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Abrdn is on the cusp of making its first foray into digital assets — a segment of the non-traditional finance market that is fast becoming an attractive target for the global fund management sector. “You can expect more from me very shortly on this,” Abrdn CEO Stephen Bird told Financial News when asked about plans … Read more
Text size BlackRock is partnering with Coinbase to offer Bitcoin trading services. Michael Nagle/Bloomberg BlackRock is partnering with Coinbase Global to offer Bitcoin trading services to institutional clients, representing a push into cryptocurrencies for the world’s largest asset manager and a ringing endorsement for the embattled crypto exchange. Institutional investors who use BlackRock ’s Aladdin … Read more
Text size PayPal shares have slid this year as people have returned to their prepandemic spending habits. Courtesy of PayPal Payments giant PayPal finally has attracted an activist. PayPal (ticker: PYPL) had been a pandemic-darling as households increasingly shopped online but shares have slid more than 60% this year as people returned to their prepandemic … Read more
The London Metal Exchange asked a High Court judge to respect its “specialist” judgment and refuse payment of $456m and $15.3m, respectively, sought by activist hedge fund Elliott Management and market maker Jane Street over cancelled nickel trades in early March. The view from the LME in the 13 July court filings — still in the early … Read more
The rise of passive investments has come to define asset management in recent years. A surge of interest has seen flows into ETFs spike. The global market could top $15tn within three years, according to some estimates. But in an increasingly crowded space, where will things head next? Few are better placed to answer that question … Read more
Turmoil in the digital-assets ecosystem has grown in recent weeks, with losses in cryptocurrencies blowing holes in balance sheets and pushing firms near bankruptcy. After a pair of cryptocurrencies crashed, wiping out billions of dollars in value in May, a British Virgin Islands court this past week ordered a hedge fund that had survived several … Read more
BlackRock has no plans to launch a bitcoin product, but is bullish on the blockchain technology that underpins cryptocurrencies, according to one of its most senior executives. “In terms of the underlying technology of blockchain, it is incredibly innovative and incredibly disruptive,” Salim Ramji, global head of iShares and index investments at BlackRock told Financial … Read more
Fund management professionals have been warned that soaring pay and bonuses prompted by an escalating war for talent could soon come to an abrupt end. “The war for talent is real, but some of the pricing that people have been banding around for talent is about to change in a meaningful way,” said Edwin Conway, … Read more
The combination of underinvestment in new oil wells and rising demand underscores what might be a long period of high prices for energy commodities. Meanwhile, many oil and gas stocks are still trading at low valuations to expected earnings despite a sector-wide rally stretching back to the end of 2020. Even though the energy sector … Read more
Keith Skeoch chaired the UK government’s Ring-Fencing and Proprietary Trading Review, and is the former co-chief executive of Standard Life Aberdeen The ring-fencing regime was introduced following the financial crisis and broadly required banks to separate their retail businesses from investment banking. In the same way RBS became the poster child of the financial crisis, ring-fencing … Read more