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Fink
called for more leadership from Germany to invest in the
Europe's future and said he expects the region to look "quite
different" within the next decade.
"It may be better, it may be worse," he said. "I'm nervous about
Europe."
In a wide-ranging interview at an investor conference organized
by Deutsche Bank AG, he also said he was worried that China's
use of bank and insurer balance sheets to fund inefficient
state-owned enterprises could be dangerous.
But Fink said the Chinese government was among the world's best
in terms of responding to its economic challenges, and he
faulted developed democracies with failing to invest
sufficiently in infrastructure and other investments in the
future.
Fink also said he expects a larger move to index-based,
"passive" investing and more "consolidation" in the
asset-management industry, a reference to potential
mergers-and-acquisition activity.
He said such moves could be among the less-appreciated
consequences of a push by U.S. federal regulators to raise the
standards of care to which retail financial advisers are held.
The U.S. Department of Labor in April introduced new rules
governing the advice given on retirement-savings accounts, but
Fink said such practices could eventually become a broader
industry standard.
Traditional asset managers have been faced with an increasingly
fierce rivalry from low-cost index funds and tough markets that
have made it difficult to post competitive performance.
New York-based BlackRock is the world's largest asset manager,
with $4.7 trillion under management, as of March 31. The
company's products include both index funds and traditional
funds curated by "active" managers.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt)
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