A new survey from independent investment consultancy, bfinance, has identified significant changes in wealth managers’ investment capabilities and practices. Firms are innovating too as they fight to maintain market share and profitability in an era of fee compression and new tech-based competition, the firm says.

Micro-investing platform Wombat Invest has appointed David Davies and Iqbal Gandham to its advisory board as it prepares to raise a GBP10 million Series A funding round to support its rapid growth and forthcoming expansion into Europe.

Advised clients are missing out on superior returns due to technical restrictions with many platforms, a new report by NextWealth has stated.

Konstantin Anissimov, Executive Director at CEX.IO, writes on the crypto crackdown in the UK, saying that the industry should embrace it.

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (“Goldman Sachs”) today announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire NN Investment Partners from NN Group N.V. for approximately EUR1.6 billion. The transaction is expected to close by the end of the first quarter of 2022, subject to regulatory and other approvals and conditions.

Nearly half of advisers (42 per cent) say regulations pose the biggest challenge to their business while only 16 per cent point to Covid-19 mutations as the primary challenge.

FE fundinfo, a global fund data and technology leader, has acquired FundConnect, the fund data and technology company based in Denmark. The deal brings together FE fundinfo’s fund data and technology expertise in the UK, Europe & Asia with FundConnect’s complementary set of services and their unique position in the Nordic fund industry.

Investment management is an industry in constant expansion, with PwC recently estimating a USD35 trillion increase in the total global value of assets under management by 2025. Because of this growth, financial crime risks and regulatory scrutiny could also increase across the industry. 

Lucy Aylmer talks to Matthew O'Connell, head of investment at the Bordeaux Index, about LiveTrade, the firm’s award-winning online trading platform designed to enable the buying and selling of fine wines.

Chip, the digital savings app, has analysed the demographics and behaviours of its 350,000 users to find a record number of female investors as well as trends that not only indicate a higher appetite for risk among women compared to typical data but also a strong uptake in Environmental, Social, and Governance (or ESG) investing.