NEWSLETTER of September 18, 2026

The following content has been added at finexpert:

LBBW Research
CAPITAL MARKETS COMPASS – SEPTEMBER 2026
LBBW's monthly capital-markets outlook connects the German and euro-area growth picture with interest rates, credit spreads, equities and asset allocation. It raises its German GDP growth forecast for 2026 from 0.5% to 0.7%, citing stronger second-quarter data and export demand, while warning that domestic investment remains weak. The report assesses the effects of energy prices and financing costs on the economy, examines the outlook for ECB policy, and compares the recent performance of European equities and fixed-income assets. Its forecasts and market scenarios give German investors a cross-asset framework for judging the balance between recovering activity, inflation risks and demanding equity valuations. >more

KfW Research
INVESTMENT MONITOR GERMANY – AUTUMN 2026
German corporate investment rose 6.2% quarter on quarter in the first quarter of 2026 before edging down 0.9% in the second, leaving it 0.9% above the prior-year level. KfW cautions that these volatile figures do not yet establish a sustained recovery: companies' investment intentions remained subdued into early summer and financing conditions deteriorated as borrowing costs and credit standards increased. Residential construction investment continued to fall, while government spending fluctuated sharply with defence procurement; civil-engineering orders offer a tentative brighter signal for infrastructure. The chartbook separates business, housing and public investment and assesses the indicators that matter for the German investment outlook. >more

Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME)
SECURITISATION DATA SNAPSHOT – Q2 2026
European securitised-product issuance reached EUR 64.3 billion in the second quarter of 2026, up 7.9% on the first quarter but 12.7% below the year-earlier period. Investors purchased EUR 52.1 billion, equivalent to 81.1% of issuance, compared with a placement share of 47.5% a year before. Pan-European CLOs accounted for EUR 14.9 billion of placed issuance; UK residential mortgage-backed securities rose sharply to EUR 12.4 billion, and German auto-loan securitisations increased from EUR 3.2 billion to EUR 4.7 billion quarter on quarter. AFME's concise market snapshot gives an accessible comparison of European financing channels and the German auto ABS segment. >more

Invest Europe
INVESTING IN EUROPE: PRIVATE EQUITY ACTIVITY 2025
Invest Europe's pan-European industry data show private equity and venture capital fundraising of EUR 147 billion in 2025, up 16% from 2024 and second only to the record set in 2022. Investment value rose 3% to EUR 135 billion, including EUR 90 billion in buyouts, while venture investment reached almost EUR 20 billion. The report covers fundraising, company investment and exits by stage, industry and region, including DACH; it also examines continuation funds and capital directed towards defence and deep-tech companies. Its comparable regional data help put German private-capital activity and the market for financing smaller growth companies into a European context. >more

GOVERNING GLOBAL EXTERNALITIES: INVESTOR VOICE AMID FRAGMENTED POLICY
Robin Döttling, Doron Levit, Nadya Malenko, and Magdalena Rola-Janicka
2026
We study whether investor voice can help address global externalities under fragmented regulation. In our setting, a multinational firm generates externalities across jurisdictions, national regulators face political frictions that can impede corrective regulation, and policy differences create scope for regulatory arbitrage and production leakage. We compare two channels of investor influence: corporate stewardship, which affects firms' global operations, and policy advocacy, which affects local regulation. Both channels can help address global externalities, but their relative effectiveness depends on political frictions abroad. When these frictions are severe enough to prevent foreign regulation, leakage weakens policy advocacy but strengthens stewardship. When foreign regulation is politically feasible, however, stewardship can crowd out foreign regulation and reinforce policy miscoordination, while local policy advocacy can crowd in foreign regulation and reduce externalities abroad. >more

THE GLOBAL RISE OF INDEX-BASED OWNERSHIP OF FIRMS
Bo Becker, Ruediger Fahlenbrach, and Ehsan Mahdikhani
2026
We develop a simple and replicable five-variable model that identifies index-based investors with 98% accuracy. Our analysis shows that index ownership grew from 3.0% of global market capitalization in 2004 to 16.9% by 2023, driven by growth in explicit indexing. By the end of 2023, index-based investors own 10 percent or more of 5,300 firms globally. In the U.S., mid-caps have more index ownership than large-caps. In Asia and Europe, index ownership increases with firm size, and only the largest firms experience significant index ownership. Differences in market capitalization and free float help explain regional variations in index ownership. >more