"I like the speed and the power of change in the ETF business"

Nima Pouyan
Head Invesco Institutional and ETF Distribution Switzerland & Liechtenstein

 

Mr. Pouyan, what is your typical daily routine?

My day starts and ends with looking at the markets and current news relevant to our clients. As one of the largest ETF providers, there is often a lot of movement in our products. If we see a clear development, we discuss it with our clients - quite spontaneously. Three-quarters of my day is therefore filled with customer contacts.

How is your distribution team set up here?

We are a team of 20 employees. Some of them take care of sales support but most of our colleagues are in direct contact with clients. We look after the ETF and institutional areas with two employees each. In addition, we receive support from our three-person client services team.

What are your strengths and those of Invesco in Switzerland?

Invesco offers both active and passive products in Switzerland, which helps enormously in client discussions. With over 90 listings on the SIX and various CHF-hedged share classes, we are clearly focused on Switzerland. On the product side, we have the cheapest S&P 500 ETF, the largest blockchain ETF and the green gold ETC. In addition, on the bond side, we offer the cheapest US Treasury ETFs on the market as well as speciality strategies such as our CoCo-Bonds "AT1" ETF. On the active side, we are known for our private market solutions such as private debt or real estate. With Invesco, we have a strong, international group behind us that also supports us in cross-border business. This is where I can ideally contribute my strength, my international professional experience.

What are the strengths of the Swiss market for an asset manager like Invesco?

The clients are without exception very sophisticated and often internationally oriented. The density of professional investors is therefore very high relative to other countries. We can therefore conduct our client meetings at a very high professional level. In addition, Switzerland offers a very diverse range of clients with its private banks, institutional investors, and family offices.

What are currently the main needs of Swiss institutional clients and how have these changed in recent years?

I don't see any unusual trends compared to institutional clients from other countries. The issue of inflation and asset preservation is driving them. The rise in interest rates has opened new opportunities on the bond and money market side. In addition, private debt and direct real estate are fixed components of the asset allocation. They want to invest more in sustainability and are waiting for new products. Once open issues like taxonomy are resolved, we will see an even stronger run on green financial products. Therefore, many investors are already positioning themselves, often via highly liquid instruments like ETFs.

Asset management often seems to be overshadowed by other financial disciplines such as private or investment banking. Is that justified?

At first glance, asset management seems very traditional because we invest for the long term. I see it as a solid foundation on which other financial disciplines build. It is important that we as asset managers offer clients solutions and support them in their decision-making. We also work very closely with private banking and investment banking.

What is the attraction of asset management for you personally?

My professional career has been very varied so far. I have my finger on the pulse of the times, because the financial industry will make a significant contribution to the transformation towards the green economy and Web 3.0. I find it enormously exciting to accompany our clients in these developments.

What is the attraction of the ETF business?

I like the speed and the power of change. Active funds have been around for more than ninety years. Index products have firmly established themselves on the capital market within two decades. And we will see further developments such as active ETFs or technical advances, also with the help of the blockchain.

How do you switch off in the evening: Netflix or reading?

It depends on the day. There are days when I like to read, but there are also days when I like to watch an interesting documentary on Netflix. So, it's more of a "both and" rather than an "or".