Amundi, Crédit Agricole's asset management firm, is creating a dedicated global business line as part of a strategic development plan to strengthen its relationships with external distributors globally.
"Amundi's key strategic objectives are twofold: To reinforce its leading position as a provider of savings solutions to partner networks, and to pursue its business development initiatives with both institutional clients worldwide and third party distributors globally," said Pascal Blanqué, head of institutional investment and third party distributors at Amundi.
Blanqué said that since its creation, Amundi has built a long and expert record with banking networks and today services over 100 million retail clients worldwide with a range of saving solutions, structured products and tailor-made associated services and is now rolling out these services to external distributors.
"After ten years of volatile markets and changes in the regulatory environment, distributors are now looking for a fresh approach to their new needs," said Laurent Bertiau, Amundi'sdeputy head of institutional investment and third party distributors in charge of sales and marketing. "By concentrating our experience and expertise on this new business line, we aim to provide a coordinated approach to servicing the specific needs of this type of client."
The French firm appointed Christian Pellis as head of global external distribution last January, who organised the business line geographically in a move to strengthen Amundi's distribution business.
"The business line manages and oversees the efforts of sales forces dedicated to providing solutions to our customers with 55 professionals around the world (36 in Europe, 14 in Asia, and five elsewhere)," said Pellis. "It benefits from having an established and experienced sales force which will be further strengthened with new recruits. Our goal is to provide local support for the specific needs of our customers and major external distributors."
To support the expansion of its new business line, Amundi has introduced dedicated marketing tools and developed a range of flagship products providing solutions for individual investors seeking to build their wealth with moderate risk, and has also created a new share class to accommodate the European regulatory changes on costs associated with rebates.
The French asset manager, which was highlighted in Credit Agricole's 2012 year-end report for its performance, has also announced the merger of Amundi Investment Solutions and Amundi by 30 June.
According to SRP data, there are 85 live structures in the French market sold by Amundi; 30 products in Italy; five products in Greece sold by Emporiki Bank; six products in Belgium which were originally distributed by Crédit Agricole Belgium's subsidiary Centea before it changed the name to Crelan in September 2012; and six products in Japan.
The French asset manager was fined €290,000 at the beginning of the year by the Autorité des Marchés Financiers, the French regulator, for failing to perform an accurate and independent valuation on the swaps embedded in two of its structured funds.