Andrea Calandra has been appointed as a salesperson for Italy at UBS ETF, in the team led by Simone Rosti Advisoronline reports. Calandra joined the UBS group in 2011. He had initially been responsible for investments for UBS Global Asset Management (Italia) SGR, and then served in the wealth management team, as a client adviser.

At a publication of its annual results, Société Générale has announced its commitment to the next phase of its Ambition SG 2015 plan. The organisation is now centred on three pillars of excellence, and the bank will see its structures and workflows simplified. In detail, with the objective of increasing is commercial and operational effectiveness, the bank has defined a first pillar which includes retail banking in France, which includes the current perimeter (Société Générale France Network, Crédit du Nord, Boursorama). A new pillar will be defined, which will include international retail banking and financial services. This will be created by merging the International Networks, Specialised Financial Services and Insurance units. Lastly, a third pillar will include finance and investment and private banking activities, asset management and investor services. This unit “will make it possible to develop commercial and operational efficiency, particularly in flox, with improed co-ordination of execution, settlement and custody activities, provided by SG CIB, Newedge and SGSS, respectively,” a statement says. The general management team is not modified, and will continue to be composed of the chairman and CEO, Frédéric Oudéa, and three deputy CEOs, Séverin Cabannes, Jean-François Sammarcelli and Bernardo Sanchez-Incera, working collegiately. The current perimeters of supervision for professions will also be retained, with Séverin Cabannes also responsible for overseeing the transformation of the group. For the management of new pillar projet plans, Didier Hauguel and Jean-Luc Parer will jointly assume responsibility for the new retail banking and international financial services unit which will be created. Didier Valet will be responsible for the new unit resulting from the merger of finance & investment banking with private banking, asset management and investor services. The name of the CFO of the group is now known. Philippe Heim will begin on 1 March. William Kadouch-Chassaing will suceed him as deputy CFO and director of strategy for the group. For his part, James Ripoll, director of asset management and investor services, has decided to continue his career outside the group, Société Générale has announced.

Société Générale, which released its annual results this Wednesday morning, has announced that it is combining its Corporate and Investment Banking and Private Banking, Global Investment Management and Services, as part of the second stage of the Ambition SG 2015 Plan. “This second stage consists in a project to simplify and refocus the organisational structure around the core businesses in order to increase revenue and cost synergies. This organisational structure would be based on three divisions,” a press statement says.Didier Valet will be in charge of the new division that will be the result of pooling the Corporate & Investment Banking and Private Banking, Global Investment Management Service activities. Jacques Ripoll, head of Global Investment Management and Services, has decided to pursue his career outside the Group. The two others divisions are : a French Retail Banking pillar, which covers the current scope (Societe Generale’s French Network, Crédit du Nord, Boursorama) and a new International Retail Banking and Financial Services pillar created by the combination of International Networks and Specialised Financial Services and Insurance, the aim of which is to improve synergies across countries and simplify the supervision. In 2012, the private banking, asset management and investor services unit saw its net contribution as a part of the group increase significantly, +21.6% compared with 2011 (not including the cost of the acquisition of TCW from Newedge), at EUR287m. Within the asset management profession, the contribution of Amundi, in which the bank controls a stake alongside Crédit Agricole, is EUR115m in 2012, compared with EUR98m in 2011. Assets under management at Lyxor, which is owned by the finance and investment banking unit, rose last year from EUR73.6bn to EUR75.4bn. For 2012 as a whole, net banking proceeds for Société Générale totalled EUR23.11bn, down 9.9% compared with published data, and 10.3% with constant data for last year, while its net profits fell 67%, to EUR774m.

The former head of alternative asset management in the financial institutions investment banking division of Barclays, Anthony Maniscalaco, is becoming managing director of the investment team at Blackstone Alternative Asset Management (BAAM), alongside Greg Hall, senior managing director.The mission for the team is to acquire stakes in hedge fund management firms. Currently, BAAM has about USD45bn in discretionary assets under management in numerous business units.J. Tomilson Hill, vice chairman of Blackstone and chairman & CEO of BAAM, says that BAAM is planning to significantly increase its personnel this year. In 2012, the number of partners doubled, with six appointments.

On 12 February, AllianceBernstein, “the operating company,” announced a net profit for the twelve months to 31 December of USD188.9m, compared with a loss of USD174.8m, while AllianceBernstein Holding, “the publicly-traded company,” posted net profits of USD51.08m, compared with losses of USD93.27m.

AllianceBernstein, Franklin Templeton, Invesco and Legg Mason have all posted increases in assets in January 2013, totalling USD65bn overall.Franklin Templeton alone has seen an increase of USD28bn in one month, of which USD14.8bn went to equities, and USD8.8bn to bonds, for a total of USD809.8bn. Invesco, for its part, has posted an increase in its assets of USD24.9bn, to USD712.6bn, with USD14.6bn of this increase going to equity products.AUM at AllianceBernstein increased by USD7bn in January, to USD437bn, while at Legg Mason they totalled USD654.1bn as of 31 January, up 5.2bn since the end of December.

