Huw van Steenis

Huw van Steenis (born 25 September 1969) is a British research analyst and the Head of European Banks Equity Research at investment bank Morgan Stanley. Notable for his bearish forecasts prior to the global financial crisis and Eurozone crisis, Van Steenis has 11 times been voted the number one financials equity research analyst (in both banks and diversified financials) in institutional investor polls.^[1] He has also won a number of other forecasting awards including twice European "Stock Picker of the Year" for Banks and Financials in Reuter’s Starmine.^[2] His is the great nephew of botanist Cornelis Gijsbert Gerrit Jan van Steenis.

Career

Van Steenis is a widely recognized thought leader on financial services. Anthony Hilton, City Editor, Evening Standard called him as "one of the most authoritative banking analysts in Europe" ^[3] The Wall Street Journal's Financial News named him as 'European Banker of the Quarter' for Q1 2009 for his work on the banking crisis and policy response describing him as "one of the most well regarded and influential voices commenting on issues facing the industry".^[4] Van Steenis is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Banking^[5]

He is best known for his work on the banking crisis and policy response. For instance, in February 2008 he wrote in the Financial Times investors should avoid UK mortgage banks, Spanish, Eastern European and Icelandic banks or "those exposed to the credit black spots such as UBS, Kaupthing, or Erste".^[6] Kaupthing was nationalized October 2008 whilst UBS and Erste fell by more than 70% over the following 12 months. In February 2010 he again downgraded European banks due to his fears of a Eurozone sovereign crisis flaring up and again wrote in the Financial Times that as a result "European retail banks likely to underperform".^[7] Eurozone banks halved in value over the following 18 months. He was also early to focus on the implications of European policy response such as the LTRO and OMT ^[8]^[9] as well as the threats from prolonged deleveraging and the "Balkanisation of banking markets".^[10]

Van Steenis has coined several terms [which have become industry standards,] including the "asset management barbell" [in March 2004] which predicted the polarization of the investment management industry between cheap beta such as Exchange Traded Funds and high risk/return products such as hedge funds.^[11] ETF assets under management have grown 10 fold from $218bn December 2003 to $2.08trn end 1Q13 according to BlackRock.^[12] Meanwhile hedge fund assets under management grew 3 fold from $820bn in December 2003 to $2.25trn in December 2012, according to HFR.^[13]

Education

He read Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Trinity College, Oxford (1988–91), and holds an MBA from INSEAD Business School (1994–95) (List of INSEAD alumni).^[14] Previously Van Steenis worked as a management consultant at Boston Consulting Group and an equity research analyst at JPMorgan.

Huw van Steenis

Career

Education

References