SEC Division of Investment Management Hosts Conference on Emerging Trends in Asset Management

The SEC’s Division of Investment Management held an inaugural program titled, “Conference on Emerging Trends in Asset Management.” William Birdthistle, Division Director for the Division of Investment Management, and SEC Chair Gary Gensler delivered remarks highlighting the work of the staff and the importance of the SEC’s efforts to engage on the future of the asset management industry. Specifically, in his opening remarks, Chair Gary Gensler noted three trends, the growing use of third-party service providers, the use of qualified custodians, and the evolving changes in the cybersecurity space. The conference broadly touched on investor protection, the rise of private funds, investment complexity and trends, outsourcing, and industry innovation.

In the first panel, former SEC Investment Management Director Dalia Blass discussed fund proxy voting and the rise of voting blocs among index fund providers. She noted that changes in proxy voting for index funds, including passthrough voting for individual shareholders, have the potential to harm investors by due to the significant costs that would accompany pass-through voting. She also noted that as proposed, the SEC’s investment adviser and investment company ESG disclosure proposal would implicate almost every fund because they almost always consider the “G” – corporate governance. The panel, which also included Professor Lisa Fairfax of the Carey Law School at the University of Pennsylvania and Carsten Stendevad who co-heads Sustainability at Bridgewater, also focused on funds’ roles in corporate governance, fiduciary duties to the shareholder, and a variety of ESG-related issues.  Other panels addressed the role of asset managers in the current economic and political environment, private market accessibility for retail investors, concerns with index providers, data providers, the conflicting nature of ESG ratings, and the rise of ETFs, among other topics.

Click here to view the program’s webpage, an archived video of the conference is expected to be posted in the coming weeks.