PGIM Fixed Income announced the return of Daleep Singh as vice chair, chief of global economist, and head of global macroeconomic research, effective April 21, 2025.
Sing rejoins the firm after serving as U.S. deputy national security advisor for international economics and deputy director of the National Economic Council from February 2024. He previously held these roles from 2021 to 2022, advising President Biden on economic policy at the intersection of economics and national security.
Before his time in government, Singh was PGIM Fixed Income’s global chief economist and head of macroeconomic research from 2022 to 2024.
In his new role, Singh will oversee the global macroeconomic research team and play a key part in expanding PGIM Fixed Income’s global presence. He will also be on the senior leadership, reporting to Gregory Peters, co-chief investment officer.
“Daleep’s extensive experience and insight at the highest levels of government will be fundamental in helping our firm navigate the increasingly complex macroeconomic and geopolitical forces driving global financial markets,” said Peters.
Singh’s previous roles include executive vice president at the New York Federal Reserve and positions at the U.S. Department of the Treasury and Goldman Sachs, focusing on U.S. interest rates and emerging markets.
“I’m excited to return to PGIM Fixed Income and contribute to the firm’s success during this transformative period,” said Singh.
Singh’s return strengthens PGIM Fixed Income’s leadership as it continues shaping the future of global investment strategies.
I Squared Capital has announced the appointment of Ben Harper as Head of Sustainability. Based on the firm’s Miami office, Harper will oversee sustainability initiatives and climate risk mitigation strategies across I Squared Capital’s portfolio assets.
Harper brings extensive experience in ESG leadership. Before joining I Squared Capital, he served as Managing Director, Head of ESG at Stonepeak, where he played a pivotal role in integrating sustainability across investment strategies.
“We are delighted to welcome Ben,” said Sadek Wahba, Chairman and Managing Partner at I Squared Capital. “We are confident that Ben’s expertise and leadership will further enhance our overall efforts to create long-term value for our stakeholders,” he added.
Beyond his corporate experience, Harper has actively shaped public policy and industry best practices. His contributions include work with the White House Interagency CCS Task Force and the European Union’s Zero Emission Platform.
Additionally, he served on advisory boards for organizations such as the American Society of Civil Engineers Infrastructure Resilience Division and the United States Principles for Responsible investment Infrastructure Advisory Committee.
Harper’s expertise in sustainability and infrastructure resilience will enhance I Squared Capital’s ongoing efforts to create long-term value for its stakeholders.
Innovation in investment products is essential for asset managers to adapt to new market opportunities and shifting investor preferences. In the past, financial engineering played a key role in the evolution of investment vehicles, but now, technology is emerging as the primary driver of innovation.
According to the 2024 Asset and Wealth Management Report by PwC, one of the most prominent trends is the growth of tokenized investment products.
“In our base-case scenario, we project that assets under management in tokenized investment funds—including mutual funds and alternative funds, but excluding mandates—will grow from $40 billion in 2023 to over $317 billion by 2028,” the report states.
PwC explains that while this still represents a small fraction of the total market, it is expanding at an impressive compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 50%. This surge is driven by the need for greater liquidity, enhanced transparency, and broader investment access, particularly within alternative funds, which may include private equity, real estate, commodities, and other non-traditional assets.
The PwC report highlights that tokenization is providing investors with greater opportunities to diversify their portfolios into digital asset classes, especially as regulatory restrictions gradually ease.
According to the report’s conclusions, this innovation allows asset and wealth management firms to diversify portfolios, access non-correlated asset classes, and attract a new generation of tech-savvy clients.
“Currently, 18% of surveyed asset and wealth managers offer digital assets within their product offerings. While these products are still in their early stages, investor interest is growing. Eight out of ten managers who offer digital assets have reported an increase in inflows,” the report states.
PwC identifies a second major advantage of tokenized investment products: the ability to develop applications and platforms that enable retail investors to purchase fractional shares in private markets or tokenized funds.
“Tokenized fractional ownership could expand market opportunities by lowering minimum investments and allowing traditionally illiquid assets to be traded on secondary markets,” PwC analysts explain.
In fact, the survey highlights strong interest in tokenized private market assets from both asset managers and institutional investors, with more than half of each group identifying private equity as the primary tokenized asset class.
MetLife’s 2025 U.S. Employee Benefit Trends Study paints a concerning picture for today’s workplace, revealing significant drops in holistic health -5%, productivity -5%, and engagement -7%. Financial stress is a major factor, with 77% of employees citing rising medical costs and 68% pointing to economic uncertainty as their main sources of stress.
In the face of these challenges, employees increasingly turn to their employers for support and stability. The study reveals that 81% of employees believe their employer should build trust in the workplace, and employees are 1.5 times more likely to trust their employer than other institutions.
