News

Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE: VOYA), announced that it has earned inclusion in the 2023 Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index (GEI) for the eighth consecutive year. Voya joins 483 other companies as a member of the 2023 Bloomberg GEI, a modified market capitalization-weighted index developed to gauge the performance of public companies dedicated to reporting gender-related data.

Reuters reports equity indexes “closed lower on Wednesday.” The Nasdaq “closed down 1.35%, hitting a new bear-market closing low for the technology-heavy index, as investors shied away from growth stocks and riskier bets.” Wednesday’s loss “marked a drop of more than 36% from Nasdaq’s November record closing high.” Amit Sinha, Head of Multi-Asset Strategy at Voya Investment Management, “said Wednesday’s stock declines stemmed from ‘noise’ such as low liquidity and tax loss harvesting where investors sell money-losing investments.” Sinha said, “Today there’s nibbling away at risk and selling for tax loss harvesting purposes. ... Markets have been going down for the course of December. There’s a negative sentiment and momentum already.” Sinha “sees ‘reasons why people want to sell’ with 2023 presenting uncertainties around the Fed’s rate hiking path in terms of whether it can control inflation without damaging the economy.” He said, “There’s no compelling reason to be on the other side. It exaggerates the price decline.”

A video on Bloomberg featured a panel discussion from Bloomberg’s The Future Investor: Harnessing the Technology of Today. Among the panelists was Voya Investment Management co-Chief Investment Officer for Equities Vincent Costa. Responding to prompt about improvements to 401(k) plans, Costa said, “We’ve seen a lot of improvements even over the past few years, from automatic savings rates and automatic enrollment and customized advice.” He added, “One of the things that I’d like to see is continued flexibility for 401(k) clients.”

Pensions & Investments reports, “Twelve money management deals took place in the third quarter of 2022. In the third quarter of 2021, there were 32 transactions.” Voya Investment Management “agreed to acquire Czech Asset Management with an undisclosed amount that is not material to Voya’s financial position. Pzena Investment Management Inc. is becoming a private company in a $795 million all-cash transaction through a merger with its subsidiary.”

Voya Investment Management, the asset management business of Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE: VOYA), announced today that it was selected by Allstate (NYSE: ALL) to manage the firm’s $850 million commercial mortgage portfolio effective Nov. 14, 2022. Allstate will retain ownership of the assets, which will transfer to Voya IM under a separately managed account and the existing assets will remain part of Allstate’s portfolio. Voya will be responsible for future originations consistent with maintaining a target allocation to the asset class on behalf of Allstate.

In addition, as part of the agreement, Allstate will transition approximately seven employees who constitute their commercial mortgage team to Voya Investment Management (Voya IM). These employees will be integrated into Voya IM’s commercial mortgage team, led by Greg Michaud, and will help manage Voya’s commercial mortgage mandates, including the Allstate portfolio.

Voya Investment Management, the asset management business of Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE: VOYA), announced today that Matt Toms, CFA, has been appointed to the newly created role of global chief investment officer (CIO).

Toms, who has served as CIO of fixed income for Voya Investment Management (IM) since September 2016, will now lead the firm’s more than 300 investment professionals who are managing approximately $330 billion in assets under management across fixed income, equities, multi-asset solutions and alternative strategies. He will continue to report to Christine Hurtsellers, chief executive officer, Voya IM.

Bloomberg reports the Federal Reserve’s “tightening campaign has slowed deal-making activity in commercial real estate markets, leading Wall Street syndicates to forecast a fall in sales of the bonds that securitize the underlying mortgages.” In an interview, Voya Investment Management Securitized Credit Head David Goodson said, “This was one of the few subsectors that was running above trend through the first half of the year, and the market was just saturated with CMBS supply, so the pullback in issuance expectations has been a good thing.”

CNBC reports Voya Investment CIO Paul Zemsky “joins CNBC’s ‘Squawk Box’ to discuss how investors should navigate more economic tightening from the Federal Reserve.”

BNN Bloomberg reported the U.S. mortgage industry is “seeing its first lenders go out of business after a sudden spike in lending rates, and the wave of failures that’s coming could be the worst since the housing bubble burst about 15 years ago.” Voya Securitized Credit Head David Goodson said, “Part of the reason these companies are distressed is because the loans can’t go to the GSEs for funding. The options for funding are more limited, which is especially painful when financial conditions are tightening.”