It’s a question that has haunted investors for decades.
In recent years, many big banks have taken a hit on their balance sheets due to the global economic slowdown and other pressures.
But it’s also true that a growing number of institutional investors are looking for returns that will provide them a higher return than those offered by a traditional bank.
The new research from the Credit Suisse Foundation for Global Economic Growth suggests that even with some institutional investors, the chances of hitting the jackpot are small.
“The question of whether a new investment can be a good investment is not particularly clear,” said Charles D. O’Shea, an economist at Credit Suisses investment advisory group.
“It is not clear whether a small-cap investor can become a successful asset manager.
It is more of a question of when, and whether a large-cap asset manager can achieve a good return.”
O’Sullivan, a credit strategist at CreditSuisse, pointed to an example of how a new investor might benefit from a firm’s existing portfolio.
“When the bank is in a financial crisis, the firm is exposed to the full risk of the global financial system,” he said.
“The firm might have a lower level of liquidity, but its exposure to the world economy is still high.
In that case, a new fund would be an excellent investment for a large company that is facing a large crisis, like Goldman Sachs, to absorb losses and return to profitability.”
How big is a large firm?
A large firm might hold more than $10 trillion in assets, or about 5% of the U.S. economy.
That means that it would need to pay out more than half its annual earnings to keep its balance sheet intact.
Oftentimes, large firms have more assets than they can afford to lose, and the fund might have to take out loans or sell assets.
Credit Suisse also analyzed the returns on a handful of large, mature U.K. companies, and found that the investment returns on their securities were average.
Credit Suis research indicates that the average returns on an asset class in the U, as a whole, are around 8%.
But for a subset of small, asset-oriented funds, the average return is much higher.
The researchers also looked at a few small-caps, such as Fidelity Investments, which has about $5 trillion in its portfolio.
They found that, overall, the fund is outperforming its peers by 3.5%, or $1.1 billion, per year.
O’Sullivan said the big banks are a prime example of a small, portfolio-oriented fund that can get a decent return.
But the bigger banks have less exposure to risk, so the fund would have to borrow more to cover its expenses.
Ollier, the bank analyst, said that even for large funds, smaller, asset managers can make a strong return.
“Large-cap funds, which can handle their costs, are a great way to fund a smaller risk pool,” he told me.
“If you can get your money out of the bank and into a fund, then it makes sense.”
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