AXA Financial News

Dowey and Ward will be based in London and will report to Tom Riley, head of global thematic strategies for AXA IM Core. The former joins from Liontrust Asset Management, where he was a fund manager and co-head of the global innovation investment team. In October 2024, Investment Week revealed that Dowey was preparing to leave Liontrust, following five years at the UK asset manager, but his next move was unknown as the time. Liontrust co-head of Global Innovation team James Dowey set to depart His new colleague Ward joins from Barings, where he served as head of global tech...

However, buying a life insurance plan could all be in vain, if you your insurer does not honor the claims made by policyholders. How can you figure out if your life insurance company makes timely payouts on claims made by its policyholders? What percentage of the total claims received by the insurer during the year does it pay and how much is delayed? To understand how effective your life insurer is in claim settlement, you can take help of the claim settlement ratio. Insurance watchdog IRDAI (Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India) annually releases a handbook of Indian Insurance Statistics detailing the claim settlement ratios of all life insurers in the country.

Fodil and Sartori, who are based in Paris, will report to Christophe Carrasco, head of private debt at BNP Paribas AM. Carrasco noted that in their new roles, Fodil and Sartori will «support and accelerate the development of [BNP Paribas AM's] unitranche strategy». Prior to joining the firm, Fodil spent seven years at AXA Investment Managers, where she worked in the private debt team as a senior investment professional and voting member of the investment committee. Aviva Investors launches private debt LTAF In the past, Fodil also worked for ten years in the leveraged finance or...

The two trials AXA IM participated in used blockchain infrastructure and the Banque de France's tokenised cash solution and were part of the Call for Expression of Interest launched in December 2023 by the ECB to test new technologies for the settlement of wholesale financial transactions in digital central bank money.  In the first experiment, AXA IM – on behalf of AXA France – invested €3m in a digital sovereign bond issued by the Republic of Slovenia. The transaction was executed on BNP Paribas' Neobonds tokenisation platform with the settlement with a one-day settlement period an...

As part of the promotion, Karim will report to both Jean-Christophe Menioux, general secretary and CFO, as well as Geoffroy Reiss, COO and global head of transversal services for AXA IM Core. Karim will also continue to fulfil part of her current responsibilities as global head of oversight and chief operating officer with the firm's Core division. She is set to take over from current UK CEO Marcello Arona, who is pursuing «an opportunity outside of the business», the firm said. AXA IM Core poaches abrdn's Dominic Byrne as head of global equities Karim joined AXA IM in 2007, and...

After an 11-year stint at the asset manager, he will join the investment team of an unnamed superannuation fund. Narula joined Mirabaud in 2013 from AXA Investment Managers, where he worked for more than five years as a senior fund manager. Mirabaud expands UK wealth team with hire of portfolio management head Following Narula's departure, Paul Middleton will assume day-to-day responsibilities for the equities team as acting head of the department. He will continue as fund manager of the firm's Global Dividend strategy and take the lead on the Global Focus strategy, which he co-...

As part of his new role, Byrne will lead the global equity team and manage several global equity portfolios, reporting to global head of equities Jeroen Bos. The firm recently bolstered its global equity team with the hire of Stephanie Li, who will focus on Asian equities, and Koichiro Nanaumi, who will work on Japanese equities. «I am confident that with a larger and experienced global equity team we are in a strong position, aiming to deliver outperformance for clients and accelerating the further growth of our business,» said Bos. AXA to sell investment management division to BN...

France is in shock. BNP Paribas is acquiring Axa Investment Managers to create a new pan-European asset management firm with €1,500bn in assets under management and «powerful platforms of public and private assets.» The deal, which bankers from JPMorgan and Zaoui are advising Axa on according to Les Echos, won't close until 2025, thereby Axa's 2,400 people ample months to contemplate their fates. 

This represented a total industry AUM increase of 3% last year thanks to a market rebound, following a 12% drop in 2022.  According to data from the Investment Association, this growth is testament to a return of global appetite in the UK investment management industry, and the ability of investment managers to weather the storm of an era of quantitative easing and lower interest rates.  UK-listed companies accounted for roughly 20% (£780bn) of UK equity AUM, while assets in their North American counterparts stood at 35% of the market share. AXA to sell investment management divisi...

Under the deal, AXA would also receive around €300m from the sale of Select, formerly Architas, to AXA IM before the closing of the transaction, bringing the total proceeds to €5.4bn. The sum would represent a multiple of 15x 2023 earnings, AXA noted. Additionally, AXA and BNP Paribas would enter into a long-term strategic partnership, where BNP would provide investment management services to AXA. If the deal goes ahead, it will create a European asset manager with around €1.5trn in assets under management. AXA IM to acquire US private equity boutique W Capital Partners AXA s...

