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Dans l’environnement complexe et en constante évolution d’aujourd’hui, les compétences techniques et la puissance intellectuelle sont importantes, mais ne suffisent plus pour garantir le succès du leadership. Le monde est rempli de professionnels hautement qualifiés et hautement spécialisés. Ce qui distingue véritablement les dirigeants exceptionnels est l’intelligence émotionnelle, c’est-à-dire la capacité de reconnaître, de comprendre et de gérer les émotions, tant les vôtres que celles des autres.

Au cœur du leadership, l’intelligence émotionnelle façonne la prise de décision des dirigeants, leur capacité à gérer les conflits, à bâtir la confiance et, en fin de compte, à diriger efficacement des équipes, des organisations et des conseils d’administration.

Comprendre l’intelligence émotionnelle

L’intelligence émotionnelle, ou quotient émotionnel (QE), désigne la capacité d’écouter nos émotions, de comprendre leur influence sur nos actionset de les canaliser de façon constructive. Contrairement à notre quotient intellectuel (QI), qui a tendance à rester stable tout au long de notre vie, le QE n’est pas fixe. Il peut être renforcé à n’importe quelle étape de la vie, ce qui en fait l’un des outils les plus puissants que les dirigeants peuvent développer activement.

Daniel Goleman, éminent spécialiste du QE, décrit l’intelligence émotionnelle comme le fondement d’un leadership d’exception, car, comme il le souligne, « le leadership d’exception passe par les émotions. » Les dirigeants qui développent leur QE acquièrent une plus grande conscience de soi, tissent des relations plus solides et créent des cultures de confiance,autant d’éléments essentiels dans des environnements auxenjeux élevés tels que la gouvernance d’un conseil d’administration.

Les fondements neuroscientifiques du QE

Le QE peut sembler abstrait, mais il s’appuie sur la neuroscience. Toutes les informationssensorielles passent par le tronc cérébral, puis par le système limbique, qui est le centre émotionnel du cerveau, avant d’atteindre le cortex préfrontal, la partierationnelle du cerveau.

Cette séquence démontre que nous ressentons avant de penser. Les émotions déclenchent des réactions physiologiques bien avant que nous interprétions consciemment ce qui se passe. Comprendre cette dynamique permet desaisir comment de fortes réactions émotionnelles peuvent compromettre la prise de décision, et pourquoi apprendre à les réguler est essentiel pour un leadership efficace et le développement des relations.

La neuroscience révèle également que les émotions ne sont pasfigées. Ce sont des prédictions que notre cerveau fait à partir d’expériences passées. Tout comme nous pouvons acquérir une nouvelle compétence, nous pouvons remodeler nos réactions émotionnelles en nous exposant à de nouvelles expériences, en nous exerçant à réfléchir et en adoptant intentionnellement des habitudes plus saines.

Les quatre domaines de l’intelligence émotionnelle

L’intelligence émotionnelle comprend quatre domaines liés entre eux. Ensemble, ils forment un schéma pour un leadership plus fort:

1. La conscience de soi

La conscience de soi est la capacité de reconnaître nos émotions en temps réel et de comprendre comment elles façonnent nos perceptions, nos comportements et nos impulsions. Elle est à la base du QE, car pour gérer vos réactions, vous devez d’abord reconnaître et nommer l’émotion.

Des signes physiques se manifestent souvent avant que nous en ayons conscience : muscles tendus, palpitationsou joues rouges. Dans ces situations, se poser la question « Qu’est-ce que je ressens? » active le cerveau rationnel, ce qui peut vous permettre de mieux gérer votre émotion.

Les émotions ne sont pas des obstacles; ce sont des données à interpréter. La colère, la peur, le bonheur, la surprise, la tristesse et le dégoût véhiculent chacun un message. Les dirigeants qui apprennent à interpréter ces signaux prennent des décisions plus claires et plus réfléchies.

2. La gestion de soi

Une fois les émotions identifiées, l’objectif est de les gérer L’autogestion consiste à réfléchir avant d’agir, surtout dans les moments de stress, de frustration ou d’anxiété.

