Tove Bangstad – welcome to FCG Fonder!

Earlier this spring, the Board of FCG Funds was joined by Tove Bangstad. FCG Fonder co-founder Johan Schagerström says of the added expertise, ” We have been looking to further add to our Board with experience from the ‘client side’ of our business, and Tove is truly the embodiment of that. With long experience, a humble view of the industry and a moral champion of what we do, we are very proud to welcome Tove to our Board” We sat down with new FCG Funds board member Tove Bangstad to discuss her career, what brought her to FCG Funds and what will be important in the future of capital:

Tove, welcome to FCG Funds! Tell us a bit about yourself?

Thank you, it´s great to be here! I am currently Head of Nordics at Amundi, Europe´s largest asset manager with roughly € 1 600 billion in assets under management. I have had similar roles at Credit Suisse and Aviva Investors as well as being head of mutual funds at SEB. Before entering the financial world, I was CFO of Swedish charity organization Hjärt- och Lungfonden, where I also managed the fund’s capital. Basically, I have worked with asset management on an international level for the better part of the last two decades. Born in Finland, I am a “finlandssvensk”, and proud of it!

What brought you to FCG, and what are your first impressions?

First of all, I have followed the development of FCG Funds and their unique offering since their start in 2014. Combining the regulatory and risk expertise from their experts, and packaging an offer in the form of FCG Fonder is such an important alternative in our line of industry. 10 or 15 years ago, two capital managers could raise SEK 100M and just set up a fund to manage it. Today, rules and regulations have changed drastically, and much more capital and expertise is needed to adequately manage a fund. Often, capital managers need to be part of a much larger organization to be able to stay compliant. Or, they can use FCG Fonder to ensure that everything is properly managed. That, in my view, adds something completely crucial to our industry – the possibility for smaller, innovative, actors to compete with the larger firms and by doing so, helping the entire industry develop. Our industry needs large, medium and small actors, and FCG Fonder makes that diversity possible!

In these strange times, I have not had the chance to meet everyone as much as I would have liked. I am happy that we are in an age where physical presence is not needed to communicate, but I must admit – I prefer meeting in person rather than on a computer screen. As soon as possible, I look forward to meeting my new colleagues in real life!

What will you bring in your work as board member?

At the heart I am a sales and relationship person but I have learned that you also need to be an advocate for orderly conducted business. FCG Funds attracted me because of the extreme level of order in their business model, great staff and way of operating. It may sound boring, but it is essential that we stay at this level of order. A number of employees, both at FCG Risk & Compliance as well as FCG Funds, have previous experience from the Swedish FSA which says a great deal of how serious we are about making sure everything is done correctly.

Most importantly, we must remember what we are actually doing – we are managing the assets of real people. It may be money set aside for travel, a buffer or live savings for retirements. We must always remember that, and fulfill our promise to our clients – we are the trustworthy experts that will ensure a compliant and efficient asset management. So our role is important on an institutional level, and we must always bring that with us whenever we conduct our business.

I believe that my long experience on the “client side” of FCG Funds’ business can bring much value in developing our offer towards all kinds of asset managers, both small and large.  I hope that my perspective, experience and ideas can add to FCG Funds’ already great business.Finally, what are your initial reflections of the current situation we´re in – can anything be said about the future of the fund industry?

Personally, I believe that these times have only stressed the need of being able to outsource difficult, but mandatory, control functions for smaller asset managers. Of course, there will be an increased cost focus, which will enable fund managers to truly see the benefits of outsourcing major parts of their business to leading experts.

I would say that FCG Funds not only is great, but possibly even one of the only ways that smaller companies can survive in the future. We are in the midst of a wave of consolidations, and on the other side of this pandemic, that wave might even grow in size.

FCG are also impressive in the way that they have created their own gravitational field of attracting best-in-class experts. They are best in their business, and the industry’s top experts know that.