Hi! Me again, filling in while my esteemed colleague Harriet Agnew seeks a little autumn sunshine, of which I’m definitely not jealous at all. No, it’s fine, really. My own little stream of consciousness on the asset management industry this week spans AI, CIOs and the CIA, and some OATs for good luck, so if alphabet soup is your thing, read on.
One thing to start . . .
“Our strategy is ambitious, and our strategy is working,” BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said of the asset manager’s earnings on Friday. It’s hard to argue. Assets under management surged to an all-time high of $11.5tn last quarter, reflecting a rally in markets but also record inflows of new cash from investors, which helped push revenues up 15 per cent to $5.2bn, surpassing analysts’ expectations.