Plusieurs techniques vous aideront à acquérir cette compétence :

Nommer l’émotion.. Mettre des mots surce que vous ressentez permet de réduire l’intensité de l’émotion en apaisant le système émotionnel limbique.
P.A.T. – Pause, Acknowledge, Think. (Faire une pause, prendre conscience, réfléchir) Ce ralentissement momentané relance le cortex préfrontal rationnel.
Réfléchir. Une réflexion, même brève, aide le cerveau à assimiler les expériences et à ajuster son comportement. Réfléchir consiste simplement à penser attentivement, à donner au cerveau une occasion de faire une pause au milieu du chaos et d’interpréter ce qui s’est produit.
W.A.I.T. – Why Am I Talking? (Pourquoi est-ce que je parle?) Cette simple question favorise des contributions réfléchies, particulièrement dans le cadre d’un conseil d’administration. En choisissant de vous exprimer uniquement lorsque vous avez vraiment quelque chose de pertinent à dire ou d’original à apporter, vous gagnez davantage de respect et d’influence auprès de vos pairs.

Changer ses habitudes émotionnelles peut sembler inconfortable, comme croiser les bras dans le « mauvais » sens, mais avec la répétition, de nouveaux comportements s’installent. C’est l’essence de la neuroplasticité —la capacité du cerveau à se remodeler grâce à une pratique assidue.

3. La conscience sociale

La conscience sociale consiste à comprendre les émotions et les comportements des autres. Les outils et approches pour l’améliorer incluent :

Écouter et observer. Cela implique de ne pas parler, de ne pas anticiper ce que les autres vont dire et de ne pas planifier votre réponse pendant qu’ils parlent. Cela peut paraître évident, mais nous sommes nombreux à ne pas véritablement écouter lorsque quelqu’un parle.
L’empathie. Il s’agit de la capacité de regarder sous la surface et de comprendre ce qu’une personne pourrait ressentir ou vivre.
Reconnaître les émotions. Vous pouvez les reconnaître en observant le ton de la voix et le langage corporel.
I.T.S. – Stay In Their Story. (Restez concentré sur leur histoire) Cette technique vous rappelle qu’il faut résister à l’envie partager votre propre expérience et de rester centré sur l’interlocuteur.

Le comportement est comme un iceberg où la partie visible n’est qu’une fraction de ce qui se passe réellement. En portant attention à ce qui se cache sous la surface, les dirigeants renforcent leur empathie et peuvent nouer des relations humaines plus profondes.

La conscience sociale nécessite également une gestion minutieuse du langage corporel, car il peut révéler ce que vous ressentez, comme lever les yeux au ciel ou montrer des signes d’ennui. Toutefois, le langage corporel peut aussi être trompeur :une personne qui croise les bras n’est pas forcément désengagée, elle peut simplement avoir froid ou chercher à se rassurer.

Il est également important de reconnaître que certaines différences neurologiques influencent le comportement et les interactions sociales. Lorsque la neurodiversité et l’intelligence émotionnelle se croisent, les défis peuvent s’intensifier, car les personnes neurodivergentes peuvent être injustement perçues en raison du peu d’expression ou d’un style d’interaction sociale différent.

Compte tenu de l’utilisation accrue des environnements virtuels pour les réunions, les signaux non verbaux sont limités. Par conséquent, il est encore plus important de faire des pauses intentionnelles et d’inviter explicitement les participants à s’exprimer.

4. La gestion des relations

La gestion des relations est la capacité de communiquer efficacement, de gérer les conflits, de collaborer et de nouer des relations interpersonnelles solides.

Les principaux comportements qui favorisent de solides relations sont les suivants :

Manifester un intérêt sincère envers les autres
Accorder toute son attention lors d’une conversation
Utiliser le contact visuel pour montrer son engagement
Gérer les conflits de façon calme et constructive
Faire preuve de constance et de fiabilité

Pour les membres d’un conseil d’administration, la gestion des relations a une incidence directe sur l’efficacité de la gouvernance. Les interactions positives renforcent la confiance, tandis qu’une mauvaise communication, l’évitement ou l’incohérence l’érodent.

QE et gouvernance du conseil d’administration

Les conseils d’administration évoluent dans des environnements très complexes, avec des priorités concurrentes et des personnalités diverses. L’expertise technique est essentielle, mais c’est l’intelligence émotionnelle qui permet une prise de décision efficace.

