This year’s turn of events has divided businesses like never before. For some companies COVID-19 has been a life-threatening situation. But for others it has cemented their position in their industry, and brought forward several year’s of anticipated growth. The investment management industry is one of the few industries which has seen relatively little impact – good or bad. Indeed most financial services businesses were well set up for staff to work remotely, with little change to the efficiency or effectiveness of how they provide services to their customers. This is good news for UK Plc. According to the Investment Association (IA) 75% of UK households use an investment manager’s services, whether knowingly or unknowingly. The industry supports 115,000 jobs in the UK, including over 14,000 in Scotland. In fact it’s the largest industry of its kind in Europe, and the second largest in the world after America. Collectively members of the IA manage over £7.7 trillion on behalf of their clients globally, and 13% of global assets under management. Like with any business, owning a stake in an investment manager has its risks and opportunities. However, like many of the tech titans that have come to dominate equity indices (particularly in the US), investment management businesses are hugely scalable. Once a fund management business has got to critical
