European asset managers predict that regulatory oversight of financial services will tighten in the wake of Barack Obama's victory in the US presidential race, though they also have hopes for more rapid improvements in shareholder rights.

Colin Melvin, head of corporate engagement services at the UK-based asset manager Hermes, which runs the country's biggest pension fund, said the investor-rights agenda was more likely to proceed quickly under the Obama presidency, thanks in part to the likelihood of the vacant posts at the Securities and Exchange Commission being filled with Democrats or Democratic sympathisers.