The world of giant money managers and the advance of passive index ETF investing + MORE Sep 17th

The Royal Bank may be the biggest company by market cap in Canada but Manulife is a far bigger money manager according to the 2012 P&I / Towers Watson World 500 list. (Access to most stuff on the Pension & Investments website requires free registration) The year-end 2011 data published last October puts Manulife in 34th spot worldwide with $490 billion vs only #53 Royal’s mere $308 billion. Others insurers Sun Life (#37, $456 billion) and Great West (#48, $357 billion) also come ahead of the Royal.The slide deck also highlights other interesting facts:Canada has progressed strongly since 2001 and now looks to be about 6th largest in assets managed by countryManulife and Great West have been among the fastest growing asset managerspassive managers have been picking up share, growing faster than the overall average for years, as shown by the chart below, led by #1 behemoth Blackrock, #3 State Street and #4 Vanguard the shift to passive index investing is also remarked in this September 16th article based on 2013 6-months data; both Blackrock and State Street folk note the surge in their index funds amongst the overall market 18…

For those who like their explanations brief, this quote from Gordon Nixon, Royal Bank CEO: “But in my judgment the single most relevant and most important differentiator for Canada was the structure of our residential mortgage market.” i.e. no toxic assets (from the Globe and Mail’s excellent oral history of the financial crisis)

UBS AG tried unsuccessfully to sell its Canadian wealth-management business earlier this year, according to people familiar with the matter, in another sign of the Switzerland-based bank’s retrenchment from Canada.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina – Argentine Commerce Secretary Guillermo Moreno has been formally charged with abusing his power by trying to fine economists who publish independent inflation data.
This turns the tables on Moreno, who last week filed charges against several private economists for “speculation” and trying to enrich their clients by releasing such false information. Judge Claudio Bonadio also placed a 50,000-peso ($8,735) lien on the minister’s assets, pending trial, and filed similar charges against two lower-ranking commerce ministry officials.
The judge said Moreno’s efforts to fine economists 500,000 pesos (roughly $87,700 at today’s official rate) was “nothing other than an effort to silence” experts who were releasing “public information” in the form of technical data that challenges the government’s official inflation rate of around 10 per cent.
The case against Moreno was initially filed by Jorge Todesca, a former minister who heads an economic consulting firm that has frequently reported inflation at 20 per cent or higher…

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