From open to 'guided' architecture

steen steincke, head of global bancassurance at gartmore As most people in the industry are aware, after 2000's massive inflow of money into equity funds, 2001 was particularly disappointing, with net flows dropping sharply by around 80% in a number of European markets. The response from European bancassurers, who already had the lion's share of European sales, was to protect their profit margins by concentrating on selling their proprietary products to clients rather than opening their distribution to third party products. In addition, many European countries, notably France an...