Le pays risque d'avoir besoin d'un nouveau plan d'aide à l'expiration de l'actuel programme mi-2014 s'il ne regagne pas la confiance des marchés

Les mesures de restrictions administratives ont déjà été un peu assouplies mais la fuite des dépôts a tout de même été très importante

Le Comité de politique monétaire attend plus de preuves d'une reprise durable de l'économie

Dans un rapport préliminaire que le quotidien a pu consulter, la Cour des comptes épingle les dépenses de fonctionnement des collectivités et dénonce une mauvaise gestion des risques (impayés, emprunts toxiques) dans les livres comptables. Les magistrats appellent en outre à concentrer les économies sur le bloc communal, alors que les départements croulent sous les dépenses sociales.

Alors que le texte créant le PEA PME pour 2014 doit être présenté mercredi en Conseil des ministres, le journal signale qu’il sera possible pour les épargnants d’avoir un PEA dans une banque et un PEA PME dans une autre. Par ailleurs, les parts de fonds seront éligibles à ce nouveau PEA, à condition qu’ils soient investis à 75% en titres émis par des PME et ETI, dont deux tiers en actions.

Christophe Frankel, DG délégué du Mécanisme européen de stabilité, explique à L’Agefi comment l’institution entend se financer à long terme sur les marchés.

Le Comité de politique monétaire attend plus de preuves d'une reprise durable de l'économie

Nicosie, qui allège progressivement le contrôle des capitaux, espère mettre fin janvier 2014 à cette mesure d’urgence prise lors de la restructuration du secteur bancaire cette année. Dans leur première revue du plan d’aide de 10 milliards d’euros accordé en mars à Chypre, la Commission européenne, le Fonds monétaire international (FMI) et la Banque centrale européenne (BCE) rapportent que Nicosie a pris des mesures décisives pour stabiliser son secteur financier. Le PIB devrait cependant se contracter de 13% au total en 2013 et 2014. «Même si le programme a pour le moment été appliqué avec détermination, les risques restent conséquents», explique le rapport.

Millionaires of generations X and Y, meaning those aged 48 or under (with an average age of 37) are very actively engaged in the constitution of their wealth, according to the sixth annual barometer of US millionaires published by Fidelity (Fidelity Millionaire Outlook). They say that finance does not repel them, that they have knowledge of the principles of investment activity, and 72% call this activity pleasant, two times more than their baby boom counterparts. As a sign of their interest in increasing their wealth, they make 30 trades a month on the markets, use a wide range of asset classes, and do not hesitate to modify their investment strategy. 92% use financial advisers to make their wealth prosper, and are more engaged in long-term planning of their investments. The annual study by Fidelity also finds that they are more generous than their counterparts. 82%, compared with 49% for baby boomers, sit on the boards of charities. Their donations total an average of USD54,000.

Invesco PowerShares has announced the appointment of Dan Draper as global head of ETFs, IndexUniverse reports. Draper succeeds Ben Fulton, who left his position in April this year (see Newsmanagers of 4 April 2013). Draper, who began as managing director on 16 September, previously worked at Credit Suisse, where he was head of European ETF activities, before their sale to BlackRock.

Alex Ricchebuono has joined La Française to head-up Southeastern business development, NewsManagers has learnt. He has worked with Brevan Howard (UK) where he was in charge of the distribution of alternative products in Southern Europe and with Credit Suisse Investment Banking (IT) as managing director.Alex Ricchebuono is operating out of the Italian branch of La Française AM (Via Dante, 14 – Milan) and managing the local team. As head of Southeast Europe, he will continue to pursue development opportunities. His goal will be to expand business in Italy, Switzerland and Austria through third party networks, both institutional and retail. Marco Peri will maintain his role as head of Italian Sales with the goal to consolidate La Francaise AM’s presence in this key market, considered strategic by the firm. Additionally, Maria Grazia Bevilacqua, in charge of marketing support and client service, has joined the Italian team.

