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— Luqman Arnold, ex-chief executive UBS

It seemed like a good idea at the time, but the single, integrated structure is now being questioned by many banking and investment groups.

The single, integrated, banking structure - trail-blazed by leading US bank Citigroup after its purchase of Sandy Weill’s Travelers insurance business ten years ago - has taken something of a battering in recent months.

— Alain Grisay, F&C

F&C may be up for sale, but the three-year growth plan and geographical expansion of chief executive Alain Grisay shows a new maturity has arrived at company headquarters.

In much of Europe and the US, the fortunes of the life insurance and asset management industries have long been tied together, and dismantling them, as life stalwart Friends Provident is finding, is no easy matter.

Following the sale of non-core assets by its parent, Cominvest plans to grow its business both in and outside Germany.

— Philippe Collas, SGAM

SGAM’s Philippe Collas may be living the Paris high life, but deals cooked up in the basement have proved successful.

Since Société Générale Asset Management (SGAM) moved into its custom-built HQ in the futuristic Parisian outpost of La Défense in 2005, arrangements for entertaining key clients have changed due to logistical considerations.

— Pascal Voisin, CEO Natixis Asset Management

Does Natixis Asset Management CEO Pascal Voisin have the entrepreneurial and leadership skills for success now that Natixis is a publicly quoted bank?

Pascal Voisin, recently appointed chief executive of Natixis Asset Management, is hardly an unknown quantity. The merger of the funds units of Natexis and Ixis is apparently the fourth of his working life, following his supervision of similar deals in France. The most recent one was between the fund houses of Crédit Agricole and Crédit Lyonnais. “Mergers are his profession,” says one colleague.

— Alex Fletcher, GSAM’s

GSAM’s Alex Fletcher may have been a force on the sub-advisory circuit, winning over clients where others have faltered, but how will he fare in the institutional space?

When the asset management division of US bank Goldman Sachs transferred its long-term head of UK institutional business, Oliver Bolitho, to Hong Kong, to a new role running GSAM’s Asian operation, it was Alex Fletcher, previously heading an autonomous sub-advisory unit, who stepped into the breach.

Credit Suisse must understand the importance of maintaining staff morale during a period of change at the firm, and effectively communicate its strategy.

— Papiasse: there is a danger that you are no longer a fund house, but a fund selector

The ‘privilege’ offered by larger clients to big players, combined with the smaller margins, often means that domestic managers are prepared to let them go.Only five years ago, losing a mandate led to stigma and embarrassment. But in terms of asset management, that was another era, when each country had its own investment industry and cross-border briefs were something of a rarity.Five houses dominated UK institutional business, Benelux mandates went to domestic managers and US plans rarely looked further than New York or San Francisco to outsource.

— Dobson: under fire from bank analysts

Schroders may have lost some of its standing in the City of London, but a more international focus means the firm is exploiting new opportunities.

The expected merger of Ixis and Natexis represents a new era in French funds and could allow multi-managers to play on a much bigger stage.

The days of caring and sharing are over, as managers embrace specialisation and a core-satellite approach. But how will this affect fund house structure?

— Fraser: over the moon with new boutique

UBS GAM is keen to address profitability issues through structural reform rather than involving itself in the latest round of mergers and acquisitions.

The summer of 2005 has been full of financial stories, which will have a lasting impact on the way investments are managed.

A series of mergers and acquisitions has straddled the annual Fund Forum event held in Monte Carlo, where structural issues affecting the world’s asset management community are typically discussed.

Can a French private equity outfit tailor itself to the tastes of UK consultants?

Towards the top end of the Champs Elysées, nestled between the eclectic mix of patisseries, record shops and lingerie boutiques, close to the George V metro station, lies no. 73, a hub of Parisian private equity activity.

— Harvey: hopes to increase assets in line with the profile of the Barings name

Baring Asset Management under new American ownership is honing its marketing strategy in order to bulk up in assets.

