Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, which is the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services . Finance activities take place in financial systems at various scopes, thus the field can be roughly divided into personal, corporate, and public finance.
Investment banking pertains to certain activities of a financial services company or a corporate division that consist in advisory-based financial transactions on behalf of individuals, corporations, and governments. Traditionally associated with corporate finance, such a bank might assist in raising financial capital by underwriting or acting as the client's agent in the issuance of debt or equity securities. An investment bank may also assist companies involved in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and provide ancillary services such as market making, trading of derivatives and equity securities, FICC services or research. Most investment banks maintain prime brokerage and asset management departments in conjunction with their investment research businesses. As an industry, it is broken up into the Bulge Bracket, Middle Market, and boutique market.
A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a government entity which is established or nationalised by the national government or provincial government by an executive order or an act of legislation in order to earn profit for the government, control monopoly of the private sector entities, provide products and services to citizens at a lower price and for the achievement of overall financial goals & developmental objectives in a particular country. The national government or provincial government has majority ownership over these state owned enterprises. These state owned enterprises are also known as public sector undertakings in some countries. Defining characteristics of SOEs are their distinct legal form and possession of financial goals & developmental objectives, SOEs are government entities established to pursue financial objectives and developmental goals.
Corporate governance is defined, described or delineated in diverse ways, depending on the writer's purpose. Writers focused on a disciplinary interest or context often adopt narrow definitions that appear purpose-specific. Writers concerned with regulatory policy in relation to corporate governance practices often use broader structural descriptions. A broad (meta) definition that encompasses many adopted definitions is "Corporate governance describes the processes, structures, and mechanisms that influence the control and direction of corporations."
State ownership, also called government ownership and public ownership, is the ownership of an industry, asset, or enterprise by the state or a public body representing a community, as opposed to an individual or private party. Public ownership specifically refers to industries selling goods and services to consumers and differs from public goods and government services financed out of a government's general budget. Public ownership can take place at the national, regional, local, or municipal levels of government; or can refer to non-governmental public ownership vested in autonomous public enterprises. Public ownership is one of the three major forms of property ownership, differentiated from private, collective/cooperative, and common ownership.
Andrei Shleifer is a Russian-American economist and Professor of Economics at Harvard University, where he has taught since 1991. Shleifer was awarded the biennial John Bates Clark Medal in 1999 for his seminal works in three fields: corporate finance, the economics of financial markets, and the economics of transition.
BlackRock, Inc. is an American multi-national investment company based in New York City. Founded in 1988, initially as a risk management and fixed income institutional asset manager, BlackRock is the world's largest asset manager, with US$10 trillion in assets under management as of January 2022. BlackRock operates globally with 70 offices in 30 countries, and clients in 100 countries. Along with Vanguard and State Street, BlackRock is considered to be one of the Big Three index fund managers that dominate America.
Limits to arbitrage is a theory in financial economics that, due to restrictions that are placed on funds that would ordinarily be used by rational traders to arbitrage away pricing inefficiencies, prices may remain in a non-equilibrium state for protracted periods of time.
Robert Ward Vishny is an American economist and is the Myron S. Scholes Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He was the Eric J. Gleacher Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Oaktree Capital Management is an American global asset management firm specializing in alternative investment strategies. As of March 31, 2022, the company managed $164 billion for its clientele.
SEI Investments Company, formerly Simulated Environments Inc, is a financial services company headquartered in Oaks, Pennsylvania, United States. The company describes itself as "a global provider of investment processing, investment management, and investment operations solutions". SEI provides products and services to institutions, private banks, investment advisors, investment managers, and private clients. Through its subsidiaries and partnerships in which the company has significant interests, SEI manages, advises or administers $1 trillion in hedge funds, private equity, mutual funds and pooled or separately managed assets. This includes $352 billion in assets under management and $683.3 billion in client assets under administration.
Magnetar Capital is a hedge fund based in Evanston, Illinois. The firm was founded in 2005 and invests in fixed income, energy, quantitative and event-driven strategies. The firm was actively involved in the collateralized debt obligation (CDO) market during the 2006–2007 period. In some articles critical of Magnetar Capital, the firm's arbitrage strategy for CDOs is described as the "Magnetar trade".
Affiliated Managers Group, Inc. is a strategic partner to independent investment management firms globally, with equity stakes in a number of partner-owned traditional investment managers, hedge funds, and specialized private equity firms which it calls “Affiliates.” The company has principal offices in West Palm Beach, Florida; Prides Crossing, Massachusetts; Stamford, Connecticut; and London, United Kingdom. The company was founded in December 1993 by William J. Nutt in Boston, Massachusetts, as a privately owned company with initial backing from TA Associates; Its initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange occurred in November 1997. Today, AMG’s Affiliates manage $651 billion in assets in aggregate.
Arabesque Partners is an Anglo-German investment management firm founded in 2013, with headquarters in London and a research hub in Frankfurt. The company offers a quantitative approach to sustainable investing.
Robin Greenwood is a British-American economist, and both the George Gund Professor of Finance and Banking and the Anne and James F. Rothenberg Faculty Fellow at Harvard Business School. He was formerly head of the school's finance unit, and chair of the Behavioral Finance and Financial Stability project. He also served on the Financial Advisory Roundtable of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
CI Financial is the largest investment management firm by assets under management in Canada. Based in Toronto, Ontario, it offers investment management and wealth management services targeted to high net worth retail investors, as well as brokerage and trading services to portfolio managers and institutional investors. It is considered one of the Big Three investment management companies in Canada, along with Mackenzie Investments and Fiera Capital.
Axa Investment Managers is a global investment management firm with offices in over 22 locations worldwide. As of 31 December 2021, it manages over €887 billion in assets on behalf of institutional and retail clients. It operates as the investment arm for Axa, a global insurance and reinsurance company.
PanAgora Asset Management (PanAgora) is an American investment management firm based in Boston. The firm is noted for its usage of quantitative analysis in its approach to investing. It is a direct subsidiary of Putnam Investments and its ultimate parent is Power Financial.
Allspring Global Investments (Allspring) is an American asset management firm headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It was previously the asset management unit of Wells Fargo until November 2021 when it commenced operations as an independent firm.
NISA Investment Advisors (NISA) is an American asset management firm headquartered in Clayton, Missouri.