BlackRock has announced that Gary S. Shedlin, a long-time strategic and financial advisor to BlackRock, will join the firm as senior managing director and chief financial officer. He will become a member of BlackRock’s global executive committee, reporting to chairman and chief executive officer Laurence D. Fink. Mr. Shedlin will succeed Ann Marie Petach, who is joining BlackRock Solutions as senior managing director in the client solutions business. Mr. Shedlin will join the Firm on March 11, 2013 and work closely with Ms. Petach through a transition period until she completes her tenure as CFO following the reporting of BlackRock’s first quarter earnings results. Mr. Shedlin joins BlackRock from Morgan Stanley, where he is vice chairman, investment banking and a managing director in the Financial Institutions Group. He has served as a trusted advisor to BlackRock on virtually all of its most significant strategic transactions.

According to a source familiar with the matter, Legg Mason Inc will this Wednesday morning (13 February) announce that Joseph Sulllivan, interim CEO, has been confirmed in the position permanently, the Wall Street Journal reports. The announcement will end five months of searching by the asset management firm (USD654bn in assets as of the end of January, compared with USD1trn as of the beginning of 2008), and by the recruitment firm Korn/Ferry International.Before serving as interim CEO, Sullivan had been head of global distribution. He took over as head of the firm following the resignation of Mark Fetting on 1 October.

The Financial Stability Board (FSB) on 12 February published a peer study of risk governance policies, both by national authorities and by financial companies. The document finds that progress has been made since the outbreak of the financial crisis, and remarks that improvements have been much more significant on the part of financial companies that national powers. The report claims, however, that there remains considerable progress yet to be made, both on the side of banks and of national authorities. At the heart of good risk management is effective risk appetite policy, and progress in this area remains partial, the FSB points out. Among its recommendations, the FSB sees a need to strengthen the status and independent authority of the chief risk officer (CRO). The risk committee should oversee the performance and objectives of the CRI, who, for his part, should have unfettered access to the board of directors and the risk committee. The CRO should also have regular meetings with directors, without operational heads of the firm being present. He or she should also be involved in activities and decisions which may affect the risk profile of the firm.

Currently, the Spanish asset management firm BBVA Asset Management is seeking a chief investment officer for Europe, to fill a position left vacant since the promotion of Eduardo García Hidalgo to global CIO last July, and a director of asset allocation. Funds People reports that the corresponding job announcements have been listed on the website eFinancial Careers.

Assets under management at the Cantonal Bank of St-Gall as of the end of 2012 totalled CHF38.2bn, up 1.8% compared with the end of 2011, according to a statement released on 13 February. Positive market effects are the cause of this increase, as the bank saw a net outflow of CHF177m.

Assets under management at the Cantonal Bank of St-Gall as of the end of 2012 totalled CHF38.2bn, up 1.8% compared with the end of 2011, according to a statement released on 13 February. Positive market effects are the cause of this increase, as the bank saw a net outflow of CHF177m.

The financial ratings agency Standard & Poor’s on 12 February announced that it has decided to revise its long and short-term ratings for the alternative management group Man from BBB/A-2 to BBB-/A-3. The ratings continue to carry a negative outlook. The agency estimates that the mediocre performance of Man with a number of key products, as well as persistent, significant redemption flows to investors will continue to weigh on the profitability of Man. The agency finds that Man has not posted a single eyar of net inflows since 2008, as of 31 March. Outflows accelerated in third quarter 2012, at USD2.2bn, probably followed by further outflows in fourth quarter. Standard & Poor’s remarks that assets under management at Man are less and less lucrative, with low margins for long-only and funds of hedge funds, and a continuing slide of guaranteed products as a proportion of total assets under management.

Final statistics from the Spanish Inverco association of asset management firms confirm that Spanish funds in January posted their first net subscriptions since March 2011, with EUR1.061bn. This figure is very similar to the EUR1.0463bn announced recently by VDOS Stochastics (see Newsmanagers of 11 February). In fact, 40 of the 62 asset management firms which release details of their asset flows to Inverco posted net inflows last month, with the three leaders Kutxabank Gestión (EUR344m), InverCaixa (EUR227m) and Allianz Popular (EUR197m).Assets increased by 1.99% last month, to EUR124.767bn, which represents an increase of 1.99%, the largest since August 2006. Taking into account Sicavs and real estate funds, assets under management increased 1.35%, to EUR206.818bn.BBVA tops the list of Spanish asset management firms by asset volumes, with EUR19.115bn, followed by Santander (EUR18.846bn) and La Caixa with EUR17.461bn. VDOS, for its part, estimates that Santander was the leader as of 31 January, with over EUR21.4bn, and that BBVA was in second place with EUR19.3bn.

The Wealth and Investment Management unit of the Barclays group has reported pre-tax net profits for the year 2012 of GBP315m, up 62% year on year. In fourth quarter alone, pre-tax profits rose 46% compared with the previous quarter, to GBP115m. Client assets increased 13%, to GBP186bn, largely due to an increase in net inflows from the High Net Worth (HNW) segment. Barclays says in a statement that 2012 was the third year of a five-year strategic programme which aims to make wealth management a unit of excellence for the group, which has been bringing highly satisfactory results.

