Sanlam FOUR's Pinggera: Unconventional policies lead to unconventional outcomes

Central banks have a 'task and a half'

Mike Pinggera, manager of Sanlam FOUR's £122m Multi-Strategy fund, has warned the unwinding of the European Central Bank's (ECB) quantitative easing programme remains one of the biggest risks to markets.

The manager said central banks had a "task and a half" deflating the bubble caused by their huge bond-buying programme since the global financial crisis of 2008. Pinggera said it was not one specific event he was looking for but argued it could be something as simple as a statement from the ECB which triggers a sell-off in markets. Since 2015 when the ECB began its large-scale QE programme, it has bought over €2trn of bonds.  Although ECB President Mario Draghi announced in December 2016 that it would be scaling back purchases from €80bn to €60bn a month, the bank has extended its ...