With responsibility to foster trust comes a significant opportunity for employers to improve workplace outcomes. MetLife’s research shows that employees who trust their employer and feel cared for are 3.8 times more likely to feel holistically healthy, 2.4 times more engaged, and 1.9 times more productive than those who don’t experience this care.
Employers can build trust by creating a supportive workplace culture and offering benefits that are easy to understand and use. It’s important to give employees opportunities to provide feedback and help them make the most of their benefits.
“Our research shows that employers who demonstrate they care for their employees see better workplace health and results,” said Todd Katz, head of Group Benefits at MetLife.
The study also finds that employees who use their benefits effectively are 2.4 times more likely to feel holistically healthy, 2.1 times more likely to trust their employer during tough economic times, and 1.8 times more likely to trust their employer’s leadership.
“Benefits give employees stability and protection in uncertain times, which strengthen trust,” Katz added.
To help employees make informed decisions about their benefits, MetLife offers tools like Upwise, reminders, and guidance. In 2024, 64% of employees who had access to Upwise during enrollment used it, and 84% of those completed the steps to get a benefits recommendation.
MetLife’s study found that employers who prioritize employee care, build trust, and offer clear benefits experiences can foster a more engaged, productive, and healthy workforce.
Nasdaq announced new investments to enhance liquidity, transparency, and financial integrity in Texas with the creation of a new Hub in Dallas, which will serve as a center for business leaders and innovators.
The company behind the famous index reaffirmed its commitment to the state of Texas and highlighted Texas’s role as a global innovation hub at an event held last Tuesday alongside Governor Greg Abbott, Ross Perot Jr., and state leaders.
With over $750 million in revenue generated in Texas and the southeastern U.S., according to company data, Nasdaq works with more than 2,000 clients—800 of them in Texas—and is home to over 200 Texas-based companies with a combined market capitalization of $1.98 trillion as of December 2024.
“Nasdaq is deeply embedded in the fabric of Texas’s economy, and we look forward to maintaining our leadership as the preferred partner to the state’s most innovative companies,” said Adena Friedman, Nasdaq’s Chair and CEO.
The firm continues to advocate for corporate issuers on matters such as the SEC’s climate and cyber disclosure rules, AI regulation, and proxy advisory reform.
Nasdaq’s investments strengthen Texas’s position as a financial and technology powerhouse, driving business expansion and economic resilience for years to come, the statement concluded.
“The excess return of 2024 as a whole shows the highest performance in high beta segments, meaning the riskiest market segments that offer greater return potential, and in euro markets,” explains the Amundi Investment Institute in its latest report.
According to the asset manager’s outlook for this year, corporate fundamentals remain strong, as companies have taken advantage of the post-pandemic period of ultra-low interest rates and economic recovery to improve their credit profiles, while technical conditions remain favorable.
“Structurally higher interest rates should support demand for corporate credit from investors seeking yields before central banks cut rates further. Official rate cuts could help support bond flows from money markets into longer-duration interest rate products to secure higher income. Net supply remains limited, as issuance is largely allocated to refinancing. Lastly, the buoyant dynamics of CLOs are also indirectly fueling demand for high-yield bonds, contributing to overall demand support in this market segment,” the report states.
Factors Driving the Fixed Income Market
According to Marco Giordano, Investment Director at Wellington Management, fixed income markets continue to rebound, while concerns about the potential negative impact on economic growth from global tariffs, turmoil in the U.S. federal government, and growing uncertainty are affecting overall sentiment.
“Credit spreads widened, with most sectors showing lower returns compared to equivalent government bonds,” Giordano highlights.
According to his analysis, four factors are currently moving the market: the Trump Administration’s tariff policy, Germany’s new political landscape, and European fiscal stimulus.
For the Wellington Management expert, one of the most significant implications of this scenario is that Europe is experiencing a major boost.
“Germany’s commitment to increasing its debt-to-GDP ratio to 20% has shaken markets, with bond yields surging across the eurozone. The 10-year German bund yield recorded its largest single-day increase since March 1990, rising 25 basis points. The spread between 10-year Italian bonds and German bunds fell below 100 basis points. Outside the eurozone, bond yields rose slightly in Australia, New Zealand, and Japan,” notes Giordano.
Meanwhile, in the U.S. fixed income market, yields continue to trend downward.
“At the end of February, long-term U.S. Treasury bonds with 7-10 year maturities had risen 3.5%, while the S&P 500 index had gained only 1.4%. In fact, so far this year, U.S. bonds have outperformed U.S. equities. As surprising as it may seem, there could be a perfectly valid reason for this relative performance. Naturally, recent U.S. economic data has tended to disappoint, which may explain why the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield has fallen from 4.57% to 4.11% year to date,” explains Yves Bonzon, Chief Investment Officer (CIO) at Swiss private bank Julius Baer.