Corruption has proven to be one of the most important factors in the euro zone debt crisis, the Sovereign Fixed Income working group at the United Nations Principles For Responsible Investment (PRI) has noted.“Any attempt to outline the origins of the euro crisis almost invariably touches on the issue of corruption and the role it played in Greece’s insolvency.lesson from the European Debt Crisis,” the report says, based on a study of environmental, social and governance factors to reduce risks and increase performance in sovereign debt.The authors of the study show that corruption and the performance of sovereign debt are clearly correlated.In social terms, it would appear that a highly educated, IT-literate society paired with a repressive political system can increase the risk of political regime change, according to the study, citing Maplecroft, a provider of ESG research.However, research carried out to date has found only a limited correlation between environmental issues and the performance of bonds. One of the major problems, the study notes, is knowing what indicators should be used to measure environmental risks in a government bond context. Despite this lack of evidence on the environmental side, there is clearly a strong corellation between ESG factors and credit and performance risk.But these are still under-used, the study regrets. To move forward, the authors suggest encouraging major ratings firms to integrate these criteria more.

Investor bullishness towards European equities has reached pre-crisis highs as markets digest the emerging market sell-off, according to the BofA Merrill Lynch Fund Manager Survey for September. An overall total of 236 panelists with USD689 billion of assets under management participated in the survey from 6 September to 12 September 2013.As a consequence, the great rotation from bonds to equities has progressed. The gulf between allocations towards equities and bonds is at its widest since February 2011, and the second-widest in the history of the survey. A net 68 percent of asset allocators are underweight bonds, the greatest underweight position recorded since April 2006 – to give a bond to equity allocation spread of 128 net percentage points.Allocations to eurozone equities have reached their highest level since May 2007. A net 36 percent of global asset allocators are overweight the region, more than twice the net 17 percent recorded in August. A net 12 percent of asset allocators are overweight U.K. equities, which represents an all-time high. Allocations to emerging market equities remain low with a net 18 percent of the panel underweight. Investors have signaled their intent to maintain flows into Europe. A net 27 of investors say that the eurozone is the region they would most like to overweight in the coming 12 months – also the highest reading since May 2007. The switch in sentiment towards Europe has been swift. Only a net 2 percent expressed a desire to overweight the region in July.While optimism is returning to Europe, cash levels have risen to an average of 4.6 percent of portfolios. The proportion of asset allocators overweight cash has risen. Eight out of 10 investors believe the global economy will continue to grow at below trend rate in the coming 12 months.Negative sentiment towards global emerging markets has stabilized. The number of investors saying that emerging markets is the region they most want to underweight has fallen to a net 21 percent in September from a net 29 percent a month ago. Investors are indicating that they see the best value in emerging markets in almost a decade. A net 36 percent of the panel says that global emerging market equities are the most undervalued – or cheapest – of all the regions. This is the strongest undervalued reading since January 2004.

Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management (DeAWM) is recruiting for its trading team. Three people have joined the firm. Juan Landazabal has been appointed as global head of fixed income Trading. He joins DeAWM From Fidelity International. Matt Montana has been appointed as head of equity trading Americas. He joins from Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Lastly, Vincenzo, Vedda has been appointed as deputy global head of equity trading. He joins from Morgan Stanley.

BNP Paribas Real Estate on 17 September announced the acquisition of the iii-investments company, an affiliate of HypoVereinsBank (UniCredit Bank AG), of the UniCredit group, the second-largest fund management firm in Germany dedicated to institutional investors.With the new acquisition, the Investment Management profession at BNP Paribas Real Estate joins the Top 10 European real estate management firms, with a new total of EUR18bn in assets under management. The acquisition is subject to the agreement of the competent authorities, and may be effective by fourth quarter 2013 at the latest. The sale price is confidential. The acquisition of iii-investments comes as part of the development of BNP Paribas Real Estate, whose objectives include developing Investment Management activities throughout Europe and strengthening its positions in the three countries where more than 80% of its real estate investments in Europe are concentrated (France, Germany and the United Kingdom). More generally, the acquisition also comes as part of the BNP Paribas group’s plan to develop in Germany, reinforcing its position as a leader in real estate.iii-investments, founded in 1958, manages EUR4.2bn in assets (real estate funds and real estate debt funds) for German institutional investors (pension funds, retirement schemes and insurers), mostly located in Germany, but also in France, the United Kingdom, 10 other European countries, and Japan.

