The initiative, called Investing for a New World, aims to educate people and companies on the importance of investment. Fink, who has led BlackRock through its two-decade history, highlighted that non-financial companies in the S&P 500 held $1 trillion in cash towards the end of 2011, the highest since the 1960s.

“I get asked the same question wherever I am, ‘so what do I do with my money?’,” Fink said in the speech delivered in New York yesterday. “Whether it comes from an individual, a corporation or a pension fund, my answer is the same: you need to get off the sidelines and get your money working again.

“They must understand that there’s a cost to sitting in cash even with low inflation, for individuals and society,” he said.

Fink went on to say that the typical “60/40” mix of stocks and bonds in a portfolio is inadequate in the “new world”.

“I’ve personally said I would be 100 per cent in equities,” Fink said. “That fits my own risk profile, though, obviously it’s not appropriate for everyone. Most investors need a more diversified portfolio, but virtually every investor has to find ways to achieve better returns then they’ll get in cash or government bonds for the foreseeable future.”

Fink said that he believes the financial community and government can help turn savers into investors by finding “practical regulation that increases confidence in markets”. He believes that Basel III will make banks more careful in their lending which will increase the reliance on capital markets.

“We need financial products and disclosures that ensure individual investors know what they are buying, including the real risks and costs,” Fink said. “We believe, for example, that in the fast growing ETF sector, better labelling would boost investor confidence.

“We need a tax structure that encourages long-term growth, including a capital gains tax regime that rewards investment over multiple years,” he said. “The holding period of an investment to qualify for long-term capital gains tax treatment should be extended to three years from the current 12 months and the rate should decline the longer the investment is held.”

Fink concluded by saying that he thinks the world is better equipped than at any time in human history to turn around the situation where a “broad crisis of confidence is paralysing our ability to make long-term decisions”, causing both companies and individuals to sit on cash.

Rob Fairbairn, head of BlackRock’s global client group, said at a media briefing in London that BlackRock with the new initiative is trying to “raise the game in the asset management industry and the role we should be playing". Investing for a New World includes advertising in newspapers, magazines and digital media around the world, which is new territory for the company.