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    Invesco Expands Nordic Team

    Stockholm (NordSIP) – As the Nordics remain a beacon of foresight in the quest for sustainable investment practices, asset managers endeavouring to cater to the needs of investors in this region continue to seek local expertise for product development.

    In this context, Invesco announced the appointment of Fredrik Nilsson as Head of ETF Business Development for the Nordic region. He will be based in Stockholm and report to Stefan Behring, Invesco’s Head of Nordic Region. Prior to Invesco, Nilsson was responsible for institutional sales for iShares ETFs in the Nordics, covering pension funds, insurance companies, hedge funds and asset managers at BlackRock. Prior to that, he worked at the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) in London where he served as Vice President, Equity Derivatives and Structured Retail.

    “Having spent my last 6 years in the ETF industry I have seen a change in how both professional and private investors think about ESG in their portfolio construction,” Nilsson said regarding the growing popularity of ESG factors and sustainable considerations in the ETF market. “Many professional investors here in the Nordics have had an ESG policy for decades but we are now seeing a broader set of investors engaging with both product and index providers to develop their new benchmarks and products in line with local ESG demands and requirements. I would certainly say it is becoming more mainstream with increased demand for ESG strategies.”

    Nilsson is also the president of the CFA Society Sweden. “We have clearly seen a growing interest in sustainable investments and ESG from our local members,” he said of the Society’s activities. “In order to cater for that interest, we have hosted a number of local events with focus on the sustainable investment process and its many benefits. We have also worked closely with the CFA Institute and CFA Society United Kingdom and their recent launch of the Certificate in ESG investing, which we hope to be able to offer our local members access to in the not too distant future.”

    “Frederik Nilsson’s skills and experience, derived from his solid track record, will accelerate the expansion of Invesco’s Nordic ETF business and ensure that Invesco is positioned as a natural partner for our clients,” Behring said. “Invesco sees the two largest exchange traded fund market opportunities in Europe, by far, as being in fixed income and ESG-compliant ETFs in both equities and fixed income,” Gary Buxton, Head of EMEA ETFs and Indexed Strategies, added. Synthetic ETFs are also playing a bigger role and Invesco is the clear market leader in this expanding sector. Fredrik Nilsson has an in-depth understanding of these major market trends and how they translate into investment opportunities for our clients.”

    Invesco’s base case scenario projects that the European ETF market will grow to EUR 1.8 trillion and probably beyond by 2024. According to the asset manager, Invesco ranks as the 4th ETF provider worldwide, with US$288 billion of assets under management (as of end September 2020). According to a recent report by Invesco, which surveyed 101 European institutional investors, only 21% of ESG assets are invested passively via ETFs. However, 45% of all respondents reported they intend to increase their exposure to ESG ETFs in the next two years, while only 5% plan to decrease it.

    Portrait courtesy of Invesco / Featured image NordSIP / Haut Risque Unsplash

    Filipe Albuquerque
    Filipe Albuquerque
    Filipe is an economist with 8 years of experience in macroeconomic and financial analysis for the Economist Intelligence Unit, the UN World Institute for Development Economic Research, the Stockholm School of Economics and the School of Oriental and African Studies. Filipe holds a MSc in European Political Economy from the LSE and a MSc in Economics from the University of London, where he currently is a PhD candidate.

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