Author: Lily Harper

Asset managers have had two accusations levelled at them when it comes to green investing. First, that they are not doing enough to use their influence as investors to tackle climate change. And, second, that they have, in some cases, overstated the green credentials of their funds to benefit from the growing interest in sustainable investing. In their defence, however, investment managers say they are working with “one hand tied behind their backs” — as one portfolio manager puts it — because of a lack of high-quality, comprehensive, and trustworthy data regarding any company’s environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance.In short,…

Deep at the heart of Nomura’s corporate culture is the legend of Yoshihisa Tabuchi: the hyper-driven salesman-turned-chief executive who led Japan’s biggest brokerage through the 1980s bubble and whose supremacy as a banker sent shockwaves through Wall Street.Rookie Nomura salespeople, psyching themselves up for their first knock on a stranger’s door, are told of how in his early days Tabuchi would visit over 500 homes and wear out a pair of shoes each week plying his trade with absolute dedication.But in late 2024, a threat to Nomura’s reputation as a dominant force on Japanese doorsteps has emerged from an alarming…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The UK’s biggest wealth manager St James’s Place is abandoning its ritzy annual staff gatherings in London as well as a spring sports break at the luxury Gleneagles hotel in Scotland as it seeks to repair its corporate image.SJP will hold its annual company meeting virtually instead of at the O2 arena in January, according to people familiar with its plans.The London get-togethers, organised for staff and SJP’s 5,000 self-employed financial advisers, became a symbol of the company’s opulent sales-driven corporate culture.Top-performing…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The “class ceiling” restricting people with poorer backgrounds from working in UK financial services would be broken if companies were forced to report on the socio-economic roots of their staff, leading social mobility organisations have told regulators.Economic growth would be increased, risk-taking enhanced and consumers better-served if financial services companies had more staff from less privileged upbringings, the organisations said in a letter to the UK’s top financial watchdogs.The letter — from the heads of upReach, the Social Mobility Foundation and Progress…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The UK should break its “long-held antipathy” to paying whistleblowers in order to reduce economic crime and prevent hundreds of Britons taking information to the US, the Royal United Services Institute said. Launching an effective whistleblower payments programme could play a “pivotal role” in reducing white-collar offences, the defence and security think-tank found, adding weight to calls from the Serious Fraud Office for the UK to consider such a scheme. “Having an insider who can provide the emails and can provide the evidence just…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Allianz has paused talks with Amundi and its majority shareholder Crédit Agricole over plans to combine its €560bn investment management arm with its larger French rival, according to people familiar with the situation. The two sides had been in on-and-off discussions for more than a year, and were in exclusive talks to form a European giant with almost €2.8tn of assets under management as recently as Saturday morning. Some of the people said the talks could resume at a later date.The hiatus illustrates…

This article is part of the FT’s Financial Literacy and Inclusion Campaign joint seasonal appeal with Magic BreakfastIt is just after 8am in south Manchester and outside it is cold and slushy. Inside, a queue is forming at the school canteen, at the front of which are some Year 11 boys being served hot chocolate, toasted bagels, baked beans and buttered crumpets. One tells me he is in early as he has a computer science exam later and he needs food. “I can’t concentrate if I’m hungry,” he says, adding that this exam is important, as he wants to be…

It is perhaps no surprise that an industry that has been around for more than 150 years is going to have to battle to remain relevant. Investment trusts were under siege last year and a year on there are few signs of the troubles ending.  Demand from retail investors is in retreat. Passive funds, which have become hugely popular in recent years, have raised the competitive temperature, while fixed income is offering yields that offer a credible alternative for income-seekers. But there are other challenges too.The FT spoke to some in the industry who described “a difficult environment”, “a highly…

Making professional investment decisions on the basis of calls on markets, sectors or investment styles is a mug’s game. That is the suggestion of Craig Baker, global chief investment officer at insurer and institutional investor Willis Towers Watson (WTW), which oversees the recently merged £5bn investment trust Alliance Witan (ALW).“It’s pointless to call views on one market versus another, or different sectors or industries. Stock selection is the only way over the long term,” Baker says.Baker has been well known to Alliance Trust investors as lead portfolio manager since 2017, when WTW took over management of the then struggling trust’s…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The writer is a former investment banker and author of “Power Failure: The Rise and Fall of an American Icon”There is an old idea making new waves on Wall Street. Banks of all stripes are once again moving risk off their balance sheets, in line with the demands of their prudential regulators, to make room for taking on more risk.These so-called “credit risk transfers,” or CRTs, enable banks to sell only the risks associated with various loans, or pools of loans —…