金融监管机构知道 - 即使他们不采取行动 - 他们担心的是他们可能不是他们应该担心的事情。这种情绪在资产管理行业的新规定下指导了他们的审议，这可以对最后的金融危机造成贡献。规则警察正试图抵御下一个大火，难以思考资产经理如何难以实现。
许多规则仍然是胚胎，特别是在美国，但监管机构已经提出了不容易解决的问题。资产管理人员在健康的金融系统中发挥的作用在于讨论的核心：如果他们崩溃，它们会对系统带来风险吗？那个问题正在推动美国监管机构对一些最大的公司的评估，如黑石and Fidelity Investments, should be defined as systemically important financial institutions, or SIFIs, and thus required to share more information with the government or write a plan on how they could be dismantled in a crisis. Not surprisingly, asset managers are fighting back against the SIFI designation.
在欧洲，类似的法规将强迫资产管理人员通过在资产负债表上持有更多资本来遵循银行的领导。虽然许多公司正确地争辩说，他们投资的资本属于投资者，所以没有与银行借来的金钱带来同样的风险，有人说这不是一个坏主意。
Robert Higginbotham，全球投资服务负责人，在伦敦的73.8亿美元，罗德价格集团指出，除了可能是一个良好的要求外，拥有更大的现金缓冲区对资产管理人员的盈利会影响很小。欧洲规则是一种方式，但“资产管理企业通常是非常资本的，”Higginbotham补充道。“我认为任何进一步的资本要求都不太可能过于繁重。”
可能是规则要求增加资本e in European markets because asset managers there offer more capital-preservation-type products that promise investors a certain level of protection, says Benjamin Phillips, a partner at Casey, Quirk & Associates, the Darien, Connecticut–based investment management consulting firm. With principal protection products, asset managers could be on the hook for investor losses, a very different role than merely acting as an agent as they do in a traditional mutual fund. But they could also have a chilling effect by hiking the cost of doing business, he warns.
Higginbotham提出了其他问题regulation。例如，通过其大小来评估公司的重要性是大锤方法。“管理层的资产也太粗略了，”Higginbotham说。监管机构正在讨论其他属性，包括管理人员是否提供高度杠杆资金，非杠杆产品处理，或者迎合短期投资者或具有较长的地平线的人，例如界定缴费计划的参与者。
Despite the trillions held in its funds, the asset management business is still a young industry that could benefit from new or different regulations. “The penetration of mutual funds as the core vehicle for medium- to long-term savings is still relatively low,” says Higginbotham. But as the middle class in the developing world and aging Westerners start to seriously save for retirement, funds will boom. “Asset managers are a transmission mechanism between savers, corporates and governments, and the markets,” he notes.
欧洲的监管机构最高目标之一是财务咨询行业。财务警察正在寻求彻底产生利益冲突投资者向其资金和管理人员支付一个捆绑费，分别向顾问分发折扣。在U.K.零售分销审查规则已禁止委员会来自中介机构等资产管理人员和保险公司销售其产品的顾问。荷兰和瑞典都这样做了;欧盟委员会正在金融工具指令II中的辩论市场，旨在将投资服务的监管纳入欧盟，并可能在欧盟中介绍类似的禁令。
许多人认为这些变化是有道理的，但新规则可能对资产经理和顾问产生重大影响。现在投资者are being charged separately for advice, intermediaries are outsourcing some of these more complex services to asset managers. Fidelity and T. Rowe Price, for instance, offer complete asset allocation services, determining when client portfolios should include high-yield bonds or emerging-markets debt. Brokerage platforms such as Charles Schwab & Co. also offer services to investors.
在新的U.K.规则下，一些最大的资产管理人员可能会开始直接向客户进行，凯西怪癖的菲利普斯预测。“许多客户不会分开支付顾问，”他说。“这对基金经理有利并改变零售分配的动态。”
Rulemakers在他们的思想和想象的情景中试图在胁迫下展开的情景。“我对监管机构有一些同情，”Rowe的北京伯巴斯坦说。“未来的危机不会看起来像最后一个。”•
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Follow Julie Segal on Twitter at@julie_segal。