According to Benoit Anne, Managing Director of the Strategy and Insights Group at MFS Investment Management, euro credit valuations appear attractive from a long-term perspective.
“Given the current appealing level of euro-denominated investment-grade bond yields, the expected return outlook has improved considerably. Historically, there has been a strong relationship between initial yields like the current ones and solid future returns,” explains Anne.
He supports this with a clear example:
“With an initial **3.40% yield for euro IG bonds, the average annualized return for the following five years (using a range of ±30 basis points) is 4.40%—a hypothetically attractive return, with a range of 3.09% to 5.88%. In comparison, the 20-year annualized return for euro IG bonds stands at 2.72%, suggesting that, given current yields, this asset class is well-positioned to potentially offer above-average returns in the coming years.”
Crédit Mutuel AM, on the other hand, is focusing on the subordinated debt market.
According to their assessment, this type of asset posted positive returns of 0.6% to 1%, with a particularly dynamic primary market in AT1 CoCos.
“European banks took advantage of favorable conditions to prefinance upcoming issuances, with sustained demand. Additionally, bank earnings were solid, balance sheets became increasingly robust, and there was ongoing interest in mergers and acquisitions,” say Paul Gurzal, Co-Head of Fixed Income, and Jérémie Boudinet, Head of Financial and Subordinated Debt at Crédit Mutuel AM.
According to their analysis, the market maintained the trend of previous months, with positive inflows, strong primary market dynamics, and continued risk appetite, despite more mixed signals at the end of the month.
“The primary market was particularly dynamic for AT1 CoCos, with €11.6 billion issued during the month, which we estimate will account for 25%-30% of all 2025 issuances, as European banks took advantage of favorable market conditions to prefinance their upcoming 2025 calls,” add Gurzal and Boudinet.
The third fixed income investment idea comes from Kevin Daly, Chief Investment Officer and Emerging Markets Debt Expert at Aberdeen.
“After a strong 2024, we remain cautiously optimistic about the outlook for frontier bonds. Overall, fundamentals have improved, and there is still ample upside potential in terms of returns. Duration risk is low, which could help mitigate the impact of rising U.S. Treasury yields. Additionally, default risk—by all indicators—has also declined over the past year, driven by debt restructurings and improved maturity profiles. Risks related to the new Trump 2.0 administration are valid, but we believe the situation is more nuanced than generally discussed,” says Daly.
Lastly, Amundi believes that investment opportunities will remain linked to the pursuit of yields, which will continue to be a priority for most investors.
“We believe credit spread compression may have reached its peak in this cycle. After two consecutive strong years, credit spreads for both investment-grade and high-yield bonds are undeniably tight, but yields remain attractive compared to long-term trends. For this reason, we believe corporate bonds should continue to be an attractive income-generating option in 2025,” the asset manager states in its latest report.
Banco Santander strengthens its insurance business with the appointment of Peter Huber as its new global head, replacing Armando Baquero, who has decided to leave the bank to pursue new professional projects. Huber, who has over 20 years of experience in the sector, joins from the insurtech Wefox, where he held the position of director of insurance.
In his new role at Santander, Huber will report to Javier García Carranza, global head of Wealth Management and Insurance. According to Bloomberg, he will also join Santander’s Board of Directors as vice chairman, while Jaime Rodríguez Andrade will be appointed CEO of the holding company.
According to the financial news agency, Santander has also announced that it will split its Insurance division into two: Life and Pensions, and Protection Insurance, with the former being led by Jaime Rodríguez Andrade, who will report to Huber.
Startups led by a solo founder have more than doubled in the past decade, while new companies with three, four, or five founders have become less common. However, solo founders are less likely to secure venture capital funding. At the same time, equal equity splits are becoming more common among founding teams, and founder ownership decreases more sharply in the early stages of financing.
These are the main takeaways from the Founder Ownership Report 2025 by Carta, a software and services platform for private equity firms. The report, based on the analysis of anonymized data from over 45,000 startups founded between 2015 and 2024, sheds new light on how startup ownership works across the U.S. entrepreneurial ecosystem.
“How should a company spend this valuable resource? We hope this data helps founding teams and their investors think through this question at every stage of the financing journey,” write the report’s authors, Peter Walker and Kevin Dowd, in its introduction.
Key Highlights
In recent years, the percentage of all Carta-tracked startups with a solo founder has been rising, with the trend accelerating in 2024. About 35% of all new startups last year had a single founder, compared to 29% in 2023 and 17% in 2017.
Conversely, larger founding teams are becoming less frequent. In 2024, only 16% of all new startups had three founders, 7% had four, and 4% had five—each representing the lowest levels in the past ten years.
These shifts in founding team sizes have continued steadily, even as the broader venture capital market has experienced considerable volatility, the report notes.
The report also highlights that solo founders are less likely to receive venture capital funding compared to larger founding teams. While solo founders made up 35% of all startups launched in 2024, they accounted for just 17% of those that also closed a VC round before the end of the year.
