BOV Asset Management recently presented its yearly market outlook together with a fund focus for its suite of funds.
Present for this afternoon seminar, which is now in its fourth year running, were a number of BOV Asset Management representatives from the BOV branches and investment centres along with other authorised financial intermediaries.
“This year marks the 25th anniversary from the establishment of the bank’s fund management arm which was formerly called Valletta Fund Management,” said Joseph Camilleri, executive head BOV Asset Management.
“The company has evolved from being a marketing company promoting funds managed by third parties to a fully fletched asset management company with over a billion euros under its management.
“During the last year, the company strengthened its resources in the asset management and compliance section, the latter being fundamental to keep the company compliant with ongoing regulations in all fields of the industry.”
Providing an outlook on key themes that are expected to have an impact on financial markets in 2020, Steve Ellul, head, Asset Management, said that the major drivers of global asset classes are now evolving and asset allocations need to reflect these changes.
Central banks have practically exhausted their monetary policy toolkit and one should expect further pressure to pile up on government to support economies from a fiscal perspective. Trade wars and Brexit-related concerns are seen slowly dissipating, while inflation expectations and volatility on the EUR/USD pair are generally low.
Other BOV Asset Management experts provided their own outlook for 2020 and discussed other topics such as the expectations for local bond and shares, the position-ing in global portfolio funds, the multi-strategy approach being adopted in the European multi-manager fund and key features in the high-quality and high yield bonds funds run by BOV Asset Management.
This seminar was also addressed by Kenneth Farrugia, chief business development officer at Bank of Valletta.