News

Voya Financial’s Jeffrey Bianchi, Michael Pytosh and Kristy Finnegan spoke with Investor’s Business Daily about their approach to managing the $1.1 billion Voya Large-Cap Growth Fund, which has outperformed its peers and received the 2019 IBD Best Mutual Fund Award. According to the article, the fund “earned that distinction by beating the S&P 500 in 2018 and topping the broad market benchmark over the three, five and 10 years ended last Dec. 31, on an average-annual-return basis.” Bianchi, Pytosh and Finnegan all were quoted about specific companies in which the fund has invested, with Bianchi describing the team’s investment strategy. “The overarching part of our philosophy is that we’re looking for positive change that is not necessarily anticipated by investors. Therefore, it’s not embedded in current valuations. It will allow us to outperform over the next couple of years. We call it unrecognized business momentum,” Bianchi said.

Financial Advisor Magazine reports fixed income investors believe that non-traditional debt offers “opportunities for both yield and total return” even in an environment of low interest rates and meager market returns. Voya Investment Management Senior Client Portfolio Manager Christian Wilson believes that illiquid assets can create opportunities “for nimble managers” and that he “runs a more opportunistic, unconstrained and fundamental fixed-income strategy for Voya.” 

Voya Investment Management CIO of Fixed Income Matt Toms was on CNBC discussing interest rate expectations and their impact on markets. Toms said that Federal Reserve action would have a larger impact than earnings announcements this week, saying “we need the Fed to stay ahead of market expectations ... finally the Fed is not behind. It will cut this week then look for one more early next year. The key is to keep ahead of the market.”

Voya Investment Management Head of Securitized Fixed Income David Goodson was quoted by Reuters in an article looking at how investors are considering climate change risks in the mortgage market, with some concerned that the residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) market “has not yet priced in that risk,” especially in climate-vulnerable areas such as Florida and Texas.

Markets Media reports that the Routing Transparency Initiative (RTI) “aims to boost transparency in the routing of ‘child’ orders – trades that cleave from the initial ‘parent’ order between order and execution – by better understanding the intention, or reason behind the routing.” According to Voya Investment Management Head of Market Structure and Trading Analytics Enrico Cacciatore, “Regulatory policy is being driven by a qualitative perception of what’s going on between venues and the sell side. RTI offers a quantitative, intention-based view through the forensics of routing. Instead of regulators driving policy, industry can be the key driver.”

Voya Investment Management Chief Investment Officer of Fixed Income Matt Toms was on CNBC discussing how markets are viewing upcoming trade and interest rate decisions. Toms said that the focus this week is on foreign central banks, specifically the European Central Band, which he believes will “disappoint” investors hoping for a large round of new monetary stimulus.

Voya Investment Management Senior Portfolio Manager and Head of Asset Allocation Barbara Reinhard was on CNBC discussing how markets are likely to perform through the rest of 2019. Reinhard notes that Voya believes being long in stocks remains the best approach, as major central banks including the ECB are likely to reduce interest rates and offer accomodative monetary policy.

Voya Investment Management Head of Multi-Asset Design Amit Sinha writes in MarketWatch that large public pension funds, which currently have over $1 trillion in unfunded liabilities, could be in for a challenging period ahead as interest rates decline, which is “going to make it harder for these and other pension plans to rely on investment returns alone to meet their obligations to retirees.”

Voya Investment Management Head of Securitized Fixed Income Dave Goodson was quoted by Bloomberg in an article looking at the increased use of asset securitization, which has ramped up in recent months as lower borrowing costs incentivize investment-grade companies to “mortgage virtually all their assets.”

Voya Investment Management CIO Paul Zemsky was on CNBC discussing the recent uptick in market volatility, which could be here to stay. Zemsky believes that investors who have made long-term investment decisions should ride out the volatility, saying, “fundamentals are good, earnings are going to grow, consumers are in great shape, there’s a lot of good things out there in the U.S. economy. Stick with your financial plan and don’t try to trade on day-to-day tweets – you’ll get chopped up.”