On the other hand, startups with three, four, or five founders tend to outperform expectations. Roughly 11% of startups founded last year that had already raised VC funding had five founders.
“While the data doesn’t show the exact reasons behind this observed preference for co-founders, we can speculate that investors seek both a safety net (in case a lead founder exits the company) and complementary skill sets (perhaps a commercial founder paired with a technical one) to reduce the risk of early-stage bets,” the report explains.
Another important point highlighted by Carta’s research is the growing trend toward equal equity splits. While most founding teams still choose to split equity unequally, an increasing number of co-founders are opting for equal division. The data shows that in 2024, 45.9% of two-person founding teams split their equity equally, up from 31.5% in 2015.
The report also underscores that founder ownership declines the most in the earliest stages: after raising an initial funding round, the average founding team collectively holds 56.2% of their startup’s equity. By Series A, that figure drops to 36.1%, and to 23% by Series B.
“In some cases, the founding team consists of just one person—a solo entrepreneur eager to do it all. In others, it includes multiple co-founders looking to leverage their complementary skills to win in the market,” the report states. “From the beginning, deciding how to split equity among co-founders, investors, employees, and other stakeholders is a strategic choice, and it remains critical as the company grows,” it adds.
The report also analyzes startups across different industries. One finding: in general, software-focused startups tend to have smaller founding teams compared to startups in research-intensive sectors that produce physical products.
Carta, with 12 years of experience in private equity and five offices across different continents, supports over 45,000 venture-backed companies and 2.4 million security holders, helping them manage more than $3 trillion in equity.
Allfunds has announced the appointment of Carlos Berastain as its new Global Head of Investor Relations, replacing Silvia Ríos, who is stepping down to pursue new opportunities.
Berastain, who brings over 25 years of experience in the industry, joins Allfunds from Santander, where he has served as Head of Investor Relations since 2017.
According to the company, Ríos will remain at Allfunds for a few months to ensure a smooth and orderly transition. During this period, she will work closely with Carlos Berastain, who will officially take on his new role at Allfunds on March 17, 2025.
“We are grateful for Silvia’s outstanding work, dedication, and contributions over the years, and we wish her success in her next career steps. We look forward to welcoming Carlos as he leads our investor relations initiatives and strengthens communication with our shareholders and the broader financial community,” said Álvaro Perera, CFO of Allfunds.
Allfunds highlighted Silvia Ríos’ pivotal role in the company, particularly in its IPO and strategic positioning within the financial community over the past four years. She was recently recognized as one of the top Investor Relations Directors at the Investor Relations Society Awards 2024.
Mark Uyeda, acting chairman of the SEC, centered his speech at the Annual Conference of the Institute of International Bankers on U.S. Treasury securities, amid market turbulence and investors seeking refuge in safe-haven assets. He also suggested that the regulator might withdraw the requirement for crypto companies to register as securities brokers.
«At a time when debt service costs are surpassing both national defense and healthcare spending, we cannot afford to rush into changes that might deter foreign investors from participating in U.S. Treasury markets. On the contrary, new regulations must be properly implemented, and any operational issues must be addressed,» Uyeda stated.
Uyeda revealed that he has instructed SEC staff to explore “options to abandon” parts of the proposed regulatory changes that would extend alternative trading system (ATS) regulations to include crypto companies. He recalled that the rule was originally designed in 2020, under former SEC chairman Jay Clayton, to establish clearer guidelines for alternative trading systems. However, the guidance was primarily intended to impact U.S. Treasury market participants.
Uyeda noted that when the rule’s implementation fell under former SEC chairman Gary Gensler, it took a “very different direction”, expanding beyond ATS platforms.
«Instead of focusing on specific issues related to ATSs for government securities, in 2022, a new version of the rule was proposed that would redefine the regulatory definition of a securities broker,» Uyeda remarked.
Following Gensler’s resignation, the SEC has taken a more relaxed approach toward the crypto industry.
«It was a mistake for the Commission to link the regulation of Treasury markets with a heavy-handed attempt to crack down on the cryptocurrency market,» he added.
With all this, in his speech, the acting chairman emphasized that the U.S. Treasury securities market is a “fundamental piece of the global financial system” and pointed out that foreign investors hold approximately one-third of the U.S. government’s marketable debt as of June 2023.
Uyeda noted that the United States uses these capital markets as an issuer of securities “to finance deficit spending,” and that being “the deepest and most liquid market in the world, U.S. Treasury securities serve as an investment, collateral, and safe haven in times of market turmoil.” He also emphasized that capital market regulation remains a priority and that he will continue working with foreign regulators to maintain global cooperation.
Concluding his speech, Uyeda reaffirmed that the SEC will continue engaging with international financial institutions as Treasury markets evolve.
