The COVID-19 pandemic has supplanted higher interest rates and regulations and monetary policy tapering at the forefront of institutional investors' primary concerns, according to a survey from Schroders.
The money manager's "Institutional Investor Study 2020," conducted in April with 650 institutional investors representing $25.9 trillion in assets, said that 23% of respondents thought the tapering of monetary policy was their primary concern, down from 44% a year earlier, while 16% of surveyed investors said higher interest rates were their primary concern, down from 55% a year earlier.
Respondents were asked on a scale of 1-5 the level of influence by certain events on investment performance. Seventy-nine percent of respondents answered "4" or "5" in the new survey regarding a global economic slowdown, compared with 49% a year earlier; 70% gave those responses to a world crisis such as a pandemic (not an option in prior surveys); and 54% gave those responses regarding politics and world events, up from 52% a year earlier.
Regarding the pandemic, 53% of respondents surveyed in April said they will not make any portfolio changes until the outlook is clearer, and 44% said the liquidity provided by central banks does not help the downside risks caused by the pandemic.
The survey was conducted by CoreData and included global representatives from pension funds, insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds and endowments and foundations.
The full report is available on Schroders' website.
