The roundtable panel in this Summer edition of the Finance Dublin Funds Monitor assess the year to date, as volatile conditions return to the markets, reflecting the inevitable knock-on effects of the global upturn in inflation. This adds to the longer term concerns for investment funds brought about by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with ESG matters also gaining increased attention with one contributor suggesting that asset managers may give a greater focus to human rights violations before they decide to invest in a country.

Global ETF net flows have had one of their strongest starts to year on record with sovereign bond ETFs enjoying record net flows in May 2022. Innovation in the ETF space has helped to drive the huge growth in global ETF assets and in this issue fertile areas for further innovation are examined including the potential for asset managers to create an ETF structure with listed and unlisted share classes and an increased push into areas such as crypto assets, which, as one contributor says, should not be confused with the narrower class of cryptocurrencies, where ‘buyer beware’ is very much the order of the day. The emerging area of custody in tokenised assets is also explored as are changing structures in the ManCo market and the drivers behind Ireland’s record NAV levels.

The Roundtable Contributors are, listed in order of their appearance in this edition: Mark Seavers, Chief Investment Officer in Dublin, IQ-EQ; Meliosa O’Caoimh, Country Head, Ireland, Northern Trust; Ian Sinclair, Managing Director & Head, Digital/Crypto Assets RBC Investor & Treasury Services; Barry O’Brien, Head of Funds, Ireland at Apex Group company FundRock.