Policymakers continue to implement comprehensive strategies to fostering sustainable finance. Most notably, in March 2018, the European Commission adopted its action plan resting on three pillars: (i) re-orienting capital flows towards sustainable investments; (ii) managing financial risks stemming from climate change; and (iii) fostering transparency and long-termism in financial activities.

Bonds market faced low rates since many years. And they probably won’t rise up soon.

Clients’ needs for diversification and current market conditions (in addition to low rates, i.e. increase of bonds issuers) drove the path towards new solutions engineering. “Listening to our clients, observing the market and experiencing our econometric models were keys when building this new range” says Jean-Marie Dumas, Head of Fixed Income solutions at Amundi. “High yield laid behind us. We had to provide a serious alternative to traditional judgmental fixed income strategies” he adds.

“Slowdown in global growth with subdued inflation and dovish Central Banks (CB) committed to avoid further economic deceleration are trends that should remain favourable for bond investors.” begins Eric Brard, Head of Fixed Income at Amundi. “On one side, investors should limit the upside in core bond yields and, on the other, support the credit market, despite the strong spread compression in this first part of the year. An increasingly selective approach will be crucial.”