Vanguard's European profits up 40%
Vanguard's European price war has paid off. Money is rolling into its passive instruments and out of more expensive actively managed European funds. The Pennsylvania-based company - the fastest growing manager - had previously failed in Europe because of market fragmentation and commission culture.
Major index providers unveil a new sector
Sector ETFs can be confusing and mislabelled. But the sectoring on indexes is set for a shake up with both MSCI and S&P looking to change their categories. Changes include communications being spun off into its own sector and Amazon being put in cloud computing.
ESG heating up
ESG investing is becoming popular. Insurance giant Swiss Re recently moved $130bn in assets over to ethical benchmarks. Dutch bank NWB raised $2.2bn to lend to cheap social housing. But with the rise of ESG comes the challenge of screening out what is genuinely an ESG investment from what is merely marketing.