ING’s announcement that it was selling off its Baring Asset Management (BAM) funds arm generated barely a whimper of dissent. BAM’s $34.5bn (€26bn) assets under management, including briefs from trophy clients such as CalPERS, the Ohio pension system, and Electricité de France, are now under the ultimate ownership of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance (MassMutual).

It may look like small fry to the likes of Credit Suisse or Merrill. But it gives a large, AAA-rated US-centric manager a European platform. With its newly acquired assets, MassMutual now runs more than $350bn.

— Lacaille: scolded by an investment bank

After mounting criticism over unwise asset allocations, life insurers are finally starting to listen to external influences and outsource some of their business.

Life insurance companies have long had an image problem. According to popular perception their representatives are dusty, ascetic actuaries, old-fashioned, unimaginative fixed income managers or untrustworthy, high-pressure salesmen.

— Roy: voice of a sleeping giant

Charismatic leaders driving funds business at SGAM and BNP PAM about tobe challenged by a familiar face at the helm of Natexis.

French asset management firms fighting for a share of their own domestic market, the near-European abroad and increasingly encroaching into the US and Asia, have set the scene for an engrossing battle of the giants.

— Kenneally: asset manager roots

Credit Suissse Asset Management has unshackled itself from the investment bankers and is hungry for high margin high alpha products such as hedge funds.

There are some widely held beliefs that are regularly called into question. They are reviewed, re-assessed, scrapped and invariably resurrected. Up for debate once more in the festive season has been the notion that American investment banks can run European asset management operations.

Earlier this year, the top brass at Credit Suisse Asset Management (CSAM) were still insisting that embedding CSAM within the powerful Credit Suisse First Boston investment banking franchise was good for the asset managers.

— Rivière: ‘the presence of consultants, whatever their penetration, changes the dynamics of the market’

Germany, France and Italy have witnessed the increasing influence of asset management consultants, challenging the old-school style of doing business.

“Uninformed, unreceptive, inflexible and unwilling to give creative money managers a fighting chance.” That is the view of typical assetmanagement consultants, as laid down by the institutional business chief at an up-and-coming European fund house.

Admittedly, he had had a drink or two, was in high spirits over lunch and was referring inparticular to the perceived reluctance of consultants to make efficient allocations to alternative investments.

But this is unusual to say the least. Most of London’s tight-knit asset management community does not even like to criticise the middlemen in private, just in case word might leak out, and their hard-fought position on buy lists becomes threatened.

— Hughes: ‘beware wrong kind of bonds’

CIOs are increasingly advising for new allocations such as natural resources.

How important is asset allocation to investment performance? Since most chief investment officers (CIOs) have studied modern portfolio theory, which demonstrates a strong correlation, they are agreed that it is the main driver. Get your assets untangled first, then worry about manager selection, is their message.

Commerzbank’s investment banking division has seldom been out of the news in recent weeks. Mehmet Dalman, former chief executive of Commerzbank Securites jumped ship to set up alternative investments operation WMG. Among others, Ali Satrap, a member of the bank’s investment committee, is expected to join him. Wolfgang Matis, Deutsche Bank’s head of global markets was supposed to replace Mr Dalman, but changed his mind. Bankers are keen to stabilise volatile earnings, after a E120m first quarter pre-tax profit turned into a E47m loss in the second. The division is often pre-fixed with the adjective “troubled” in news reports.

Paul Manduca, head of Deutsche Bank’s asset management activities in Europe, is a big fan of English football club Wolverhampton Wanderers. He even insisted on a special “Wolves” room for his new high-tech German headquarters on Frankfurt’s Mainzer Landstrasse.

Are there any other Europeans who ever feel sorry for the Germans? Every time there is a lack of success in German sport or business, there is a sense of schadenfreude – ironically a Teutonic term – in the UK, Italy and the Netherlands.

— Jones: ‘Europeans offer too many funds’

Ten years ago, a cultural gulf divided teams marketing institutional and retail fund products for the same investment house. Typically there would be a mutual disdain between the two. “The worst thing would be if you were on your way to an institutional pitch and you saw downmarket retail advertisements for the same product you were trying to sell,” recalls an ex-JPMorgan salesman.