The global head of investment management at UBS Global Asset Management until December 2012, and then personal adviser to the directors of von Fischer and director of SVA Argovie, Christoph Schenk, will on 1 January 2014 join the Cantonal Bank of Zurich (ZKB) as CIO, replacing Marco Curti. From March 2003 to June 2006, Curti was CIO for Switzerland & global head institutional multi-asset class solutions at Credit Suisse in Zurich.

IMQubator, a Netherlands-based incubation specialist supported by the pension fund APG, has invested USD33m in the volatility arbitrage fund True Partner Fund in Hong Kong, led by Ralph van Put, FondsNieuws reports. This brings assets at True Partner to USD107m, and gives the fund critical size.APG itself provided EUR225m to IMQubator.

Funds People reports that Amundi is now making the Silver Age fund from APR available to Spanish investors. The product, which bets on companies which are likely to profit from an ageing population, has assets of EUR184.24m. The fund, launched in 2009, has posted double-digit returns since then, except in 2011.

In the first eight months of this year, 145 ETPs were closed (of which 71 were in Europe), compared with 104 in the corresponding period of 2012, according to statistics from ETFGI for Ignites, Fondsprofessionell reports.Meanwhile, in first half, the number of ETP launches totalled 238, compared with 400 in January-June 2012, and 553 in first half 2011.According to Deborah Fuhr, founder and CEO of ETFGI, only one ETP out of four in Europe has over USD100m in assets under management, while nearly one third do not even have USD10m.According to ETFGI, the provider which has closed the most ETPs in Europe is db x-trackers (16 products), followed by Lyxor (14) and RBS (11).

Following net redemptions of USD8.9bn in June, which followed net inflows of USD18.8bn in May, hedge funds in July posted net subscriptions of USD88.2bn in July (0.4% of their assets), according to estimates by BarclayHedge and TrimTabs Investment Research, on the basis of data provided by 3,327 funds.As of 31 July, assets under management by hedge funds worldwide totalled their highest level in the past five years, at USD1.97trn.Funds of hedge funds, for their part, in July saw net outflows of USD4.1bn, 0.9% of their assets, after outflows of USD1.5bn in June.BarclayHedge also reports that in August, the 1,644 hedge funds which had released resuls as of 14 September had average losses of 0.55%, which reduces gains since the beginning of the year to 5.21%. Of the 17 sub-indices, nine show losses, including emerging markets (-1.37% for 297 funds) and global macro (-1.29% for 78 funds), while the best strategy was convertibles arbitrage, with gains of 0.69% for 13 funds.In the first eight months of the year, only two strategies show losses: emerging markets (-1.73%) and equity short bias (-17.05%, but for only 3 funds). The two winning strategies are healthcare/biotech (+16.07% for 24 funds) and equity long bias (+11.40% for 200 funds).

From 24 October, shares in the Vanguard 500 Index Fund ETF (code: VOO) will be grouped together, with one new share for every two old ones, in a process which will affect only conventional share classes in the products, Vanguard has announced. This “reverse split” will allow for transaction fees for the purchase and sale of shares to be reduced.The VOO has assets of over USD10bn, and a total expense ratio of 0.55%. Vanguard states that the average TER for its 67 equity and bond ETFs (USD290bn in assets) is 0.15%, while the average for the industry, according to Lipper, is 0.58%.

Creations of hedge funds in North America fell slightly in second quarter 2013 compared with the previous quarter, but they have increased noticeably year on year. In second quarter, 288 new hedge funds were launched in second quarter, compared with 297 vehicles launched in first quarter, but compared with 245 hedge funds launched one year ear, according to the most recent HFR Market Microstructure Industry Report. Creations of hedge funds over a sliding four-quarter period a of the end of June 2013 totalled 1,144, a level not seen since about 1,200 funds were created in the four quarters to the end of March 2008. Liquidations in second quarter totalled 190 funds, in line with those recorded in first quarter 2013 (196) and second quarter 2012 (192). The number of active hedge funds, including funds of hedge funds, totalled 10,009, a figure not seen for five years, and near a record of 10,233 recorded in second quarter 2008. The number of single-manager hedge funds totalled a record 8,167, while the number of funds of funds has fallen to 1,842, its lowest level since 2005. Assets in hedge funds totalled a record USD2.414bn as of the end of June 2013. The report also finds that management commisions declined in fourth quarter to 1.54%, while macro funds charge the highest commissions and arbitrage funds the lowest. Performance commissions totalled 18.31%.

