Good morning and welcome to your Morning Briefing for Tuesday 13 February 2024. To get this in your inbox every morning click here.
AI and compliance
With the world and its wife talking about artificial intelligence (AI), advisers would have to be working in a bunker to be unaware of its potential impact on the profession, says Amanda Newman Smith.
Industry commentators are speculating both on how AI could be applied to the advice market and on the caveats that would run alongside this.
One area being talked about is compliance.
Wealthify launches savings account
Investment platform Wealthify has teamed up with ClearBank to launch a new instant access savings account.
The account currently offers a competitive variable interest rate of 4.91% annual equivalent rate (AER) or 4.80% gross.
It is available to new and existing customers via Wealthify’s app or website.
Quote Of The Day
After a torrid 18 months – where surging energy costs saw inflation significantly outpace wage gains – it’s no surprise that the more recent combination of easing price pressures and still tight labour markets has driven UK consumer confidence to its highest level in two years.
– Hugh Gimber, global market strategist at JP Morgan Asset Management, comments on this morning’s UK labour market figures
Stat Attack
While we may reassure ourselves that we’re only as old as you feel, Brits are most likely to start feeling old when they reach their 50s or 60s according to new research published by Aegon today (13 February).
The survey found that if given the opportunity to travel back in time and offer advice to their younger self, given a range of options, over half (51%) would plump for ‘start saving as early as possible’.
Source: Aegon
In Other News
Candriam has announced strategic roles and leadership changes within its Thematic Global Equity team.
The asset manager, which is focused on sustainable and responsible investing and has €144bn AUM, has appointed Servaas Michielssens as head of healthcare, effective 12 February 2024.
He returns to Candriam after a 16-month tenure at a private equity firm, and will oversee Candriam’s healthcare offering, representing more than $4bn in AUM.
He will also lead Candriam’s life care strategy alongside co-manager Pierre Vaurice.
Michieldssenes’ expertise and track record in the healthcare sector is well-established, having previously served as co-manager of Candriam’s biotechnology and oncology strategies. He will be based in Brussels.
In addition, Linden Thomson has been appointed as senior fund manager to lead Candriam’s biotechnology and oncology strategies, effective 19 February 2024.
She is joining from AXA Investment Managers where she led the firm’s biotech strategy and served as head of the healthcare franchise, was one of the first investment specialists in the biotechnology sector and brings over two decades of industry experience. She will be based in London.
Advise Wise has announced the introduction of online applications submission for Legal & General plans on its platform.
Following the recent API integration with the lender, to enable flexible pricing sourcing and Instant KFI requests, Advise Wise has extended the integration to product applications, allowing advisers to submit an online application directly from its platform.
With the new feature, Advise Wise members can submit applications for Legal & General’s products from the client case page on the Advise Wise Platform.
This new development speeds up the process further, eliminates the need for duplicate data entry and reduces the risk of errors, enhancing the overall efficiency and accuracy of the advisory process.
As a result of the successful API integration, the new feature integrates into the Advise Wise Platform, which is linked to the Legal & General system through a sophisticated authentication solution providing cutting edge solutions for sourcing, quotes and now applications submissions.
Global investment firm Carlyle has announced the launch of a new semi-liquid European Private Credit strategy (ETAC), which offers a single entry point for individuals to access Carlyle’s Global Credit platform.
With $188bn of assets under management, Carlyle’s Global Credit platform utilises its scale, breadth of capabilities and integrated platform to offer borrowers bespoke solutions across the entire capital structure.
The new evergreen strategy provides individuals access to a wide range of its European Private Credit strategies to meet the objective of delivering income with a focus on downside protection, through investing directly in deals originated by Carlyle’s Global Credit platform.
The strategy is designed to generate income by tactically allocating assets to a wide range of credit strategies where Carlyle has proven investment expertise: direct lending, opportunistic credit, and real assets credit.
China’s biggest problem is a ‘lack of confidence,’ Standard Chartered CEO says (CNBC)
Deloitte and KPMG ask staff to use burner phones for Hong Kong trips (Financial Times)
Bitcoin hits $50,000 level for first time since 2021 (Sky News)
Did You See?
Counterintuitively, a gruelling 2023 was a good year for investment returns, says Rathbones’ David Coombes.
Stock markets soared, especially in the final few months of the year, while corporate bond prices rose rapidly as well.
Even government bonds made positive returns in a year of central bank tightening.
The driver of this strong year was, of course, a large fall in prevailing bond yields towards the end of the year as investors first hoped for and then pre-emptively celebrated a 2024 of falling central bank interest rates, muted inflation and absent recession.
It was an old-fashioned Santa rally: the returns came before the presents were handed out.
