Citywire Global CEO Summit

What is going to change as a result of the pandemic? Will, as many suppose, the bandwagon of ESG investing accelerate. There’s an interesting observation, based on a Lenin quote, that the pace of change has already accelerated massively. While another CEO warns that companies shown to have exploited their workforce will be hit hard. 

This session of the Citywire Global CEO Summit asked whether conditions were ripe for active managers to outperform passive,  given the volatility and likely dispersion of returns.

Eight CEOs of global asset management groups from the UK, the USA and Europe talk about how their clients are responding to the market turmoil caused by the coronavirus. Their answers are surprising and specific.

After the adrenaline has worn off how do you keep your people healthy? Good communication is vital and lots of it.  Will working patterns still look the same when lockdown is over? As one  CEO puts it: ‘the whole nature of what it means to be in the office and out of the office and be productive is changing..’

The economic damage is huge and asset managers have a role to play in repairing it – providing equity and debt. But responsible investing and climate change are very much on the agenda, particularly as the companies with strong ESG track records have been more resilient and performed better, the CEOs say.

What would the CEOs expect to happen in the future, what would they like to happen? ‘We all need to think more broadly and more globally ..” says one CEO.