Funds management has become the number one employment choice for investment professionals around the world, according to a UK-based financial recruitment specialist.
Citipeople Group managing director David Twiddle says funds management is now a “sexier” job choice than traditional leader investment banking.
Twiddle says the growth of the funds management industries in Europe and the UK, in particular managed equities funds, has given funds management groups the image of being more exciting places to work.
“When looking at the funds management industry, the profile has risen which means it is receiving more attention within the financial services job market. This is an overall trend and as more come in it will become even more attractive,” Twiddle says.
“Previously investment banking was seen as the sexy area but that has moved to funds management due to investments like hedge funds. There is a real shift from the buy side of the business to the sell side.”
Twiddle says this shift is occurring in the USA and the UK as part of the huge growth in demand for wealth management. At the same time, there is also a shift in dealing with private clients from just managing money to treating them as small size companies and providing a much greater product range.
“It is easy to move from an institutional background to servicing private clients as products are more akin to each other. This is something we have not seen previously as in the past the movement went the other way,” Twiddle says.
However the future does not remain bright for all those working in financial services. Twiddle says some jobs will dry up as demand drops away.
“Anything that can be done online such as money broking will find a reduced market. Most of the changes will be in the front end but the back end will continue to have a role as needs there still remain strong,” Twiddle says.
“The question intermediaries across the globe are tackling is how to reposition themselves so that they remain in the process.”
HK gets CFP
Hong Kong has become the 14th country in the world to officially adopt the Certified Financial Planner (CFP) mark. The International CFP Council approved Hong Kong as its 14th affiliate member at last month’s meeting of the CFP council, according to Financial Planning magazine in the US. Hong Kong joins the UK, Australia, France, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa and the United States, among others as an affiliate member of the CFP Council. The CFP council has also established the European CFP Council, a sub-group of the International CFP Council, the first official CFP council outside the US. The vast majority of CFP licences are held by US financial planners. About 36,000 of the world’s 57,00 Certified Financial Planners hail from the US compared to about 2850 in Australia.
Invesco purchase
Invesco has become the second biggest player in the UK’s retail investment market with the purchase of UK-based Perpetual Plc for about £1.05 billion ($A3 billion).
The move follows a spell of growth for Invesco throughout Europe, Asia and the UK. The group also made a major move on the Canadian retail funds management market earlier this year with the acquisition of Trimark Financial Corporation. The Perpetual deal increases Invesco’s funds under management worldwide to $A740billion.
Deutsche in talks
Deutsche Bank is in merger talks with British-based Lazard Brothers. The talks cover a range of possibilities that may lead to closer cooperation between the two, according to Britain’s Sunday Business newspaper. The merger talks are the second Deutsche Bank has partaken this year. The first came following the announcement earlier this year that a merger would commence with another German bank Dresdner Bank. However, a month into further merger details, talks were called off.
Fiduciary acquisition
Templeton Investments parent company Franklin Resources has acquired US-based Fiduciary Trust for $US910 million ($A1.8 billion). The acquisition of Fiduciary brings an extra $US14 billion under management to the $US280 billion already managed by Franklin worldwide. Apart from strong presences in the US, both Franklin and Fiduciary have growing presences in the UK and manage funds on behalf of a number of Australian institutional investors.
