As European Institutions Take on Risk, Many Seek Outside Managers

Throughout these tumultuous conditions, a small group of leading managers have strengthened their positions in the European market. These managers have one thing in common: They all had best-in-class client service infrastructure in place before the pandemic.

From January to May 2020, Greenwich Associates conducted in-depth interviews with 538 key decision-makers at the largest continental European institutional investors. Institutions included continental European corporate, public, and industry-wide defined-benefit, defined-contribution and hybrid pension funds, banks (including Sparkassen in Germany), foundations and churches, insurance and reinsurance companies, sovereign pension reserve funds, and other non-pension institutional investors including official institutions, central banks, monetary authorities, sovereign wealth funds, and supranationals.