Capabilities
SSgA's currency group provides clients with active and passive currency strategies.
Passive currency strategies seek to manage risks associated with foreign currency exposures,
while active strategies are used by our clients to add value to underlying investment portfolios.
Passive and active strategies also can be blended to meet investment objectives.
Team Approach
SSgA's currency group is managed by a skilled team of global investment professionals
with an average of 11 years of investment management experience.
Members of the team work in SSgA's London, Sydney, Montreal, Paris, Tokyo and Boston offices, managing over 270 accounts and more than $86 billion in assets under management.1
Each portfolio has a lead and backup portfolio manager responsible for review,
control and compliance with client guidelines.
Passive Investment Philosophy
An investment in international assets necessarily introduces exposure to foreign currencies.
Foreign currency exposure introduces volatility and diversification. For many investors,
the risks are much greater than the diversification benefits. However, unmanaged exposures to
foreign currencies do not tend to compensate investors for the increased risk. Given sizable market
liquidity, currency exposures can be managed separately from the underlying asset exposures with the
objective of seeking to enhance risk-adjusted returns.
SSgA's passive currency capability can be customized to meet specific client investment objectives.
Investors can then allocate risk to other asset classes that provide compensation, or to active management of currency.
Active Investment Philosophy
SSgA's active currency capability is founded on our belief that foreign exchange markets offer
opportunities to active investors. Many participants in these markets have objectives other than
maximizing profits, including international equity managers, multinational corporations and central banks.
These participants present opportunities to skilled, dedicated currency managers.
Our approach to active management of currency exposures offers a diversified, risk-managed
approach that seeks to utilize various opportunities in currency markets, including momentum, interest
rate differentials, valuation and other factors that we believe contribute to adding value in these
rapidly moving markets.
Active currency strategies span more than thirty developed and emerging markets,
and are offered to institutional and high net worth investors in a variety of investment vehicles.
1 As of March 31, 2009
