year.

China’s financial markets are developing at a rapid pace, an opportunity for Man Group to bolster their research capabilities, as noted by Tim Wong, Chair of Man Group Asia.

Global fund launches in some of the world’s most advancing markets is an exciting prospect, and Man Group seem to have had a decent year. As this interview outlines, Risk.net awarded their quant arm Man AHL with quant hedge fund of the year due to its innovative foray into machine learning-based algorithms.

Further information: Reuters | Hedgeweek

MiFID II News

Before AMMF makes its return in the new year, the financial world is finally about to witness and experience the drop of MiFID II on the 3^rd of January. This is it, it’s almost here.

Following in our series of close-up looks into informative MiFID II articles is an aspect which has gone under the radar in comparison to the “basics” of the directive (which are, ironically, pretty complex): social media.

As this FTAdviser feature opens: “Don’t forget about LinkedIn, Facebook or texts when it comes to MiFID II.” It’s a simple statement: the so-called “risk perimeters” widen in relation to social media platforms, outlets for communication which bring about compliance issues.
The recording of electronic communications, of course, is a matter to take into careful consideration. Traditional calls and hand-written message notes to clients are becoming fossilised in the digitalised ice age of the financial services industry caused by such platforms as LinkedIn, in particular.

When you’re not perusing thought leadership snippets from the LI-famous Oleg, the contacting of clients via LinkedIn’s messaging service is a popular activity. The problem is, regulation will now affect that.

Records must be stored, meaning the original document cannot be altered; it’s a large-scale admin overhaul. This article covers the specific communicative implications MiFID II brings, and how you as a financial player can stay compliant across the board. Good luck out there.

Industry Insights

Dangers of Digital
If one institution finds itself caught up in the dangerous maelstrom of digitalisation, fear is not an individual experience here. McKinsey provides some useful (and hopefully not too familiar) “traps” common for businesses to fall into whilst attempting to achieve digital transformation.

Using McKinsey’s own research papers and external articles from such publications as The New York Times (in the form of academic footnotes), there’s plenty of qualitative data and insight to back up this useful guide, bolstered by animated Indiana Jones-inspired exploration artwork which really makes this 10 step feature as enjoyable an experience as it is a bulky read.

Particularly when you delve into the attached insight features, it’s a mixture of how-to guide, how-not-to guide, and behavioural economics paper, and informative whether a digital transformation expert or not.

Nordea’s Digitalisation
However, one such example of a financial institution embracing digital through strategic investment is Nordic financial services giant Nordea.

Recently, Nordea Ventures has been established by the group to actively invest in fintech startups, key to their overall development through the provision of capital, but also benefits both players through the use of collaboration.

We’ve covered quite a few examples of banks collaborating with the so-called ‘industry disruptors’ (to almost completely devalue the term) in our Fintech World Series; Nordea itself has already struck a partnership with Swedish-based virtual bank Tink.
This assertive move to set up a new venture arm, and highlighting Nordea’s valuing of fintech newcomers, is a treat for all fans of digital transformation-based news.

INFOGRAPHIC!
It’s been a while since we’ve featured a simple, all-encompassing infographic, but the end-of-year vibe seems to fit.

It’s now a relevant time to point out the (current) largest asset management firms by assets in the world. So without further ado…

15 of the world’s largest #AssetManagement firms, all in the trillion dollar club. #FinTech #RoboAdvisor #AI #WealthManagement #InsurTech pic.twitter.com/5fIEOdDmmc

— Mike Quindazzi ✨ (@MikeQuindazzi) December 11, 2017

Looking Ahead

Despite the vast swathe of ‘new to 2018’ trend articles, Old Mutual Global Investors has gone the whole hog and created a 15 feature gallery of investment views for the year ahead.

Albeit 15 posts, this does resemble some sort of extended Asset Advent Calendar, particularly in its beautifully arranged presentation, with calls-to-action, photographic images and graphics aplenty.

Whatsmore, the views of financial planning professionals are succinct resources attempting to predict what investors can look forward to (or fear) for the future, touching on such topics as behavioural bias, Asia’s profits growth, Brexit and a whole lot more – check it out!

And finally…
…everyone loves a book at Christmas time, no?

Copylab are here to provide your literary list for Santa on all things business, investments, marketing strategy and more, from such names as Ray Dalio (head of Bridgewater Associates). A cheeky check-up on your own knowledge of stocks in front of the fireplace has never sounded so inviting.

And to sign off, here’s Citywire’s off-beat (pun intended) end-of-year roundup of a select group of its readers – from company directors to analysts – choosing their song of the year to describe 2017’s financial ride. Expect 70s rock, pop, and a whole lotta puns (mainly about Led Zeppelin, yes). It’s certainly a mixed bag, but the world’s greatest guitar solo is in there.

That’s all for this year! Be sure to check back in 2018 for more asset management marketing highlights and fintech snippets from Kurtosys.