On 28 January, J. Safra Sarasin Holding SA, Banque Sarasin & Cie SA and Banque J. Safra (Suisse) SA announced that their respective boards of directors had approved the merger of the two firms as Banque J. Safra Sarasin SA, whose primary headquarters will be in Basel.The CEO of Banque Sarasin, Joachim H. Straehle, becomes CEO of the merged bank. “Bauque J. Safra Sarasin will continue the strategy of Banque Sarasin, and will position itself as a sustainable international provider of financial services,” a statement says, adding that “Banque J. Safra Sarasin will rely on the strengths of both brands.”

The Frankfurt-based independent asset management firm Universal Investment has announced that assets in its institutional funds (Spezialfonds) had risen by EUR18bn in the first eleven months of 2012, to EUR116.3bn. They have risen by more than EUR50bn in the past five years.In the past twelve months, assets under management by Universal in open-ended funds incerased by EUR3.3bn, to a total of EUR17.4bn.

A study by the Berlin-based agency Scope Ratings has found that on average, euro zone bond funds gained 26.1% in the past five years, while euro zone equity funds have lost an average of 25.9%.In the past three years, bond funds have gained an average of 12.7%, while equity funds have made 2.3%.But, in the past twelve months, bond products gained only 8.4%, while equity funds gained 18.3%.This year, Scope concludes, the extremely low level of interest rates is expected to continue to favour equity investments.

The board of directors at DekaBank on 28 January approved a redistribution of responsibilities among its board, as well as the appointment of Martin K. Müller, a board member at Landesbank Berlin (LBB), with whom DekaBank is planning to pool its market trading and asset management activities, as a board member from 1 April 2013.Müller becomes CFO/COO. As CFO, he will assume responsibility for treasury and finances, which is currently held by Matthias Danne, in addition to his role as a board member responsible for asset management in the area of real estate and credit. As COO, he will become responsible for operations, which will allow Friedrich Oelrich to concentrate on his role as chief risk officer (CRO).The other members of the board will retain their responsibilities. Michael Rüdiger remains as chairman of the board, with Oliver Behrens as vice chairman, while Georg Stocker retains responsibility for marketing and distribution.

The Cologne-based wealth management firm Flossbach von Storch has confirmed to Das Investment that it now has over EUR10bn in assets, less than five years after its launch on the retail market. Of total assets under management, investment funds represent EUR5.2bn, of which EUR2.91bn are for the diversified fund FvS Multiple Opportunities.

Deutsche Börse on 28 January announced that State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) had listed an additional SPDR ETF for trading on the XTF segment of the Xetra electronic platform. The SPDR MSCI EMU UCITS ETF, an equity product, becomes the 1,021st ETF to be listed in Frankfurt.The benchmark index, the MSCI EMU, currently includes 244 mid and large cap equities from EMU businesses, which represent about 85% of total capitalisation on euro zone markets.CharacteristicsName: SPDR MSCI EMU UCITS ETFISIN code: IE00B910VR50TER: 0.30%

The number of poorly-performing retail funds has fallen sharply in the most recent “Spot the Dog list” rankings by Bestinvest. The firm counted only 64 retail funds, with cumulative assets of GBP12.1bn, whereas last summer, it had counted 113 funds, with a total of GBP26.6bn. To compose the list, Bestinvest takes into account equity-based portfolios which had underperfomed by more than 10% in all of the past three years to the end of 2012. Scottish Widows retains the top spot in the rakings, with four funds, totalling GBP3.96bn in assets, followed by BlackRock (GBP1.27bn), Baillie Gifford (GBP1.08bn), and F&C Investments (GBP613m), Money Marketing states. Jupiter places on the list with two funds, Jupiter China and Jupiter Ecology, with assets of GBP501m. Jupiter’s inclusion is largely due to the Jupiter Ecology fund, which, like all green funds, had a difficult year compared with broader indices. JP Morgan Asset Management, M&G, Axa Investment Management and BNY Mellon/Newton had no funds on the Bestinvet black list, despite a very rich range of funds.

The ETP promoter Source has announced the promotion of five partners in the area of sales. Ludovic Djebali and Stefan Garcia become managing directors and co-heads of sales. Pierre Olivier Coher is promoted to executive director of sales for France, Belgium and Luxembourg, while Fabrizio Palmucci is promoted to director, fixed income specialist, and Jasmin Stoschek becomes associate, marketing.

Investment Week reports that Henderson Global Investors (HGI) may at least partially freeze subscriptions to the Henderson European Special Situation fund, which, with GBP510m, has passed the GBP500m mark which its manager, Richard Pease, had announced not long ago would be an upper limit, in order to protect the interests of existing shareholders, Investment Europe reports. The fund had GBP393m as of the end of May 2012.Another fund which has fallen victim to its own success and the major shift to equities (the «Great Rotation») is the Fidelity UK Smaller Companies Fund, managed by Alex Wright, which has GBP157m in assets. A soft closing may be held at GBP250m, probably in three months.

