Tuesday, March 2, 2010

What BlackRock Sees

The tone of regulators in the U.S. and Europe is pretty consistent:a more secure banking system with more capital,according to Laurence Fink,CEO of BlackRock,the world's largest money manager.In Europe,they're talking about Basel III,with lots of capital,and it's similar in the U.S.Most certainly banks are more reluctant to lend, because they're not certain about capital requirements in the future.Corporations are not hiring;not building factories;and not buying equipment.Huge pools of money are sitting in banks and corporations.This is the problem we're seeing today in our economy.They're seeing what the new regulations will be.
BlackRock is seeing increased appetite for mutual funds and exchange-traded funds.We're seeing renewed interest in equities,as opposed to fixed income.We're not concerned about our competition at all,Mr.Fink insisted.The etf market needs a lot of liquidity and research.It is our belief the etf market will continue to grow from both institutions and individual investors.
There's a healing in commercial real estate going on,Mr.Fink believes,but not fast enough.He's not terribly worried about it,although some of the regional banks will be destabilized.The Federal Reserve is aware of this.
Mr.Fink is one of the more forthright executives in the financial industry.His colleague at BlackRock,Bob Doll,follows the same path of openness.

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