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Max Castelli

Max Castelli

Managing Director and Head of Strategy for Global Sovereign Markets at UBS Asset Management

Aug 9, 2026

4:52
Is that as good a place as any to start, Max?
4:54
I think so.
4:54
From a macro perspective, as you know, I talk about the return of economics.
4:59
And let me explain what I mean by that.
5:01
In the sense that, as you know, in the last few years, the focus has been on geopolitics.
5:06
Being last year with Trump trade policy, this year, of course, the conflict in the Middle East.
5:13
However, what is interesting and what is coming out of the survey as well, and also from the debate that we had at the conference, is that The reserve managers are once again focusing on key economic and financial variables.

8 MINS LATER

13:24
euro or what what what should we look
1:02
What were the main takeaways from the 32nd Reserve Management Seminar, and what did the discussions reveal about how reserve managers are currently positioned?
1:13
Well, thank you very much for the question.
1:15
Of course, we have been running the 32nd Reserve Management Seminar, which also includes a survey that we carry out before the event.
1:25
It's a very long five-day event, which allows us to really understand not only how reserve managers are managing reserves and what are the key trends or changes, but also as well what is their view about the sort of big agenda items that any investor, any institutional investor has.
1:45
So let me highlight a few of them, and then we can, of course, go a little bit deeper in the following question.
1:51
First of all, as you know, geopolitics is very dominant and has been dominant over the last few years, including in terms of the result of our survey.
2:00
This year was the first year that more sort of, let's call it economic and financial topic has been mentioned as the major concern by the majority of participants.

13 MINS LATER

14:59
And back to you, Max, are reserve managers diversifying away from the U.S. dollar?
1:31
As you're just back from the UBS Annual Reserve Manager Seminar, what are the key takeaways? Over to you, Max.
1:38
Thank you very much, Anita.
1:39
A pleasure to be here.
1:40
Yes, I spent five days on the shore of the Lake of Constance.
1:45
Of course, we had the temperature oscillating between 35 and 40 degrees.
1:50
So it was for sure very hot.
1:52
But I would say that what was odd was also the discussion that we had with a list of internal and external speakers, including academics, ex-governors, and over-investment specialists.

18 MINS LATER

20:17
This is not an easy subject.

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