L’Italie a placé mercredi 1,43 milliard d’euros de certificats de crédit du Trésor, échéance juin 2017, au taux de rendement de 2,55%, en hausse par rapport à celui de 2,17% d’une adjudication du même type à la mi-janvier. La demande pour ces titres à taux variable a représenté 1,39 fois l’offre, contre 2,77 un mois auparavant.

La société japonaise de services financiers Orix a annoncé mercredi être en négociations en vue du rachat du gérant d’actifs néerlandais Robeco auprès de Rabobank, à la suite d’une information parue dans la presse locale selon laquelle les deux sociétés devaient prochainement conclure un accord.

La banque centrale de Suède n’a pas modifié son principal taux directeur mercredi et a ajouté qu’il ne devrait plus bouger de toute l’année. Son taux de refinancement demeure donc à 1%, alors que la plupart des économistes interrogés par Reuters anticipaient une baisse.

Le fonds souverain du Qatar, déjà premier actionnaire du joaillier américain Tiffany, a augmenté sa participation d’un point pour la porter à 8,7%, selon une notification aux autorités de marché. Cette monté au capital de la Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) s’est opérée fin décembre, précise le document. QIA avait annoncé en avril dernier détenir 5,2% du capital de Tiffany.

Les présidents des douze banques régionales de la Réserve fédérale américaine ont soutenu le principe d’une supervision renforcée de certains fonds monétaires, indiquant qu’une alternative consisterait à remplacer la règle du «1 dollar», montant fixe qu’est assuré de remporter l’investisseur, par une valeur de marché. Cet appel a été lancé dans le cadre d’une lettre ouverte au Conseil de surveillance de la stabilité financière(FSOC).

Fitch et S&P ont dégradé la note de la Jamaïque à respectivement C et SD, soit une situation de défaut sélectif. «La Jamaïque a annoncé un programme d’échange de sa dette qui débute officiellement aujourd’hui. Selon nos critères, nous le considérons comme un défaut» a expliqué S&P. Il s’agit de la deuxième restructuration de la dette du pays en trois ans, qui imposera 9,1 milliards de dollars d’échanges aux créanciers.

L’agence a abaissé d’un cran à A- la note de la dette de la Slovénie en raison de l’aggravation de l’endettement du pays sur fond de crise politique. La perspective est néanmoins désormais stable. Une décision qui reflète le poids plus important que prévu du poids de la dette en raison du soutien annoncé aux banques publiques dans un contexte d’incertitude sur la croissance, a expliqué S&P.

Le géant américain de la gestion d’actifs a nommé Gary Shedlin, ancien banquier chez Morgan Stanley et depuis longtemps conseiller financier de BlackRock, au poste de directeur financier, succédant ainsi à Ann Marie Petach.

Le CBI, l’association des industriels britanniques, a indiqué aujourd’hui qu’il révisait à la baisse sa prévision de croissance de l’économie britannique pour 2013 à 1,0%, contre 1,4% prévu en novembre dernier. Le Royaume-Uni réussirait en revanche à éviter une triple récession.

Les autorités de la concurrence ont débuté une consultation formelle concernant la demande de licence formulée par BATS Chi-X Europe qui lui permettrait de se développer dans les activités de trading sur produits dérivés et ainsi concurrencer le London Stock Exchange et ICAP Securities & Derivatives Exchange.

Dans son discours annuel sur l'état de l’Union, le président américain a eu des accents keynésiens en proposant de relever le salaire minimum aux Etats-Unis de plus de 20% d’ici fin 2015, d’investir 50 milliards de dollars dans la réfection de routes et de ponts et de consacrer 15 milliards de dollars à un plan de développement de l’emploi dans le secteur du bâtiment afin de soutenir la croissance économique du pays. Il propose également d’abaisser le taux d’imposition sur les sociétés et de manière plus marquée dans le secteur industriel, ainsi que de développer le crédit d’impôt recherche. En outre, Barack Obama souhaite resserrer ses liens avec le Vieux Continent en lançant des négociations sur un accord transatlantique global sur le commerce et l’investissement avec l’Union européenne. Les échanges commerciaux entre les deux partenaires ont très légèrement progressé en 2012 pour atteindre 645,9 milliards de dollars.

La Hongrie a émis 3,25 milliards de dollars à 5 ans et à 10 ans lors de sa première émission en obligations étrangères depuis 21 mois. Le pays a consenti des rendements supérieurs de 345 et 355 points de base au taux de référence mid swaps, avec BNP Paribas, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank et Goldman Sachs comme syndicateurs de l’émission.

Si l'ancien vice-gouverneur de l'autorité nippone Toshiro Muto semble se détacher dans les pronostics, le président de la BAD installe sa crédibilité

Les magistrats estiment que les actionnaires devraient se prononcer sur l'enveloppe accordée aux preneurs des établissements financiers

Dans leur rapport annuel, les sages de la Cour des comptes jugent l'objectif de réduction du déficit à 3% du PIB pour 2013 hors de portée