As part of our series looking at what firms did to win their accolades at the PP Investment Awards 2024, PP speaks to Amundi Asset Management head of systematic and quantitative management Bruno Taillardat about winning the award.
What does it mean to win this award?
As head of the systematic and quantitative management at Amundi, I feel very honoured to win this award.
This award recognizes the great work of the team managing the Global Dynamic Multi-Factor Equity strategy and the whole systematic and quantitative expertise of Amundi.
It also demonstrates that our systematic and quantitative franchise is well identified among the financial industry. Thanks to the support of our integrated marketing and sales eco-system, Amundi has the ability to provide state-of-the-art quantitative solutions to a large spectrum of investors.
What do you believe sets you apart from your peers?
We believe we have the following differentiating features:
First, we can leverage on our seasoned and talented investment team:
- Our PMs have different backgrounds and strong experience in quantitative management
- They are supported by well-resourced research teams
- Benefiting from the support of other teams such as Amundi Technology and of course all operational and sales teams of Amundi
Second, we have strong convictions and a very clear investment philosophy around the optimal use of our risk budget. On top that, we believe we have a rather unique way to combine top-down and bottom-up portfolio construction techniques to optimise this risk budget.
Research is also of one our key competitive advantages: a strong research mindset is embedded within our investment team: the team is focused on ensuring continuous enhancements to the investment process. We are supported by a whole research eco-system: from quant research, to ESG research, fundamental analysis and macro-economists. This eco-system works with us to enhance the robustness of our investment process.
Last, but not least, we have an unique ability to design bespoke solutions to respond to clients' needs, such as the inclusion of additional objectives like net zero, impact and sustainability.
We have developed a very innovative framework where we can optimise and manage equity portfolios across three dimensions: Sustainability is brought back into risk and return optimisation framework. We make sure we deliver the most optimal portfolio on risk-adjusted returns per sustainability criteria. This is more and more attractive for investors who don't want to compromise their risk-adjusted returns.
How do your investment strategies help pension schemes meet the challenges they face?
Amundi is a pioneer in smart beta and factor investing and has developed a range of solutions to deliver better risk-adjusted returns than those found in traditional strategies and indices. Our track record starts in 2007 when we launched our first minimum variance portfolio. In 2016, Amundi decided to further invest in our quant expertise and the team has grown substantially in terms of AUM and people.
Over time, Amundi has developed complementary and innovative solutions to meet new clients' needs. Our Quantitative franchise is now well recognized among the asset management industry.
Our investment offering has been extended beyond Smart Beta and Factor investing in order to embrace a large spectrum of systematic and quantitative investment strategies responding to different needs from pension schemes:
- Defensive equity solutions, such as minimum variance and risk parity equity strategies, helping pension schemes to mitigate their investment risks while being fully exposed to equities
- Multi-factor strategies, from dynamic multi-factor equity strategies to fixed income and multi-asset factor-based strategies, providing investors with the opportunity to capture factor risk premia and effectively manage market cycles thanks to well diversified portfolios
- Enhanced indexing, enabling pension schemes to optimise a more limited active risk budget
- Responsible / "3D" equity strategies, optimising equity portfolios across three dimensions (expected returns, risk management and sustainability) and providing an optimal trade-off across these three dimensions to pension schemes
On top of existing products, our teams have the ability to design bespoke solutions to respond to specific needs of pension schemes, putting plan needs at the centre of the solution.
How will you continue to improve your investment offering over the coming 12 months?
Our innovation mindset is a key success factor for our quantitative investment platform.
Over the coming 12 months, the investment offering will continue to improve thanks to a strong engagement and collaboration of our investment and research teams.
We keep a close eye on market trends and on the evolution of our client demands.
When it comes to new product launches or current strategies enhancement, new ideas come from different sources:
- Learning from our experience: the behaviour of our strategy provides us with ideas to further enhance the investment process;
- New academic papers;
- Cross-fertilization: research projects carried out in other areas can be sources of new ideas for our strategies;
- Discussions during our research meetings where the systematic and quantitative investment teams and the quantitative research team discuss ongoing projects;
- Discussions with investors: we can co-develop new ideas and co-create new solutions with our investors to better fulfil their needs;
- Last, but not least, new technology: we have started to incorporate AI signals into our investment processes, but this will continue to be developed further. The objective is not to replace a man by a machine but to help the PMs to take even better-informed decisions.
In quantitative investing, research is essential. While we need to define a strong and stable investment philosophy, the process to implement this philosophy has to evolve over time in order to capture new opportunities and to accompany our clients.
Amundi Asset Management also won the Liquid Securitised Manager of the Year category at the awards
The winners of the 11th annual PP Investment Awards were announced at a reception in London on 20 November. To see the full list of winners and find out more about the awards, visit: www.investmentawards.co.uk
