Trends and Commentary

Amid the many, many nauseatingly hyperbolic statements and goals issued to promote Brexit, one stared ambition was a once-in-a-generation opportunity to fend off Paris and Frankfurt as major European financial centres.

Variously described as the most exciting thing ever to happen in finance and also one of its biggest challenges, ESG is no longer just a factor for investment decision-making, but a regulatory reporting requirement.

Asset managers love EUCs – End-User Computing solutions. These lovingly self-built Excel tools are often designed as quick fixes to very custom processes and problems – from valuation models through to simply taking manual effort out of a regular task.

Asset classes like real estate, hedge funds, private equity and credit, or emerging alternatives like cryptocurrencies, are routinely treated like those people choosing to live on society’s furthest fringes – left to their own devices and treated with a high degree of caution.

The delays surrounding the introduction of PRIIPs KIDs for UCITS funds by the European Commission are vaguely reminiscent of the slow-motion back-and-forth that characterized another European drama of recent years, Brexit.

Asset managers seek to embed ESG into their investment processes, but the extent that this integration is possible also depends, to a certain extent, on clear guidelines and metrics from regulation in order to assess the ESG impact of various investments.