Welcome to the FIS Digital 2020 content hub

The Fiduciary Investors Symposium Digital looked at the extreme uncertainty of the global economy including the changing geopolitical dynamics and the potential unravelling of globalisation; the unprecedented fiscal and monetary policy responses and the implications for investments; how investors are positioning portfolios and managing short and long term risks; supply chain risks and responsible capitalism; and what a sustainable recovery looks like and how investors can ensure it happens.

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articleFIS Digital 2020

Dangers in the next policy response

FIS 2020 Digital delegates heard how the monetary response has successfully managed many elements of the crisis so far. Getting the next phase of the policy response right, particularly navigating fiscal policy, will be more challenging.
articleFIS Digital 2020

Prepare for new Asia-led regionalism

Globalisation will be replaced by a new regionalism with Asia at its heart. Coupled with automation and AI increasingly replacing traditional labour-intensive production, emerging economies with a youth bulge face challenging time ahead, according to Ian Goldin, professor of globalisation and development, Oxford University.
ArticleGeopolitics

Kotkin’s mega trends: Deadends & despair

Political regimes around the world are stuck in a series of dead-ends and despair. Most importantly, the China-US relationship has hit a brick wall as their fundamentally different values and interests clash. Deterrents and robust policy is the only way forward, says Stephen Kotkin, professor in history and international affairs, Princeton University.
ArticleInequality

Duflo says credit ratings punish poor

Nobel prize winner Esther Duflo suggests institutional investors can help alleviate poverty by fostering new supply chains and looking beyond a country's credit rating. She said there is an "unacceptable" level of poverty amongst Africa Americans and Latinos who are keeping the US economy going but dying for it.
ArticleStewardship

Robeco hails the power of stewardship

Global asset manager Robeco has found proactive stewardship triggers important changes in corporate behaviour. Chief executive Gilbert van Hassel urges FIS 2020 Digital delegates to do the same.
articleGlobal risks

Meng talks CalPERS leverage plan

In a fireside chat, CIO of CalPERS Ben Meng talks about how the fund wants to use leverage to push deeper into private assets, while Ronald Wuijster, chief executive officer, APG Asset Management said the policy response has made taking advantage of buying opportunities difficult.
articleSustainability

Purpose set to drive investment

Investors should use stewardship to encourage purposeful companies that provide long-term value by meeting the needs of multiple stakeholders and helping improve society. But what is a purposeful company?
articleChina

China’s growth conundrum: Debt vs GDP

Understanding the two policy making camps in China - one which is concerned about debt and one which is worried about a slowdown in growth - is key to understanding China's position in the global economy, says professor of finance at Peking University, Michael Pettis.
articleChina

Emerging economies: Rich opportunities

Investment opportunities in emerging markets include high yields on local government debt and cheap currencies, while China's Renminbi has proven its resilience and is now considered a safe asset currency according to chief economist at Pictet Asset Management, Patrick Zweifel.
articleGlobal risks

COVID-19 vaccination by year-end: Oxford

The only solution to the problem of COVID-19 is a vaccination. Oxford University's Jenner Institute is one of the organization's racing to provide a vaccine, and it's director Adrian Hill believes the Institute could have cracked it by year-end.
articleGlobal risks

Distressed debt: No repeat of 2008

Founder of SVPGlobal, Victor Khosla tells FIS 2020 delegates that although the opportunities in distressed debt are significant, investors should pick and choose. It's not like 2008.
articleReal Estate

Real estate: The winners and losers

Real estate is one of the asset classes hardest hit by the pandemic. Although FIS 2020 experts warn that some companies may never return to the office, opportunities are already appearing in smaller, regional hubs while listed real estate will recover quicker than private investments.
articlePurposeful companies

Asset management’s new purpose

CEO of Franklin Templeton, Jenny Johnson, said asset managers need to do more, particularly in boosting diversity and inclusion in the underlying companies they own. She said the industry needed to do more to ensure capital is available to black-run and female-run businesses.
articleGlobal risks

MP3 dangerous but necessary

Current fiscal and monetary policies are taking the world down a necessary, but dangerous path, according to co-CIO of Bridgewater Greg Jensen. He told investors asset allocations should focus on diversification, and assets that benefit from fiscal and monetary policy moving together.
articlePolicy

FIS 2020: Global Policy Response

Two ex-central bankers, Randy Kroszner and Lucrezia Reichlin, said that central banks were doing everything they could to ensure markets continue to function. They said inflation was unlikely.
articleGlobal risks

FIS 2020: Positioning portfolios

For some investors, plunging equity valuations in March were an opportunity to ‘get back in’ at reasonable prices. More recently the rapid recovery has been a cause to position conservatively once again.
articlePolicy

FIS 2020: The policy response

FIS 2020 will discuss how the unprecedented government stimulus in response to the pandemic could affect investor returns and specific allocations. Areas of concern include a sharp rise in zombie companies kept afloat by government support.
Session recordingGlobal risks

The vaccine

This session looks at the development of a vaccine for COVID-19 and what cooperation is needed to fight the virus.
Session recordingInequality

Ways to change the world

In conversation with the current recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics, Esther Duflo, this session looks at the phenomenon of inequality and the way in which economics and finance can help meet the challenge for a better, more equal, world.
Session recordingChina

China, emerging markets and the pandemic

The impact of the COVID-19 health and economic crisis is acutely more severe in emerging markets. What will the long-term impact of this be, and could the Renminbi emerge as a safe-haven currency?
Session recordingGlobal risks

Learning from real estate

The coronavirus pandemic has impacted the way we work and live in unprecedented ways that are impacting how we consume. This session examines what this means for the asset class opportunities and risks as well as learnings for the whole portfolio.
Session recordingPolicy

Global policy responses

How have different governments around the world responded to the health and economic crisis and what are some of the innovative responses that will stimulate the economy and ensure a sustainable recovery?
Session recordingGlobal risks

Global risk outlook

This session examines the rapidly changing risks to the global economy and the need for new ways of behaving, making decisions and even reversing decisions.
PodcastPurposeful companies

Responsible capitalism: data challenge

In this Fiduciary Investors Series podcast Amanda White talks to chief executive of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board, Janine Guillot, about stakeholder capitalism and the role investors can play in shifting the dial. We discuss the value SASB can play as a tool for decision making and how stakeholder issues can impact performance.
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