Firms should stop share buybacks and end a fixation on short-term earnings, the chief executive of one of the world's largest financial services companies told CNBC.
A large amount of that cash to buy the shares was made available after President Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act which allowed U.S. companies to freely bring home cash that had been held overseas. British multinational Legal & General has more than £1 trillion worth of assets under management. Around 80 percent of its investments are in tradable credit markets with about 20 percent reserved for direct bets on companies and industries.
"There are wonderful investment opportunities out their right now and people should be trying to capture the growth," he added."We would like it if we dropped quarterly earnings reports here and in the United States, because it would just make everybody think much more about the longer term."