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Our briefing for Thursday, August 12, 2021:
Aug 12, 2021 3:56:25 PM
- In the United States, California has officially become the first state to require teachers and school staff to be vaccinated or regularly tested for Covid-19. Governor Gavin Newsom made the announcement on Wednesday, saying that the decision is “the right thing to do.” The U.S. is still struggling with the delta variant as hospitalizations and deaths continue to rise. Recently the federal government, several states and a number of private employers have said they will require their employees to get vaccinated. Last week, New York became the first major city to require proof of vaccination for access to gyms, restaurants and other indoor businesses.
- In Canada, vaccine passports will arrive in the fall, Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino said. The vaccine passport will be a digital document (or paper for those who wish) that will certify the Covid-19 vaccine status of an individual for the sake of international travel. The passports are not meant for domestic use but could be if the provinces decide to do so. "I want to take a moment to thank all Canadians who've rolled up their sleeves over these past months," Mendicino said. "As more and more are getting vaccinated they are planning for life in a post-vaccinated world, including the safe return to travel."
- In the United Kingdom, according to health officials, more than three quarters of adults in Britain have now received both doses of vaccine. Approximately 90% of adults have had at least one dose. The news comes as Britain reported another 146 coronavirus-related deaths in a 24-hour period. “It’s so important that those who haven't been vaccinated come forward as soon as possible to book their jab - to protect themselves, protect their loved ones and allow us all to enjoy our freedoms safely," said Prime Minister Boris Johnson in a statement.
- In France, a total of 22 health facilities including 15 vaccination centres have been attacked, a French Interior Ministry official told Reuters. The vandals covered the buildings in Nazi symbols and graffitied words on them like “Nazi” and “genocide.” Although no arrests have been made yet in relation to the vandalism, French officials have said there will be punishment for those who committed the acts. The vandalism reflects the frustrations expressed at protests over the last four weekends in response to the government’s launching of the Covid-19 health pass.
- In Spain, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced that the medicines agency has authorized clinical trials for the Covid-19 vaccine developed by a Spanish company. "Spain's medicines and health products agency has just authorized clinical tests of the Spanish Covid vaccine on humans," Sanchez told a news conference. Hipra, a pharmaceutical lab that predominantly focuses on veterinary vaccines, has been working on two different Covid-19 vaccines. Hipra expects it will be able to deliver 400 million doses of vaccine throughout 2022 and 1.2 billion doses in 2023.
- In Australia, the New South Wales state government announced that more military personnel may be called into help enforce lockdown rules in Sydney. "We are making sure that we do not leave any stone unturned in relation to extra (military) resources," New South Wales state Premier Gladys Berejiklian said at a media conference. Approximately 580 unarmed military personnel are already enforcing quarantine rules in Sydney which is in its seventh week of lockdown. New South Wales reported a total of 345 new cases, up slightly from 344 the day before.
Covid-19 – Due Diligence And Asset Management
Tech trends continue to evolve for the post-pandemic future
Brief: It’s been a year that many of us would probably prefer to forget, but for asset managers the pandemic has turbocharged many underlying technology trends that were already in place before anyone had ever heard of Covid-19. The migration of more and more activities onto the cloud has been underway for years, of course – propelled above all by the sheer volumes of data which asset managers now juggle daily in order to shape their investment decisions. But those firms which had already shifted many of their activities into cloud-based solutions well before the pandemic hit last March found the transition to working with a dispersed workforce much easier – and faced less disruption compared to those heavily reliant on on-premise infrastructure and in-house teams of IT staff. John Kain of AWS, the world’s biggest cloud provider, says the charge into the cloud by the industry has been led by those firms which rely on the most data intensive investment strategies – above all the quant funds – but he thinks there is still plenty of room for overall growth as smaller firms and those with different strategies contemplate the long-term future of their tech stack post-pandemic.
Remote working brings benefits, but also security fears
Brief: For asset managers, the past 18 months have been a rollercoaster ride as the pandemic has forced them to embrace new ways of working. The implications have been profound as it has become more critical than ever for management firms to offer staff – everyone from portfolio managers to back office teams – the ability to access essential systems remotely. Many firms which were unable to do this initially have found themselves scrambling to update their technology. But the surge in home working has also fuelled mounting fears over cybersecurity. How can asset managers ensure their systems are as safe as they can be from the prying eyes of unwanted guests or from hackers seeking to disrupt or inject ransomware? “Businesses have increased the number of opportunities for cyber attacks massively, because every single device being used outside of traditional office network is of course an opportunity for cyber breach in essence we have decentralised cyber security,” says George Ralph (pictured), global managing director of RFA, an IT consultancy, which specialises in the alternative investment sector.
Experts predict UK economy will recapture pandemic losses by end of 2021
Brief: Industry commentators are forecasting that the UK economy will "comfortably" recover to its pre-pandemic levels by the end of the year, after a strong June reading that took year-on-year Q2 growth to 4.8%. The figure, reported by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) this morning (12 August), includes a 1% rise in June and is "strongly ahead" of US and European equivalents, according to Charles Hepworth, investment director at GAM Investments. He called the figures "a stunningly strong rate of growth compared to other western economies on a like-for-like basis", but warned this "record pace" is unlikely to continue now that coronavirus restrictions have been largely factored in to growth forecasts. "Consumer expenditure drove the increase over the second quarter despite a rise in coronavirus infections and a lot of that spending will likely cool from these levels," he said.
Four beats five as pandemic prompts shorter working week trials
Brief: From travel to technology, employers across the globe are offering four day weeks as incentives to woo workers after the coronavirus pandemic upended their working patterns. Debate over the so-called 'Scandinavian model', which holds that productivity will rise if working hours are dropped, is not new but it has gained traction during the COVID crisis not only among companies but also the public sector and politicians. In Europe, Spain's left wing government is considering its own version to help its economy, while public administrations in Denmark and Iceland have already adopted 4-day weeks. With retail and hospitality now among the sectors struggling to attract and retain staff as economies recover from the crisis, many companies are introducing shorter weeks, the president of global staffing group Adecco said."After the (coronavirus) crisis, people became more aware their working conditions weren't always the best ... Now they're thinking, we don't want to sacrifice our personal life," Adecco's Christophe Catoir told Reuters.
Reconfigured retail: Covid-driven online sales boom nearing peak, says Toscafund’s Savvas Savouri
Brief: The boom in online retail during Covid-19 is substantially reshaping the UK’s consumer sector, but Toscafund Asset Management’s Savvas Savouri believes e-commerce sales may peak sooner rather later as restrictions finally end. In a market commentary on Wednesday, Savouri – chief economist and partner at Martin Hughes’ hedge fund behemoth Toscafund – reflected on how the coronavirus pandemic sent online sales soaring as the UK entered a protracted lockdown. However, looking ahead, he believes that multi-channel retail operators that offer both digital sales and ‘bricks-and-mortar’ stores may now have reached a point where their online offering has gone from a “disruptive competitor” to their physical presence to a “stable companion”.Observing the rise in internet shopping, he noted that as recently as 2008, less than one-twentieth of UK retail sales were online; within a decade, that number had swelled to a fifth, as a result of online sales growing at an average of 20 per cent every year. But that 20 per cent levelled off towards the end of 2019 and into 2020, nearing what Savouri referred to as ‘retail internet penetration’ (RIP) – before spiking back up towards highs of almost 80 per cent UK’s first coronavirus lockdown in March 2020.
