VO: Over half of respondents in our new private markets study believe at least half of flows into private markets will come through semi-liquid funds, within the next two years. Given developments in Europe, particularly ELTIF and LTAF, how do you see this market developing in the near term?

Dr. Sven Eggers: I can only agree to this observation. So we see ELTIFs evolving rather quickly and successfully in the market. ELTIFs have not been a hit on retail clients in the first moment, so we had pretty strict rules by the EU on it, but this changed. We have some broader base of eligible assets. For example, we have some more, let's say client focused investment limits. And this actually explains the success of ELTIFs and LTAFs. So the let's say the UK model of it is also enjoying a similar success on it. And so what we see already is that, for example, to give you some figures, by 2023 we have already in the EU around 90 plus ELTIFs successfully launched the market with a market volume of about 13 billion EUR, and this is actually expected to rise to about 30 to 35 billion EUR by 26 and to maybe even to 50 billion EUR by 28.1

VO: European respondents called for product innovation to help the development of semi-liquid products. What kinds of innovation do clients require from their asset servicer?

Dr. Sven Eggers: The kinds of innovation that we need to get that uptake, I would prefer to answer from the perspective of what we are as an asset servicer. So from us, it’s especially on the tech side to develop further benefits for our clients. For me this starts with digitized transfer agency capabilities. So this for example entails digitized subscription processes, seamless connectivity, for example, towards distributors or even retail clients itself. And in addition to that, the straight-through processing of investor data to make use of it then for asset servicing.

VO: How do you see the current global economic and markets outlook affecting private markets assets particularly?

Dr. Sven Eggers: So the current global economic growth based on what we presently experience, let's say, for example, the trade policies driven by the US, the tariffs, it's pretty hard to predict by the way. Let me, as an example, refer to the private equity asset class. Here we see longer investment periods, leading to a situation that investors gain their money, much later within the process. And also volumes of deals in private equity are delayed. So there is definitely a negative impact given. In the long run, however, we see the strength of the private market asset segment classes. And so in the long run we see a much better trend on that.