Bill Bamber, BMO GAM CEO: "A generational shift in accessing structured investment payoffs"

What this episode covers

This is one of the trickiest times in investing history marked by heightened uncertainty, distorted valuations, regime change and increased volatility in both equity and bond markets. For good reason, advisors have increasingly turned to shifting parts of the portfolios they manage away from traditional equity and bond assets in return for exposure to structured note and investment strategies that provide structured investing outcomes from those same asset categories. In this conversation with Bill Bamber, CFA, Chief Executive Officer at BMO Global Asset Management, we are treated to a behind-the-scenes look at how and why BMO GAM developed and launched its innovative Strategic Equity Yield Fund (SEYF) solution (in June 2023). What was the thinking behind innovating this? Investors face unforeseen risks, eroded correlations, as well as unprecedented decision-making challenges due to the proliferation of choices of individual structured products in the marketplace. SEYF is an elegant, actively managed, one-ticket solution for investors, the likes of which were once only available to large institutional investors, via the capital markets desk. We discuss the rationale and strategic thinking behind BMO GAM launching this type of actively managed capital markets-based solution for accessing the best ideas and best strategies in the structured note market, in the form of a mutual fund. Now accessible to all investors, this is a milestone unto itself, to solve what have become some quintessential problems for investors desiring structured outcome solutions for their portfolio, in an always-on, always available format. Bill Bamber, CFA, brings 3 decades worth of expertise in the capital markets space to BMO GAM. As CEO, he is leading this drive to bring wide investor accessibility to structured capital markets investing strategies for everyday investors. This solution provides the enhanced yield plus capital appreciation potential and liquidity investors are seeking, along with the sophistication of stability, structured downside protection and price-seeking power, owing to the economies of scale of the firm’s substantial global trading operations. Thank you for listening! About Bill Bamber, CFA Chief Executive Officer BMO Global Asset Management Bill Bamber joined BMO Wealth Management in April 2022 as Head of Synthetic Asset Management and is currently the CEO of BMO Global Asset Management. Bill has more than 30 years of experience in the Financial Services Industry, including extensive experience in International Capital Markets, most notably in exotic derivatives spanning all asset classes as well as global structuring and structured products. Prior to joining BMO, Bill oversaw Structured Products and Quantitative Investment Strategy businesses globally and led many ground-breaking initiatives and innovative indices. He has held senior positions at International and North American financial institutions including a focus on equity derivative structuring in the Americas. Bill is well-known as an innovator in the investment industry with an outstanding track record for product firsts around the world. This includes pioneering the world’s first Emerging Market ETF (STX40 SJ Equity) and creating the first MLP-linked security both inside (AMJ US Equity) and outside of the U.S. He was also the first to create a listed trading platform for zero-coupon South African gilts. Bill is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and holds both a Master of Management Analytics and a Master of Business Administration from Queen’s University.