Major fund management groups are set to unite under the flag of a newly created global funds industry body.
International fund management companies including Franklin Templeton Investments, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Invesco, JP Morgan Asset Management, and Pimco have expressed their plans to join ICI Global, the organisation says.
The Investment Company Institute, a US trade body, is behind the launch of ICI Global, though the new body will be based in London.
The organisation will focus on regulatory, market and other issues for global investment funds, their managers and investors. Members will include regulated US and non-US based funds publicly offered to investors in jurisdictions worldwide, making it the “first industry body to focus exclusively on the perspective of globally active funds”.
Dan Waters, formerly asset management policy director at the Financial Services Authority, the UK regulator, has been appointed managing director, and Jamie Broderick, head of JP Morgan Asset Management in Europe, will chair ICI Global’s steering committee.
“ICI Global will seek to advance the common interests and promote public understanding of global investment funds, their managers, and their investors as market and regulatory issues increasingly cross borders,” said Paul Schott Stevens, president and CEO of the US ICI. “It will build upon and expand ICI’s long-standing international advocacy on issues that affect millions of investors worldwide.”
ICI Global’s policy priorities and purposes fall into four broad categories: the role of funds and fund managers in financial stability; key transnational regulatory developments for funds; global trading and market structure policy developments; and retirement savings and pension systems.
The group said in a statement that it will serve as a conduit for proactive dialogue with a broad range of national and transnational regulators. It will also advocate for regulatory policies that promote funds as long-term investing vehicles. A key part of its strategy will be to work in close cooperation with national and regional fund and other associations worldwide.
ICI Global’s Steering Committee will include senior executives of its global fund members. ICI Global will assemble an international staff drawn from a variety of relevant global backgrounds and based in London. It will also draw on all of ICI’s Washington, DC, based resources, including ICI’s “unrivalled” legal, regulatory, research, communications, and fund industry operations teams.
ICI’s US member funds cover more than 90 million investors and manage assets of $12.5 trillion.
©2011 funds europe
