Royal London's Williams swaps bank for insurance companies

Royal London's Andrea Williams has begun reducing her fund's exposure to banks in favour of insurance companies.

The manager has cut banking exposure in her £366m European Income fund over the first two months of the year expecting muted returns form the sector in 2010. She has reduced bank weighting to 16% from 18.5%, using the proceeds to increase holdings in insurers. She sold out of Deutsche Bank as well as trimming Société Générale, DnB Nor and Handelsbanken. The manager has also reduced Santander and BBVA on concerns about Spain. Meanwhile, she added exposure to Zurich and Sampo Group. Overall she has 27.6% weighting in financials. “We played banks most of last year, but we have now ...