Les conseils d’administration dont les membres ont un QE élevé sont capables de :

Naviguer des conversations difficiles avec respect
Offrir un environnement sûr où les membres s’expriment ouvertement
Prendre des décisions fondées sur la clarté plutôt que sur l’émotion
Renforcer la collaboration et éviter les conflits dysfonctionnels
Maintenir la confiance grâce à la cohérence et à la responsabilité

L’intelligence émotionnelle améliore à la fois le leadership individuel et l’efficacité collective du conseil d’administration.

La confiance, véritable monnaie des conseils d’administration efficaces

Selon Pamela Barnum, spécialiste de la confiance et des relations, chaque interaction avec des collègues ou des membres du conseil d’administration constitue une transaction de confiance. La confiance s’accumule lentement, comme les intérêts composés d’un placement. Mais la confiance peut aussi s’éroder, comme une mauvaise dette peut nuire à un placement.

Une métaphore parlante est celle d’un registre de la confiance, où chaque comportement est un dépôt ou un retrait :

Respecter ses engagements : dépôt
Assumer la responsabilité de ses erreurs : dépôt
Non-respect des échéances sans communication : retrait
Rétention d’information : retrait
Soutenir un collègue dans un moment difficile : dépôt

Les conseils d’administration n’ont pas besoin d’être parfaits. Mais ils doivent maintenir un solde net positif pour être efficaces. Une saine gouvernance consiste à repérer rapidement les « fuites de confiance » et à les gérer avec honnêteté et détermination.

Investir dans le QE

L’intelligence émotionnelle n’est pas un luxe, c’est un impératif pour le leadership. Elle détermine dans quelle mesure les dirigeants se comprennent, nouent des liens avec les autres, résolvent les conflits et bâtissent la confiance. Contrairement au QI, le QE peut être appris, mis en pratique et renforcé à n’importe quelle étape de la vie.

Dans les conseils d’administration, le QE renforce la gouvernance, améliore la prise de décisions et crée un environnement de confiance nécessaire pour des équipes de direction saines et très performantes.

En investissant dans l’intelligence émotionnelle, tant individuellement que collectivement, les conseils d’administration se donnent les moyens de gouverner avec clarté, compassion et intégrité.

Chile’s 2025 presidential election marked a meaningful political inflection, with markets interpreting the outcome as a shift toward a more pro-business, market-oriented policy framework focused on restoring economic growth and encouraging private investment. The incoming administration has emphasized fiscal discipline, regulatory clarity and the strategic importance of export-oriented sectors – particularly copper – in driving medium-term economic expansion.

For the mining sector, this shift points to clearer permitting processes, a more pragmatic stance toward private capital and improved project visibility, all of which are especially relevant for long-life assets requiring sustained investment. Against a backdrop of structurally rising global copper demand – driven by electrification, grid expansion and the energy infrastructure needed to support AI-related data centre growth – this political realignment strengthens the case for selective exposure to high-quality copper producers.

Capstone Copper Corp. (CS TSE) is well positioned to benefit from this environment, with approximately two-thirds of consolidated copper production generated in Chile, providing direct leverage to a more constructive domestic policy backdrop. The company is executing a district-scale growth strategy targeting a ~70% increase in annual copper production to approximately 400 ktpa, driven by long-life Chilean assets and capital-efficient brownfield expansions. Near-term growth is led by the Mantoverde Optimized expansion, expected to deliver an incremental ~20ktpa of copper with declining unit costs, while the fully permitted Santo Domingo project represents a transformational medium-term opportunity with a sanctioning decision expected in H2 2026. Supported by more than $1 billion in available liquidity and net leverage of approximately 0.9x EBITDA (TTM), Capstone is well positioned to translate a supportive policy environment into improved execution, cash flow growth and valuation upside.

Global copper demand is poised for significant growth over the coming decades, with BHP projecting a roughly 70% increase to more than 50 million tonnes annually by 2050, up from around 31 Mt as of 2021.

Copper demand projected to grow ~70% through to 2050…
(Copper demand by key theme, Mt)

Source: “BHP Insights: how copper will shape our future,” BHP

This surge is driven by a combination of traditional economic expansion, as developing economies electrify and improve living standards, and newer demand sources tied to the energy transition and digitalization. Technologies such as electric vehicles, renewable power infrastructure and data centres – all of which are copper-intensive – are central to this trend, fueling higher material requirements even as substitution and efficiency improvements evolve.