The global equity team launch is expected to strengthen Allianz GI's prowess in the booming artificial intelligence and technology sector, which already comprises ecosystems in both Europe and Asia.  Gleeson, who will start his new role at the end of August, joins the firm from AXA Investment Managers, where worked for over 17 years, most recently as a lead portfolio manager of its Global Technology fund. AllianzGI appoints BlackRock's Krautzberger as global fixed income CIO In addition, he has been the lead portfolio manager for AXA's Digital Economy fund since its launch in 2017,...

In a LinkedIn post, his wife Hilary said Cholwill had battled prostate cancer for six years and died on 20 June. «We know that Martin was loved and respected by many that worked with him. He had a long and successful career and was very proud of everything he achieved,» she wrote. «Martin continued working through his initial cancer treatment in 2018 and through Covid before retiring a couple of years ago. „Sadly, at the start of this year, we learned that Martin had only a few months left with us.“ Cholwill started his career in 1983 at AXA Investment Managers, where he served as ...

The move to drop the funds came on the back of a review launched by TILLIT's investment committee, which was automatically triggered after the manager departure announcements. AXA Framlington Biotech fund was the first fund removed, after fund manager Linden Thomson moved to Candriam in February. This was followed by JO Hambro UK Dynamic, which lost its spot after manager Alex Savvides was hired by Jupiter to manage the firm's UK Special Situations fund. The third fund removed was Allianz Strategic Bond fund, which sees Mike Riddell set to leave the company in July to run Fidelity's S...

Gleeson will depart in August to pursue another opportunity outside the firm, a spokesperson confirmed. He will work closely with the investment team to ensure a smooth transition, they added.  In the interim, fund management responsibilities will be taken over by the technology investment team and led by head of global thematic strategies and portfolio manager Tom Riley, as well as technology portfolio managers Brad Reynolds and Pauline Llandric. AXA IM to acquire US private equity boutique W Capital Partners «They are a team of experienced portfolio managers who have worked al...

Bharti Group's talks with SBI Life Insurance to sell its life insurance venture is said to have collapsed due to disagreements over valuations, delaying the Mittal family's planned exit from the financial services domain but simultaneously opening a window for private equity investors to buy the firm, said people familiar with the matter. Bharti AXA Life, the life insurer now wholly owned by the Bharti Group of the Mittals, has been available for sale as the family seeks to focus on its core telecom business and exit non-core revenue streams, said those people who did not want to be identified. «The negotiations fell through due to Bharti Group's higher asking price, which SBI Life was reluctant to meet given the declining business of Bharti AXA,» said a source.

Meaningful rises or falls in global government bond yields look unlikely in the near term as interest rates have peaked but persistent inflation means rate cuts will likely be slow, analysts said. Money market forwards price in 42 basis points of rate cuts by the U.S. Federal Reserve, 65 basis points by the European Central Bank and 55 basis points by the Bank of England for this year, according to Refinitiv.

«Wherever there have been dips, the market has been bought into, sectors have been bought into, stocks have been bought into,» says Rahul Bhuskute, Bharti AXA Life Insurance. You guys at Bharti AXA Life, what are you making of the broader market resilience which has come back, that entire negativity triggered by some commentary from AMFI on stress test of the mutual fund small and midcap, plus, of course, regulator comments on froth in that pocket, all of that appears to be getting digested. You think valuations are comfortable now to get in? I think, yes, you spoke about market resilience and that has really been the heartening feature of this market. One could make that argument that valuations are higher on a historical basis or compared to other emerging markets, etc, but the market has shown resilience.

health insurance has become a must. Many of you have already purchased a health insurance policy to protect yourself and your loved ones against medical emergencies. One hopes that the insurer will provide financial support when the medical need arises. The story is not very different when it comes to another general insurance segment like car insurance. However, do you know how good your insurer is in settling claims and how long it takes for your health or general insurer to settle claims? Or how many claims did they reject last year? It is important to keep track of the claim settlement performance of your insurer. If you are not satisfied with the way the insurance company settles claims, you have the option to port to another insurer. The next question is how to find out how your insurer has been settling claims in the past. The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has released the claims payment details of general and health insurance companies for the financial year 2022-23. Apart from health insurance claims, the percentage claim paid in general insurance companies also includes other insurance verticals like motor, fire, marine, and other insurances.

By Yoruk Bahceli and Dhara Ranasinghe

Equitable Advisors, a national wealth management business that includes thousands of financial professionals, is welcoming a California-based advisor back into its platform. The firm announced that Michael Shieh, who most recently managed $181 million in client assets at Cetera Investment Advisors, is returning to its network.

claim settlement ratio comes into play. It is one of the crucial metrics that give you a rough sense of how the insurance company honours the policyholders' claims.