According to the Berlin-based ratings agency Scope, newly-launched funds only rarely provide added value compared with older products. A comparison of German funds launched in the period from February to July 2012 with older supports finds, for example, that the 29 new funds in the global equity category showed average returns of 9.5% for one year, while products which were previously on sale earned 11.2% on average. The same applies to Europe funds, with 14.6% compared with 16.9% for older products. Only new US equity funds outperformed older producs, with 17.5% compared with 14.1%.The same observation applied to multi-asset class funds. Among the other categories (defensive, balanced, offensive and flexible), only balanced products did better than their older counterparts, with an average return of 6.4% compared with 3.7% for older funds.Scope has identified three reasons for this lack of performance of new funds. On the one hand, they are often not new concepts, but older ideas “repackaged.” On the other, the investment and selection process need to be consoldated and installed, even if the managers are experienced. Lastly, newly-launched funds often have lower asset levels, which means that fixed costs absorb a higher proportion of performance. In addition, new funds need to be promoted, which is also costly.

NYSE Euronext reports that it has admitted two new ETFs from Lyxor Asset Management to trading in Paris, bringing the total number of ETFs listed in Europe on NYSE Euronext markets to 562, and 652 counting cross listings.CharacteristicsName: Lyxor ETF S&P 500Benchmark index: S&P 500 Net Total ReturnTotal expense ratio: 0.15%Name: Lyxor ETF WIG 20Benchmark index: WIG 20 Price ReturnTotal expense ratio: 0.45%

John Wyn-Evans, a consultant for Troy Asset Management, responsible for developing thematic research into the economy, strategy and asset allocation, after working at Lehman Brothers and then at Nomura as executive director, UK & European equity sales, is joining Investec Wealth & Investment as head of investment strategy.Wyn-Evans joins a research team of 19 people, and replaces John Haynes, head of research, who became adviser for investment strategy for IFA clients following the departure of Jim Wood-Smith.

Quoniam Asset Management, a German quantitative management specialist and an affiliate of Union Investment, has announced that it is planning to open an office in London in Summer 2014, to better serve British clients, international consultants and sovereign wealth funds.Helmut Paulus, CEO and co-CIO, says that assets at Quoniam now total about EUR19bn, managed for 100 institutional investors. Of this total, equities represent EUR7bn, and bonds the remaining EUR12bn.

Morgan Stanley has hired Paul Price as head of Morgan Stanley Investment Management international sales. He most recently served as global head of the institutional business at Pioneer Global Asset ManagementHe will oversee the institutional and intermediary sales, consultant relations and business development teams in Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia and Latin America. In this new role, Paul Price will be based in London.“Paul brings more than two decades of asset management experience and has a proven track record of building institutional distribution organizations across asset classes,” said Lisa Jones, global head of MSIM sales.Navtej S. Nandra, head of MSIM international, added, “Paul will play a key role in strengthening MSIM’s international footprint, working closely with Lisa, Jack O’Connor, our new head of North America sales, and me.”

Neptune Investment Management has seen a decline in its pre-tax profits of nearly 40%, to GBP12.8m last year, Financial News reports. The firm’s portfolios were too highly exposed to cyclical securities, and not enough to the global financial sector, the newspaper explains.

Earlier this year, the Financial Conduct Authority notified asset management firms that it would not tolerate any use of commissions paid by client to pay brokers to have them hold meetings with their client businesses, Financial Times fund management reports. The result is that UK firms are afraid that this will penalise them compared with foreign asset management firms, which can still pay for meetings with directors of companies, particularly in emerging countries, where access to businesses is difficult.

Two international asset management firms are seeking to unload their Italian real estate portfolios, valued at EUR200m each, Il Sole – 24 Ore reports. Axa is preparing to put its entire portfolio of Italian real estate assets belonging to the open-ended German fund Axa Immoselect, which is now in liquidation, The portfolio has 250,000 square metres in total. Aberdeen, for its part, is in the process of selling the portfolio of Italian properties from its German open-ended fund Degi International, which total 500,000 square metres. Among the potential buyers, the names of Blackstone, Orien and Morgan Stanley are circulating.