…an average of 2% per year*
(Copper demand by end-use sector, indexed to 2021)

Source: “BHP Insights: how copper will shape our future,” BHP

These dynamics favour producers with scalable assets, permitted growth projects and balance sheet flexibility. In this context, Capstone Copper is well positioned to benefit from supportive domestic policy and increased demand for copper, with an opportunity to increase valuation and sustain cash flow through disciplined execution.

US demand deposits surged by 17% between October and December. A previous post argued that this was likely to reflect a reporting change, rather than a flow of money between accounts. The Fed’s Public Affairs office has confirmed this interpretation in response to a query:

“The large swings in demand deposits and other liquid deposits in November and December 2025 on the H.6 were due to a reclassification of deposits.”

The reclassification has not affected the official M1 and M2 aggregates, which include both deposit categories. It has, however, distorted the M1A measure tracked here – comprising currency in circulation and demand deposits – as well as narrow money indicators constructed by other analysts.

The procedure adopted here has been to “correct” the M1A numbers by assuming that growth of demand deposits in November and December would have equalled that of total liquid deposits in the absence of the distortion. Chart 1 compares annual growth rates of the unadjusted and adjusted series.

Chart 1

Claims have been circulating that US narrow money growth surged into end-2025, feeding narratives of excess liquidity and dollar debasement. Such claims appear not to account for the deposit data distortion and should be discounted.

MENA equity markets ended the fourth quarter of 2025 with a return of -4.3%, as measured by the S&P Pan Arab Composite (TR) Net Index, compared with a 4.3% gain for the MSCI Emerging Markets Index over the same period. For the year-to-date period ending December 31, MENA markets returned 4.1%, versus 30.6% for emerging markets (EM).

The region’s long US dollar and long oil exposure, combined with its under-representation in the AI theme, resulted in meaningful underperformance relative to MSCI EM Index in 2025. As regional specialists, we are not required to make allocation trade-offs between MENA and other EMs; however, we acknowledge that the bar for regional outperformance will remain high. The outlook for 2026 suggests a continuation of a weaker US dollar, lower oil prices and sustained capital flows toward AI-linked assets.

From our vantage point, we see a healthy opportunity set developing for the strategy as we enter 2026, driven by the following factors:

Following last year’s underperformance, MENA equity markets lost valuation premium relative to EM, and expectations heading into 2026 have been reset lower. As a result, valuation risk is limited, and we are seeing opportunities to select high-quality stocks that were caught up in broad market corrections – opportunities that have been scarce in recent years.
The region’s socioeconomic reform agenda remains one of the strongest structural investment themes across EM. These reforms should support non-linear profit pool growth in select industries, including financial services, technology, energy, infrastructure and real estate.
The recalibration of ambitious giga-projects in Saudi Arabia signals a more pragmatic approach to capital spending and resource allocation. This shift enhances policy credibility, which we view as essential for building investor confidence and ensuring sustainable public finances.
Capital market relevance continues to be a priority for regional governments. We believe this should translate into a broadly supportive market environment, characterized by investor-friendly policies and improved market investability.
Return dispersion across MENA markets – a theme we have discussed previously – remains pronounced. In 2025, the performance gap between Kuwait (the best-performing market) and Saudi Arabia (the weakest) reached a striking 34%. We continue to see sufficient idiosyncratic country-level drivers and market dynamics for dispersion to persist in 2026 and beyond. In addition, smaller markets such as Egypt, Oman and Morocco are experiencing a resurgence, positioning the strategy well to capitalize on these developments.

Entering 2026, the portfolio’s largest country overweights are Qatar and Egypt, where we favour the combination of attractive valuations, low investor positioning and visible growth. In Egypt, growth is already evident, while in Qatar we expect momentum to build later in the year as the country approaches its LNG windfall in 2027.

Conversely, we are underweight Kuwait and the UAE, having reduced exposure to financials in both markets due to valuation considerations and, in Kuwait’s case, lower confidence in policy support. In the UAE, we remain committed to our view that late-cycle opportunities in infrastructure and energy will outperform more cyclical segments such as financials and real estate, while acknowledging that this positioning did not perform as expected in 2025. In Saudi Arabia, the strategy remains modestly underweight; however, we retain strong bottom-up conviction in select opportunities across financial services, insurance and industrials.

We look forward to updating you on the strategy in our next letter.

