Руководитель Ninety One: будущее управления активами требует технологической грамотности и человеческого контроля

For the UK asset management industry, trying to revisit the question of ETF domicile risks focusing on yesterday’s contest rather than tomorrow’s opportunity. Nigel Smith, UK CEO, Ninety One says the industry statistics for Ireland and other jurisdictions suggest that the domicile question for cross-border ETFs is a battle that has “already been fought and won”- although he draws a distinction between where ETFs are domiciled and the development of the UK as a market for them. Smith estimates that fewer than 20% of UK retail investors hold ETFs. Those investors tend to be younger and unadvised, while around half have only started investing during the past five years. “You’ve got a new generation of investors arguably, that’s coming through supported by ETFs,” he says. That leaves a “pretty large domestic runway” for adoption in the UK, supported by IA and other initiatives intended to increase investment education and engagement. London can also continue playing a significant role in ETFs even where the underlying vehicles are domiciled elsewhere. Smith points to portfolio management, intellectual property around indexing and wider capital markets activity, alongside distribution, asset gathering and operating infrastructure. Important, however, is looking to the future beyond ETFs. “The UK’s play, I think, is to lead the debate on the next generation of wrapper and not refight a battle that’s already been won,” Smith says, nodding to the path towards tokenisation and the wider digital asset ecosystem. Manufacture once, distribute many One development along that path is the emergence of ETF share classes, which Smith expects to become more prominent over the short to medium term. He envisages an investment model built around a single portfolio of assets, potentially beginning life as a pooled fund. Investors could then access that portfolio through conventional share classes, listed ETF share classes and, subsequently, tokenised exposure. For asset managers, that creates the possibility of continuing to “manufacture once, distribute many”. It also increasingly separates investment expertise from the mechanism through which clients access it. Ninety One is already preparing for that shift. Smith says the firm has hired a head of digital assets and has a product team with expertise in tokenised assets and new technologies. It has also announced a joint venture with State Street Investment Management to bring ETF products to market and is considering how to offer tokenised exposures, with initiatives already under way in South Africa. The changes have implications for the skills asset managers require. “The asset manager of the future”, Smith says, will need to combine investment craft and capability with “technology fluency”. “We’re completely transforming the operating platform of asset management and it’s going to happen incredibly quickly.” That transformation encompasses the operational backbone of the industry, including transfer agency, custody, product development and access mechanisms. Ninety One has experience of adapting to new investment access models. Smith points to the firm’s response to the opening of Chinese markets, including QFII and Hong Kong-Shanghai Stock Connect. Ninety One, he says, was the first Ucits manager to trade through Stock Connect. While the firm is watching developments in markets including the US and Europe, Smith says it also needs to remain selective. New wrappers and access mechanisms ultimately provide different ways of reaching the same thing: the investment capability. However, regardless of how the investors end up accessing it, it is the investment outcome that is important, Smith adds. Human in the loop Artificial intelligence presents another dimension of the industry’s technological transformation. Smith believes AI can augment financial advice, potentially shortening the process and allowing investors to arrive at meetings with advisers better informed. But he argues that human involvement remains essential. Ninety One’s mantra, he says, is “human in the loop”, a principle he believes is critical for investment managers, wealth managers and financial advisers. Technology can improve the client relationship and the quality of discussion, but Smith says it cannot replace an experienced person who understands regulation, relationships and how people change their minds. AI is already “an incredibly powerful piece of kit”, he says, but it is “definitely not infallible”. And before asset managers can fully exploit it, another piece needs to be in place. “You can’t even begin to have an AI strategy until you’ve got a data strategy,” Smith says. For Ninety One, getting its data “shipshape” must therefore come before overlaying AI or other technologies. Smith sees signs that the UK is taking the broader transformation seriously, pointing to work around digital markets, tokenisation and initiatives already in progress. The industry must therefore continue preparing to take advantage of this shift.