The fund manager rankings, especially Morningstar’s (as an independent provider of financial information), are very useful for investors to be able to know the quality of the different fund managers. It is therefore no coincidence that the big banks are never at the top of them. We will explain why in this post.
Current ranking of major fund managers
Here is an example of the May ranking of the major fund managers; what they call the “Star League. “League of Stars”.:
We can see how a bank as important as BBVA is in last place. Or the cases of Kutxabank, Santander or Caixabank, which are among the last positions of these “big” fund managers (so called because they manage at least €1,000 million of assets).
Let’s see why this happens:
Managers such as Aviva Gestión, since 2018 Santalucia Gestión (which is in first place, with a score of 4.7 out of 5) are very independent, comparing them with the managers of banking institutions. Their main objective is to obtain the highest possible profit for the participant. In contrast, banks also have a series of particular interests which, on many occasions, do not represent the best investment option for their participants.
Why is banking not 100% independent?
The main reason is the business linkage that banks may have with certain companies or corporations. Let’s see an example: the manager of a bank such as La Caixa will go before a bond issue of Repsol, Abertis or Gas Natural, than to a bond issue of other companies that can give a higher profitability, but that do not have that industrial linkage. Or how Banco Santander will prefer to help companies such as Isolux or Abengoa because they have a high debt contracted with them.
The same applies to local or regional corporations, which have a high debt contracted with banks, which will help in the various debt issues.
A fund manager should have absolute independence to approach investments, and unfortunately for investors this is rarely the case.
Our advice
It is best to seek advice from independent professionals, who work with different insurance companies, and not entities that only work with one. As we have always said, that is the reason why we are an Insurance Brokerage: the opportunity to work with the best companies and entities, and to be able to offer the best products from each one.
We leave a link to the article in which we pointed out how we make a mistake if we leave the money in the account since, in the face of inflation, we lose purchasing power.
If you need advice from our Savings and Investment Department, call or write to us. Choose investment funds from leading fund managers.