Dans une entrevue publiée par Benefits and Pensions Monitor, TJ Sutter de Gestion de placements CC&L, présente une analyse approfondie des stratégies permettant aux investisseurs d’évoluer dans le contexte complexe actuel des titres à revenu fixe.

« Les gens sont encore un peu marqués par 2022. Ils ne considèrent plus la duration comme le bastion de la résilience du portefeuille qu’elle était auparavant », a déclaré TJ Sutter, gestionnaire de portefeuille et chef de l’équipe des titres à revenu fixe de Gestion de placements CC&L, soulignant une remise en question des stratégies par les investisseurs institutionnels. « Les gens adoptent une approche plus créative », a-t-il ajouté, précisant qu’ils recherchent également des indices de crédit à court terme, une duration couverte et des flux de rendement non corrélés.

TJ commente également le rôle des gestionnaires de placements dans le secteur des titres à revenu fixe :

« Le gestionnaire médian des titres à revenu fixe surperforme le marché, contrairement aux actions. Cela me démontre qu’il existe des preuves de compétences sur le marché des titres à revenu fixe », a-t-il dit, ajoutant que trop souvent, les investisseurs se concentrent aux rendements sans examiner ce qui les génère réellement.

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A January post noted the possibility that global six-month real narrow money momentum had crossed below industrial output growth in December, suggesting less favourable monetary conditions for markets. Recent dramatic sell-offs in some speculative assets could reflect such a shift.

The suggestion is still tentative: additional – but not yet complete – December data indicate that the two series converged rather than intersected – see chart 1.

Chart 1

Will a cross-over be confirmed soon? Monetary prospects are uncertain but stronger January manufacturing PMI results suggest a rise in six-month industrial output momentum in early 2026.

In data since 1970, global equities outperformed US dollar cash significantly on average in months following a positive reading of the gap between real money and output momentum (by 12.0% annualised). (The calculation allows for reporting lags.)

By contrast, negative gaps were associated with average underperformance in the following month (of 5.5%).

Needless to say, these averages conceal frequent “misses” in both directions.

The six-month real money / output momentum gap was positive in most months in 2025. It was, however, negative in 2023 and much of 2024, when equities rallied strongly.

As previously discussed, the six-month gap was a misleading guide to “excess” money over this period because of a large monetary overhang from the money growth surge in 2020-21.

A simple way of illustrating this overhang is to compare five-year growth rates of real money and industrial output. Real money growth was still much higher in 2023 – chart 2.

Chart 2

The five-year gap turned negative last year. It last closed in the early stages of the GFC bear market.

Back then, the six-month gap had been negative for more than a year. The closing of the five-year gap was followed by an acceleration of the market decline.

With the five-year gap already negative, a negative shift in the six-month gap could be reflected in more immediate market weakness than in 2007-08.

Global manufacturing PMI new orders recovered strongly in January following a November / December relapse. Both the fall and revival had been signalled by money trends: global six-month real narrow money momentum declined sharply in April / May 2025 but rebounded into November. The seven-month interval between a (revised) May low in real money momentum and the December PMI trough matches the lead time at the prior two turning points – see chart 1.

Chart 1

The rise in real narrow money momentum into November suggests that the PMI upswing will extend into Q2. As foreshadowed in a previous post, however, real money momentum declined sharply in December, retracing most of its May-November gain. Accordingly, the manufacturing bounce is expected to fizzle out in Q2, with renewed weakness into Q3.

Real narrow money momentum has slowed across most major economies, though to varying degrees. China and India have contributed most to the global decline, although the Indian number remains strong – chart 2.

Chart 2

The US series shown incorporates an adjustment for a suggested distortion to demand deposit data affecting the M1A measure used here. However, substituting the official M1 measure – unaffected by the mooted distortion – for M1A would give the same current reading.

Eurozone momentum remains above the US level while the UK has recovered from significant weakness in mid-2025, suggesting improving relative economic prospects. Still, both series have stalled at modest levels, cautioning against optimism.

Japanese real narrow money contraction continues to flag a policy mistake, while a faster decline in Brazil argues for urgent rate cuts. (The Brazil manufacturing PMI was the weakest in the global stable in January.)

Elsewhere, prior strength in Australian real narrow money momentum is consistent with recent upbeat economic news but a slowdown since September suggests that prospects were cooling before this week’s rate hike.

