News

Singapore goes all out for DC

February 24, 2017

Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, GIC, is making a huge splash into the Washington DC market.  The fund has formed a JV with Beacon Capital Partners to invest $1.05B in three of Beacon’s office assets totaling more than 2M SF.  GIC will join Beacon in ownership of Terrell Place, the Verizon Center-adjacent office building at 575 7th St. […]

Toronto’s housing boom ‘unrelenting’

February 23, 2017

Prices in Canada’s largest city surged more than 20 percent over the past year, the fastest pace in three decades, data released last week show. Some of the city’s neighboring towns are posting even bigger gains. It’s become a matter of considerable alarm. Stability is one concern: if the market tumbles, so will Canada’s economy. […]

HSBC profit worse than expected

February 23, 2017

HSBC has reported a $7.1bn (£5.7bn) pre-tax profit for 2016, down 62% on the $18.9bn reported a year earlier. HSBC attributed the fall to a string of one-off charges, including the sale of its operations in Brazil. HSBC said its performance had been “broadly satisfactory” given “volatile financial conditions” but warned a rise in global […]

UK to act on blood money claims

February 23, 2017

The UK Government has bowed to pressure to act on evidence that London has become “a haven for the blood money of the world’s nastiest despots”. New powers will be given to the authorities to seize the assets of foreign human rights abusers who buy homes in Britain to funnel their ill-gotten wealth. However, the […]

Research focus on millennials

February 21, 2017

Not all millennials are struggling. They graduated into the worst recession since the Great Depression, but a select few have been successful enough to put the cohort within reach of passing Generation X in terms of household wealth, according to a new study on wealth and inequality. The annual Wealth & Affluent Monitor, published by […]

Singapore holds off on wealth tax

February 21, 2017

There were no wealth taxes announced in Singapore’s Budget on Monday, but observers say it’s likely to come, just a matter of when, as Singapore spends more on healthcare and infrastructure. Indeed Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat said his ministry is studying new taxes or raising tax rates. “Domestically, we will also face rising expenditures […]

St James Place stresses social impact

February 21, 2017

St James’s Place has increased the pressure on its fund managers to invest with an eye on environmental, social and governance issues to meet demand from clients for more oversight on how their money is invested for social impact. The FTSE 100-listed wealth manager said investor interest in ESG issues had ‘multiplied’ in recent years. […]

Heads in the sand on fintech

February 20, 2017

PwC’s annual CEO survey shows asset and wealth managers (AWM) do not appear to be taking the technological threat seriously. The accountancy and consultancy giant’s 20th annual survey, for which 185 AWMs bosses from 45 countries were interviewed, showed that while firms are confident about their growth prospects, they remain uneasy about the challenges and […]

Shadow banking in China

February 20, 2017

Chinese banks had more than 26 trillion yuan ($3.8 trillion) of wealth-management products held off their balance sheets at the end of December, a 30 percent increase from a year earlier, according to the central bank. The expansion of this form of shadow banking, with money eventually being diverted to quasi-loans and bonds, outpaced the […]

Henri Fissore to open Wealth Forum

February 20, 2017

The Wealth Forums are honoured to announce that His Excellency Henri Fissore has accepted our invitation to open the third Monaco Wealth Forum at the Salon Bellevue, Cafe de Paris, on March 15. HE Henri Fissore currently serves as Ambassador with special responsibility to the Minister of State, and his brief is to recommend to […]