According to statistics from the Inverco association of Spanish asset management firms, pension funds (retirement savings plans) at the end of 2012 had a record volume of EUR86.536bn, which represents an increase of 4.1% in one year, Funds People reports. Gross inflows totalled EUR3.928bn, and benefits totalled EUR3.870bn, meaning that net inflows totalled EUR58m.The two major leaders in the sector are BBVA, whose assets under management as of the end of December totalled EUR16.834bn, and VidaCaixa, with EUR14.261bn. That corresponds to respective increases of 6.7% and 4.7%. The third-largest actor is Santander, with EUR8.660bn (+5.02%).

The volume of transactions on ETFs fell 31.6% in 2012, to USD7.6trn, according to statistics from the international federation of securities exchanges. This development is largely due to a 33% decline in activity in the United States, which represents 83% of total trading volumes. However, the number of ETFs rose 12% last year, to 7,721.

The number of strategies available in the UCITS hedge fund universe has topped 300 following the launch of several new funds in fourth quarter. Between October and December last year, 13 new funds were released, while 5 funds were closed in the same period, according to statistics from compiled by the Luxembourg-based firm Alceda Asset Management. There are now 307 funds, compared with 299 at the end of third quarter 2012. Long/short equity strategies were primarily offered in fourth quarter, accounting for five of the 13 new funds launched in the quarter. Alceda also notes that global macro funds represent 17% of all available funds, with 54 funds, representing 40% of all assets under management in the sector, or EUR34.7bn, out of a total of EUR86bn.

Following the Schroder GAIA CQS Credit, Schroder GAIA Egerton Equity, Schroder GAIA QEP Global Absolute and Schroder GAIA Global Macro Bond funds, Schroders will in February launch a fifth fund (the third external fund) on its GAIA (Global Alternative Investor Access) platform, the Schroder GAIA Sirios US Equity fund, manage by Sirios Capital Partners II, L.P.The fund already has an initial license from the Luxembourg regulatory authority, CSSF. The long/short equity fund will primarily invest in US mid and large caps, with potential exposure to Asia and Europe, reproducing the strategy of the Sirios long/short equity hedge fund in a UCITS framework.The product will invest in shares in businesses with attractive growth and valuation, and will short-sell shares in businesses whose fundamentals are deteriorating and whose balance sheets are weak.Management will be carried out by a team of ten investment professionals, led by John Brennan, co-founder of Sirios and managing director.As of 30 September, assets in funds on the GAIA platform totalled USD1.53trn.

The British asset management firm Veritas Asset Mangement has topped the most recent monthly rankings of European asset management firms by Asset Management Competition Reports (AMCR), the specialist website e-fundresearch reports. Veritas AM’s rise to the top is largely due to the long-term outperformance of the Veritas Global Euqity Income Fonds equity fund. In the rankings as of the end of December, Veritas AM finishes ahead of Carmignac Gestion SA, with its flagship fund Carmignac Patrimoine, First State Investments (UK) Limited, First State Investments (Hong Kong) Ltd and JO Hambro Capital Management Ltd.

The financial ratings agency Fitch Ratings on 28 January announced that it is raising its very short-term negative outlook for the credit rating of the United States, citing a decision by the Republican opposition to allow the Obama administration to exceed the legal debt ceiling for a period of four months. The report removes the danger of a downgrade from AAA for the United States in the very short term, which the agency on 16 January had warned could be revised down from the top rank, which it still accords to the world’s largest economy, if th US Congress failed to reach an agreement to raise the country’s debt ceiling. Now free of the short-term financing crisis the Federal government had faced, Congress and the Obama administration now have latitude to concentrate on the substantial budgetary choices necessary to set public finances on a viable mid-term and long-term course, the ratings agency explains. The agreement on a credible mid-term deficit reduction plan with a viable recovery of the economy will probably result in a confirmation of the country’s AAA rating, and an upgrade of the long-term outlook for the rating from negative to stable, Fitch says. In the absence of a plan, however, the current negative outlook will probably lead to a ratings downgrade at the end of 2013.

The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, one of the largest pension funds in the world, with CAD160bn, will increase its allocation to real estate from CAD30bn to CAD40bn in the next 18 months, the Financial Times reports. It becomes one of the most recent examples of an institutional investor moving away from bonds, which offer very low returns, towards real estate.

