Some highlights from Monday's FTfm Investors force radical reshaping The proportion of funds owned by retail investors has almost halved in the past decade which has also seen a jump in institutional fund ownership SRI funds and rivals so alike Monthly investment returns and scores on a reputation risk index come out almost the same for socially responsible investment funds and their convention fund rivals. Triple A rated euro fund assets plunge Assets held in euro-denominated triple A rated money market funds have slumped to their lowest level sine 2009. The contraction has come after the European Central Bank's shock decision in July to slash the interest rate on its deposit facility from 25 basis points to zero Intense dialogue, flawed governance Dispersed ownership and conflicts of interest in fund management undeniably make stewardship difficult to do. It needs to be done better and the dialogue must continue, says John Plender Lombard Odier pushes risk parity approach to investing Hubert Keller is more strongly motivated than most asset managers to think hard about risk. He is one of eight partners at Lombard Odier with unlimited liability, which means mismanaging risk could mean significant personal losses Action needed on regulating the regulators Many regulators today do not have a board, or do not have clear supervision. There is no clear distinction between decision makers, meaning those we would call executives, and those overseeing these executives. The SEC is an example of this blurring of roles. It is time to investigate the regulators, says Didier Cossin, professor of finance and governance at the IMD business school Eurogeeks are no longer the insiders you need It's not that insider information isn't still important. You just need new insiders on call, writes John Dizard, who sympathises with those who are losing the limelight following the collapse of the latest bubble in the fortunes of the advisory class Passive investing has room to grow There has been much angst about the danger to the functioning of markets from passive investing which has been blamed for increases in volatility and correlation between asset classes. But Vince Heaney points out that it still accounts for only a small part of the volume of overall trading and that the impact of ETFs in particular has been exaggerated This entry was posted by Emma Boyde on Sunday, September 23rd, 2012 at 18:09 and is filed under Uncategorised.