Kent Clark

Follow the Flow: How Asset Management Is Reshaping the Global Financial System

Eric Schatzker, Jess Staley, John Chervam, Jeff Gundlach, David Harding, Kent Clark

A panel of industry leaders and regulators discussed the accelerating consolidation of asset managers, where firms face strategic divergence between pursuing scale to access exclusive deal flow or capping assets to preserve performance quality. The discussion highlighted critical systemic risks emerging from liquidity mismatches, the displacement of bank credit intermediation by asset managers, and the potential dangers of negative rates and "unconstrained" strategies in an oversaturated market. Experts concluded that while market stress tests like the energy sector repricing have shown resilience, the next crisis will likely stem from currently logical assumptions regarding risk and capital preservation.