bing news | Global self-reliance drive will strain capital, push burden to markets: BlackRock’s Larry Fink

BlackRock chairman and chief executive Larry Fink warn that the world’s shift toward economic self‑reliance—reducing dependence on one another for critical minerals, energy, defence and technology—will be costly. By giving up the global economies of scale that have kept prices low for decades, countries will face a surge in capital needs that governments, banks and corporations alone cannot meet. Fink notes that banks cannot finance the scale of investment required, especially as governments already carry record levels of debt, so capital markets will have to play a much larger role in funding the transition.

Fink cautions that too few people are currently invested in capital markets, a situation that could widen wealth inequality as the gains from new technologies such as artificial intelligence accrue primarily to the firms that build them and the investors who own them. To avoid repeating this pattern, he stresses the need to broaden market participation. He cites India’s rapid expansion of modern financial infrastructure—exemplified by BlackRock’s joint venture with Reliance’s JioBlackRock, which attracted over a million investors in a year—as a model for unlocking mass retail investment. In Japan, liberalising tax‑advantaged accounts in 2022 added nearly ten million new investors, helping lift the Nikkei 225 dramatically.

Looking ahead, Fink highlights emerging tools such as tokenisation, which can digitise asset ownership and allow ordinary savers to hold fractional stakes in infrastructure and private‑credit projects through a single digital wallet. Such technology could lower barriers to entry and democratise access to capital markets globally, addressing the deeper anxiety that capitalism is not working for enough people. Broadening participation, he argues, is essential for financing the self‑reliance drive without exacerbating inequality.

Read more: https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/global-self-reliance-drive-will-strain-capital-push-burden-markets-blackrocks-larry-fink

#blackrock #india #capitalmarkets #artificialintelligence #tokenisation

yahoo news | BlackRock CEO Frames AI as Defining Force in Economic Growth | PYMNTS.com

BlackRock Chairman and CEO Larry Fink used his annual letter to investors—released on March 23—to declare artificial intelligence the most consequential technological breakthrough since the computer. He portrayed AI as a structural force already reshaping capital markets, investment strategy, and the global race for economic growth, placing it alongside the re‑ordering of world trade as a driver of how wealth is created and where capital flows.

Fink argued that the value generated by AI will accrue chiefly to the companies that build and deploy the technology and to the investors who own them, with participation in capital markets serving as the primary conduit for capturing that value. He positioned AI at the heart of the strategic competition between the United States and China, insisting that U.S. leadership in AI is non‑negotiable and demands sustained investment in research, infrastructure, talent, and financing mechanisms. Moreover, he highlighted how advances in data science and computing have already transformed investing itself—giving rise to systematic, model‑driven approaches that analyze massive datasets, manage risk, and allocate capital at scale.

Concluding on a forward‑looking note, Fink affirmed that AI will generate significant economic value and that the challenge now is to expand participation in that growth. He called for policies that make long‑term investing easier, broader, and more accessible, framing expanded market access as the essential response to the scale of AI‑driven value creation and a way for a wider set of investors to share in the emerging economic upside.

Read more: https://www.pymnts.com/artificial-intelligence-2/2026/blackrock-ceo-frames-ai-as-defining-force-in-economic-growth/

#blackrock #ai #unitedstates #capitalmarkets #economicgrowth

The EU’s 6 biggest economies back a single finance watchdog.

The so-called “E6” have thrown their weight behind plans to centralise oversight of some of Europe's biggest financial companies under a single supervisor.

Finance ministers of France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain backed the idea in a letter addressed to the European Commission, the Eurogroup and the Council of the EU.

https://mediafaro.org/article/20260312-the-eus-6-biggest-economies-back-a-single-finance-watchdog?mf_channel=mastodon&action=forward

#EU #Investment #Markets #Banking #CapitalMarkets #Finance