Eurozone and UK money trends have shown disappointingly small responses to policy easing, suggesting that rates remain in restrictive territory and casting doubt on hopes of stronger economic growth.

The preferred monetary aggregates here are “non-financial”, covering households and non-financial corporations. Money holdings of financial institutions are volatile and less informative about near-term economic prospects.

A recovery in six-month growth rates of Eurozone narrow and broad money stalled in early 2025 despite the ECB continuing to cut rates through June, with both well below pre-pandemic averages – see chart 1.

Chart 1

The UK profile is different. The laggardly pace of rate cuts appears to have contributed to a relapse in growth rates in H1 2025 but these recovered into November, moving sideways in December – chart 2.

Chart 2

While suggesting UK relative improvement, narrow money expansion remains beneath its pre-pandemic average (and the Eurozone level), with annual broad money growth a below-par 3.8% (versus 2.7% in the Eurozone).

One reason for the disappointing responses is that policy rate cuts have yet to translate into a decline in longer-term yields. Relatedly, UK QT has been a significant and unnecessary drag.

A hopeful scenario is that low inflation implied by weak broad money trends will allow longer-term yields to subside. Still, additional policy adjustment will likely also be required to generate a monetary response sufficient to warrant economic optimism.

Retail brokers have benefited immensely from the impact of retail investors on financial markets since the onset of COVID. Robinhood is now a familiar name to most Americans, but virtually all the brokerages globally have benefited from the rising tide of retail investors’ enthusiasm for investing and trading. In this note, we examine some of the mega-trends that have helped European brokerages outperform the market since COVID emerged in 2020.

1. Retail participation and retail financial product availability.

Since the 2008 recession, retail investors have gained access to a multitude of new products like index ETFs, crypto, fractional shares, robo-advisors, IPOs and even private markets. This led to an explosive growth in retail investment, especially since 2020 and the dawn of COVID. Digital and mobile platforms, along with significantly reduced commission costs, have made it easier than ever for a younger demographic to access the markets. The vast majority of onboarded customers over the last decade have not lived through the trauma of the 2008 recession and see any market pullback as an opportunity to double down on their favourite stocks.

2. Increase in cross-border trading.

It is well documented that investors, including retail, have historically had a strong home bias in their asset allocations. But the US stock market outperformance since 2009, along with the disproportionate share of tech mega-cap attention, has led to consistent inflows into the US market. It has also created a larger level of familiarity with US companies that are more covered/discussed by pundits. All this has led to a higher level of cross-border trading in non-US brokerages that is typically much more lucrative as they usually pocket a large spread on foreign exchange transactions.

3. Digitalization and banks losing market share.

Over the last decade, brokerages have been able to consistently gain market share from large banks, thanks to a less-bloated corporate structure and a tech stack that could be built from scratch and not built on legacy bank structures. This has allowed them to be in a position to compete more aggressively on fees, transaction costs and overall value proposition as retail brokerage fees remain a minuscule proportion of mega-banks’ revenue and don’t garner a lot of attention from a strategic perspective.

4. Increase in share of income from NII.

Although net interest income (NII) has been declining for European brokers since the end of 2023, decreasing with the ECB rates, it remains at a more attractive level than pre-COVID and is expected to remain as such for the foreseeable future. Additionally, most brokers have been able to increase NII since 2023 thanks to client gains and account cash balance more than compensating for the lower rates.

Brokers have also been more efficient at increasing the spread between the amount they pay on deposit and the amount they get paid (known as net interest margin or NIM). Having managed deposit pass-through well on the way up and down, brokers are now better structurally positioned to benefit from deposit growth.

5. Benefit from macro volatility.

A key feature of brokerages’ stocks in a portfolio is their positive skew to market volatility. Because they make money from the number of trades, they are agnostic to market direction, as long as it causes participants to trade more. Just over the last year or so, events such as the US election, Liberation Day, the French budget and now the Venezuela situation have all been positive tailwinds mentioned by various brokerage CEOs.

It’s worth noting, however, that brokerages are not immune to long periods or volatility or market drawdown, all of which would lead customers to reduce their equity exposure.

We gained exposure to the retail brokerage space in one of our strategies through Nordnet (SAVE SS), a Swedish brokerage firm with a banking licence. It has exposure primarily to the Nordics with a top-two position in all markets and is slowly working on building a presence in Germany. It derives a bit more than half its revenue from commission and the rest from interest income.