In a summary document which concludes three years of research with the support of Caceis into improved awareness of non-financial risks in the collective management industry in Europe, the Edhec-Risk Institute has laid out a series of recommendations to limit these risks, whose emergence in 2007-2008 marred the quality reputation of the UCITS label.According to the Edhec-Risk Institute, the sophistication of UCITS funds is one of the main causes of the increase in non-financial risks. These risks do not derive directly from positions on financial markets, but are the result of the functioning of a value chain in the collective management industry.In this environment, the Edhec-Risk Institute proposes that regulations and improved practices be put in place for financial risks, based on three major themes. The first is reinforcement of information on non-financial risks, including a requirement to describe the risks and their controls in the KIID, and to include a synthetic indicator of net risks for funds. Similarly, advising requirements under MiFID should be strengthened in the area of non-financial risks.The second area is to increase accountability for all actors in the fund management industry. The new accountability regime would lead parties to improve their management of non-financial risks, by tying the level of regulatory capital requirements to the level of residual non-financial risks taken by the principal actors in the value chain.Last but not least, the document recommends that in counterbalance to the high level of sophistication of UCITS funds permitted by evolving regulations, and exploited to the hilt by NewCITS, a “Restricted UCITS” label should be created, for a category of UCITS products whose fields of investment would be limited to what may genuinely be conserved, and that the depository in this role should have a complete guarantee for non-financial risks. The “Restricted UCITS” label would make it possible to sell these products not only to European retail investors, but also worldwide, as UCITS funds worthy of the name in terms of safety.

The Chinese authorities have authorised a first group of five qualified foreign institutional investors (QFII) to trade on futures indices, Asian Investor reports. This would theoretically allow investors to more easily provide absolute returns in falling markets. The identities of the members of this first group have not been disclosed.

A New York court on 28 January authorised the US tax authorities to demand data on all US clients of UBS who are reported to have transferred their assets to the Wegelin private bank. It has filed a John Doe Summons to obtain the data.Wegelin at the beginning of this month pleaded guilty to assisting US citizens to evade the tax authorities in their country. As the private bank had no affiliate in the United States, it is reported to have made the transactions via a “correspondence account” with UBS.According to the lawsuit filed on Monday, two other banks which are not named are accused of using this correspondence account to secretly launder the money of US taxpayers.

Le groupe Azimut vient de nommer quatre managing directors pour sa division gestion de fortune : Luigi Ardissone, Enrico Canazza, Massimo Collina et Paolo Cosmelli, rapporte Bluerating citant Il Mondo. Ils auront pour mission de faire croître la division en recrutant des banquiers privés de haut niveau. L’objectif est de porter les encours d’Azimut Wealth Management au-delà des 5 milliards d’euros d’ici à 2015.

La banque centrale indienne a annoncé avoir abaissé son principal taux directeur pour la première fois en neuf mois afin de soutenir une économie qui devrait connaître son plus faible taux de croissance depuis 10 ans. La Banque de Réserve d’Inde a toutefois ajouté qu’elle n’avait guère de marges de manœuvre pour assouplir davantage sa politique monétaire en raison des pressions inflationnistes. Le taux d’intervention a ainsi été abaissé de 25 points de base, à 7,15% En revanche, de manière plus inattendue, la banque centrale indienne a également abaissé son ratio de réserves obligatoires imposé aux banques de 25 points de base, à 4%.

Amplégest, primée parmi les cinq meilleures jeunes sociétés de gestion de moins de cinq ans par Morningstar, affiche une forte croissance de ses encours sur les deux dernières années avec une hausse de près de 87%. Amplégest, forte de 18 employés dont 10 associés, atteint 560 millions d’euros d’encours sous gestion cumulés dans ses activités de gestion privée et gestion collective à fin 2012, en comparaison avec 300 millions d’euros à fin 2010.

Rome a placé pour 8,5 milliards d’euros de bons du Trésor papier (BOT) à six mois, un montant qui correspond à son objectif, à un rendement de 0,731% contre 0,949% lors de la précédente adjudication. S’il s’agit du plus bas rendement pour du papier de ce type depuis mars 2010, les investisseurs estiment qu’il reste très attrayant en comparaison au retour quasi-nul offert par des titres de dette allemands de même échéance. Le ratio de couverture dans le cadre de cette adjudication de titres à échéance juillet 2013 a été de 1,646 contre 1,567.

Dans un courrier adressé aux créanciers et aux actionnaires et faisant partie du rapport annuel non public de la société, le directeur général du courtier, Claude Dauphin, estime que l’effervescence des marchés de matières premières entre 2003 et 2007 apparaît comme un âge d’or perdu à jamais. L’extrême pessimisme subi en 2012 devrait se dissiper selon le dirigeant.

Pour alléger leur bilan, les banques passeraient le relais aux sociétés de courtage en leur transférant des actifs

Les dirigeants du groupe étaient notamment à Bercy en fin de semaine dernière. L'idée de transferts de technologie a été évoquée

Selon Dealogic, les entreprises espagnoles, portugaises et italiennes ont levé pour près de 61 milliards de dollars de dettes sur les marchés

Près des deux tiers de l’univers est désormais classé « investment grade », et les performances sont corrélées au niveau des taux américains

Des élus ont rejeté les mesures de lutte contre le surplus de droits à polluer. Des analystes redoutent un carbone à 3 euros la tonne

Une cour a tranché en faveur de l'Islande qui avait refusé de rembourser les épargnants étrangers de la banque en faillite Icesave