NEWSLETTER of October 23, 2026

The following content has been added at finexpert:

We updated the capital market data

(Multiples, Betas and Returns) as to October 15, 2026 >more

Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME)
DLT-BASED CAPITAL MARKET REPORT 2026 YTD – OCTOBER
Global distributed-ledger-technology-based fixed-income issuance reached a record EUR 8.1 billion in 2026 year-to-date, 86% above the full-year 2025 total. European issuance more than tripled to EUR 3.17 billion, including Luxembourg’s EUR 1.7 billion digitally native sovereign bond. The value of tokenised assets increased by 52% to USD 39 billion, while tokenised alternative investment funds reached USD 14.3 billion and credit remained their largest category. AFME also records growing participation by European banks in stablecoins and tokenised deposits, indicating that DLT-based capital markets are moving beyond experimentation toward broader adoption. >more

Allianz Research
INVEST IN GERMANY, YES, BUT HOW? TURNING THE INVESTMENT GAP INTO EUROPE’S BIGGEST OPPORTUNITY
Allianz estimates that Germany’s decline in fixed investment since 2019 has opened a cumulative gap of around EUR 390 billion relative to the rest of the euro area and up to EUR 730 billion relative to the United States. The constraint is not a shortage of savings but too few attractive domestic opportunities, reflecting high energy and labour costs, bureaucracy, skills shortages and fragmented financing structures. Public guarantees, equity instruments and reforms could mobilise private capital, while shifting only 5% of household financial assets out of deposits would release approximately EUR 450 billion. The report identifies energy, digital infrastructure, transport and mobility, and defence as the four principal investment opportunities. >more

BNP Paribas Real Estate
GERMANY INVESTMENT MARKET Q3 2026
German commercial real estate transaction volume reached EUR 17.1 billion during the first nine months of 2026, 2.1% below the prior-year period, after third-quarter activity fell 21% year-on-year to EUR 4.9 billion. Higher financing costs pushed prime yields up by around 10 to 20 basis points across most asset classes. Offices remained the largest segment with EUR 4.4 billion of transactions, followed by logistics at EUR 4.0 billion. BNP Paribas expects activity to improve moderately in the fourth quarter as economic prospects and occupier markets stabilise, although persistent pricing gaps are likely to prevent a pronounced year-end rally. >more

European Banking Authority (EBA)
RISK DASHBOARD Q2 2026
EU and EEA banks remained well capitalised and liquid in the second quarter of 2026, with an average CET1 ratio of 16.1%, a liquidity coverage ratio of 158.5% and a net stable funding ratio of 125.7%. Lending to non-financial corporations increased by 6.3% year-on-year, while the non-performing loan ratio remained low at 1.8%. Profitability strengthened, with return on equity rising to 11.3% from 10.7% a year earlier as net interest income benefited from loan growth and wider margins. The EBA nevertheless highlights geopolitical uncertainty, elevated asset valuations and concentrated AI-related financing as risks requiring continued monitoring. >more

DECENTRALIZED VOTING IN MUTUAL FUND FAMILIES
Roni Michaely, Matthew C. Ringgenberg, Silvina Rubio, and Irene Yi
2026
We provide the first large-sample evidence that decentralized voting is widespread within mutual fund families. Contrary to the view that families vote as unified blocs, we find that more than one-third of families exhibit evidence of decentralized voting, starting as early as 2006. We measure decentralization using voting disagreement within the family, which is low unconditionally due to the high volume of routine proposals, but rises substantially for controversial proposals, environmental and social issues, and when proxy advisors recommend voting "against." Decentralized voting is more prevalent in families with more active funds and greater stewardship resources, and funds within a family vote more similarly when they share management structures and characteristics. Decentralization has consequences for governance and fund investors. First, it weakens the monitoring effectiveness of institutional investors-a result we corroborate using Vanguard's 2019 adoption of decentralized voting as a quasi-natural experiment. Second, funds that deviate from their family's voting stance charge higher fees without delivering higher returns for clients. Yet, funds that deviate attract higher inflows. >more

WHAT DO WE LEARN ABOUT CEOS FROM A SURVEY OF PRIVATE EQUITY CEOS?
Steven N. Kaplan, Paul A. Gompers, and Vladimir Mukharlyamov
2026
In this paper, we report the results of a survey of 47 current and former CEOs of private equity (PE)-backed firms to study the selection, incentives and actions of CEOs, and to better understand how PE-backed firms are run. Roughly 2/3 of the CEOs are external. 60% of these do not have a relationship with the PE firm or company, and are sourced from recruiting firms. This confirms that PE investors frequently hire pure outsiders. The external CEOs believe that general managerial skills are more important than industry skills which are more important than firmspecific skills. Internal CEOs also believe general managerial skills are most important, with firmspecific and industry skills roughly equally important. CEOs of both slower and higher growth firms have the same ranking as external CEOs. Consistent with surveys of private equity partners, PE CEOs view revenue growth as their most important task. Finding new executive talent ranks second. Reducing costs is not viewed as particularly important. These rankings are true for external and internal CEOs, CEOs of slower and higher growth firms, and CEOs of smaller and larger firms. >more