Sweden is one of the countries with the highest savings rate globally, and financial literacy is also higher than the Europe average. Finland, Norway and Denmark also rank highly but are less penetrated and less competitive than Sweden. All have been a strong source of growth for Nordnet, which has consistently been among the top names in the space for customer satisfaction.

Given its diversified product offerings that include a full suite of investments, savings, pension and banking products, as well as its best-in-class technology platform (releases an update every 2.5 days on average and with a 99.9% platform uptime), Nordnet is able to maintain a customer acquisition cost of SEK790 – which is below the vast majority of peers – and its small social media platform has been able to generate a strong media presence and customer engagement.

Here is where Nordnet stands on the brokers mega-trends:

Financialization: Sweden is one of the countries in Europe with high financial literacy. Other Nordic countries rank above average as well.
Cross-border trading: Between 2022 and 2025, share of cross-border trading increased from 27% to 31.5% and is one of the primary contributors to the increase in income per transaction increasing from SEK31 to SEK39 over that same period.
Digitalization and market share gains: Both Nordnet and its close competitor, Avanza, have gained tremendous market share over the last decade and now rank second and first respectively by trading activity. This is despite still being behind Sweden’s largest four banks on savings capital. They both rank top of their class on user experience surveys.
Net interest income: NII was as low as 20% of overall revenue in 2021 and is now steadying at 42% of total revenue after peaking at 58% in 2023. We expect the share of NII to remain structurally higher than pre-COVID.
Macro volatility: Nordnet benefited from large macro events such as the US election and Liberation Day. In Q2 2025, following Liberation Day, Nordnet reported a 22% year-over-year (YoY) increase in trading volume. As for the US election in 2024, it saw a 14% YoY increase in trading volume.

Despite the volatility of their operational performance, brokerage firms provide a unique type of exposure to a diversified portfolio, one that is very different to how you would think of typical insurance and bank financials. There are reasons to believe brokers will continue to outperform the overall market and will continue to look for opportunities to participate.

Investissements immobiliers Crestpoint Ltée (Crestpoint) a annoncé aujourd’hui avoir acquis un portefeuille composé de 22 immeubles de commerciauxet de deux immeubles de bureaux.

Le portefeuille comprend environ 1 million de pieds carrés répartis dans 22 immeubles commerciaux bien situés, y compris 15 sites à locataire unique et 7 centres articulés autour d’épiceries et de pharmacies. Comptant des actifs au Manitoba, au Québec et, surtout, en Ontario, le portefeuille donne accès à une vaste diversification géographique et une exposition à certains des marchés de détail les plus résilients au Canada. Le portefeuille est entièrement loué à des détaillants offrant des services essentiels dans les segments de l’épicerie, de la pharmacie et de la rénovation résidentielle, et compte des locataires reconnus à l’échelle nationale comme Pharmaprix, Sobeys, Walmart, Metro et RONA, et s’articule autour de ceux-ci.

Le portefeuille comprend deux immeubles de bureaux, le premier étant un immeuble de catégorie A, situé au 145 Wellington St. W., dans le centre financier de Toronto, à proximité du métro. L’immeuble est occupé par un éventail diversifié de locataires, notamment des entités du gouvernement fédéral, des organismes à but non lucratif, des sociétés d’ingénierie et des compagnies d’assurance, ce qui lui confère une exposition à la fois au secteur public et à des locataires privés de grande qualité.Les taux de location actuels demeurent inférieurs au niveau du marché, offrant un potentiel de hausse important et soutenant une forte croissance des revenus au fil du temps. Le deuxième immeuble de bureaux est situé à Markham, en Ontario, et compte un locataire unique occupant la totalité de ses 75 000 pieds carrés sur un terrain de 3,5 acres, situé à proximité de l’avenue Warden, de l’autoroute 407 et de commodités commerciales.

Crestpoint acquiert une participation de 100 % dans ce portefeuille au nom de la Stratégie immobilière opportuniste Crestpoint (son fonds à capital fixe).

Il s’agit de la quatrième acquisition de la Stratégie immobilière opportuniste Crestpoint, qui a pris fin le 19 décembre 2025 et qui a déjà déployé plus de 70 % de ses engagements en actions.