December 1998 The answer varies by type of investor. Pension funds and insurance companies should be promoted for their own sake, but mutual funds are unlikely to thrive without well-regulated securities markets. Anglo-American experience suggests that institutional investors can provide a strong stimulus to market development. This takes time and requires both critical mass and conducive regulations. Institutional investors comprise pension funds, insurance companies, and mutual funds. Should a country promote their creation if it lacks well-developed securities markets? The answer to this question, says Vittas, varies by type of investor. He argues that private pension funds and insurance companies are promoted for their own sake and for their potential economic, fiscal, and financial benefits, whether or not a country already has well-developed securities markets. Mutual funds, by contrast, are unlikely to thrive without strong and well-regulated securities markets. A limited supply of financial instruments should not be a major obstacle to the creation of pension funds and insurance companies. Such institutions build up their financial resources gradually but steadily, giving reforming governments ample time to develop securities markets. More important than the prior development of securities markets is a strong and lasting political commitment to holistic reform: macroeconomic, fiscal, banking, and capital market reform, as well as pension and insurance reform. Institutional investors need to attain critical mass and to be supported by conducive regulations. Vittas reviews Anglo-American experience since the 1940s. This shows that institutional investors can serve as a countervailing force to commercial and investment banks, helping to stimulate financial innovation, modernize capital markets, enhance transparency and disclosure, strengthen corporate governance, and improve financial regulation. This paper-a product of Finance, Development Research Group-was presented at the Annual Bank Conference on Development Economics, Latin America and the Caribbean, June 18-30, 1998, in San Salvador. The author may be contacted at [email protected].

One of the most important recent developments in financial markets is the institutionalization of saving associated with the growth of pension funds, life insurance companies, and mutual funds. An increasing proportion of household saving is now managed by professional portfolio managers instead of being directly invested in the securities markets or held in the form of bank deposits. With the aging of the population and its adverse impact on public pension systems, the shift of individual savings to institutional investors is likely to become even more marked in the coming years. This book provides a comprehensive economic assessment of institutional investment. It charts the development and performance of the asset management industry and analyzes the implications of rising institutionalized saving for the development of the securities trading industry, the financial sector as a whole, and the wider economy. The book draws extensively on international experience, particularly in the United States, Western Europe, and Japan.

This work is about what institutional investors do, how they do it, and when and where they do it; it is about the production of investment returns in the global economy. Being a text about the production process, it also tackles some of the key issues found in the academic literature on the theory of the firm.

Institutional Investors in Global Market provides you with a comprehensive overview about what institutional investors do, how they do it, and when and where they do it; it is about the production of investment returns in the global economy. Being a book about the production process, you learn about key issues found in the academic literature on the theory of the firm. In this case, the focus is on the global financial services industry, where the building blocks underpinning the study of industrial corporations are less relevant. You gain an understanding of how and why the production of investment returns differs from that of manufactured goods. You are provided with an analytical framework that situates financial institutions within the complex web of the intermediaries that dominate developed financial markets. In summary, you gain further insights into analysis of the organization and management of institutional investors; as well as an analysis of the global financial services industry.

This publication gives a comprehensive overview of the major driving forces behind recent trends, future prospects, financial market implications as well as regulatory and supervisory challenges related to the rise in institutional assets.

Examines various issues concerning the strategies of institutional investors, the role of institutional investors in corporate governance, their impact on local and international capital markets, as well as the emergence of sovereign and other asset management funds and their interactions with micro and macro economic and market environments.