HSBC Global Asset Management on 7 August announced the appointment of Heiner Weber to the position of head of institutional distribution for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Weber, who joined HSBC in early 1995, will retain his role as a member of the board of directors at HSBC Global Asset Management (Deutschland) GmbH. In his new role, he will be responsible for business centres dedicated to institutional investors in the EMEA region, including Germany, the UK, France, Austria and Switzerland.

The ongoing European crisis does not appear to be shaking the confidence of investors in other respects. Most investors in European bonds estimate that the euro zone will survive the pressure on it and pull through in its present form, according to the most recent quarterly survey by the financial ratings agency Fitch Ratings. The survey was conducted between 2 July and 2 August, and covered a sample of managers with cumulative assets of USD7.2trn. Only 5% of investors surveyed predict a large-scale dissolution of the euro zone. 9% of investors predict that there will be a series of sovereign defaults in the euro zone, but estimate that these events will not cause the euro zone to be dismantled, while 21% of investors predict that Greece and one or two other countries may leave the European project. Most predict a fiscal union (33%) or a «muddling through» (31%). The findings of the survey are relatively close to those in October last year, in which only 4% of investors predicted that the euro zone would fall apart. This means that despite the severity of the crisis, investors are thinking of the long term, and remain confident in the future of Europe. Fitch shares this point of view, estimating that a dismantlement of the euro zone is unlikely due to the enormous cost, and the engagement of politicians in favour of the Union. But the crisis has revealed the urgency of increased fiscal, financial and political integration.

Pioneer Investments on Tuesday announced the appointment of two analysts in Dublin for its European equity research team. Nick Aslibekian and Virna Valeti join the department as analysts, specialised in the health and finance sectors, respectively. Both will report to Marco Mencini, director of European equity research. Aslibekian previously worked at Standard Life in Edinburgh, as investment director, and was in charge of the health sector for Europe (ex UK) and management of an institutional mandate. Valenti previously worked at Pioneer as a senior credit analyst and equity analyst specialised in the financial sector.

Threadneedle Investments will manage in excess of USD800m in Global and Emerging Market equity portfolios for Stanlib, a South African investment manager which has assets under management over USD44bn.This arrangement will allow investors based in Africa to access Threadneedle’s investment expertise. Stanlib has a presence in eight African countries.The South African asset manager, which has retail and institutional clients, partners with offshore asset managers. It chose Threadneedle after an 18-month review process.

J.P. Morgan Asset Management has announced the addition of Peter Pergovacz to its Global Liquidity sales team covering EMEA. In his new role, he will be based in Frankfurt and will be responsible for sales into Germany and Austria. Peter Pergovacz joins from J.P. Morgan Worldwide Securities Services where he was a relationship manager for clients from insurance companies, corporates, pension funds and in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. He will report to Sven Lorenz, head of Global Liquidity in North Central and Eastern Europe. His hire brings J.P. Morgan Asset Management’s sales force to 35 globally.

Russell Investments announced on Monday that it is conducting a strategic review of its direct U.S. ETF business in an effort to focus more exclusively on its core competency – delivering multi-asset solutions to institutional investors, financial advisors and individuals globally.During the strategic review, the investment management team responsible for the firm’s U.S. ETFs will remain in place, and the products will continue to pursue their respective investment objectives. However, Russell is scaling back its dedicated U.S. ETF team, primarily based out of the firm’s San Francisco and New York City offices, according to a press release. Russell remains the underlying Index provider for many ETFs around the world, with more than USD80 billion in assets under management, and will continue its partnership with each of these ETF sponsors.The firm will announce additional details once the strategic review is completed.

East Capital launches a new alternative fund, the East Capital Russia Domestic Growth Fund. The fund is expected to have its first closing around end of August.The aim of East Capital Russia Domestic Growth Fund is to create a concentrated portfolio of between 10 and 20 different companies which generate at least half of the revenue in Russia. They will be listed companies with a market capitalization of above USD 500 million.The fund will operate across all sectors and invest in securities that are believed to be undervalued and so have significant performance potential. East Capital Explorer AB, a Swedish listed entity investing mainly in East Capital’s alternative funds, has committed to invest EUR 15 million in the first closing of the fund, which is domiciled in Luxembourg and open to other institutional and qualified investors.

The Swedish alternative management firm Brummer & Partners will in October be launching a hedge fund which will combind equities and bonds from businesses and governments. The fund, known as CARVE, for Cross-Asset Relative Value Equity focus, will be managed by Per Joseffson, Peter Thelin and Bo Börtemark, who had previously been managers of Zenit, a fund from Brummer’s sister company. Stefan Engstrand of Zenit and Christian Frederiksson of Goldman Sachs are also involved in the project. One further person from a credit specialist firm will be recruited. CARVE will be based on a global universe, and will bring together long/short equity and capital structure arbitrage strategies. The fund will be launched once the necessary licenses are received from the Swedish authorities.

Carmignac Gestion has registered the Carmignac Court Terme, a short-term money market fund which invests primarily in debts denominated in euros, with the CNMV, Funds People reports. Assets in the fund, managed by Rose Ouahba, total slightly over EUR500m. In first half 2012, the fund earned returns of 0.33%.

Thames River will be closing a fund of hedge funds with GBP54m in assets and reimbursing shareholders, Investment Week reports. The asset management firm explains that subscribers to the Multi Hedge Fund had called for a general shareholders’ meeting to be held on 11 September to liquidate the product, managed by Ken Kinsey-Quick, following a year of poor returns in 2011. The fund, which invests primarily in long/short equities, was launched in February 2004.

The British bank Standard Chartered, which is currently facing some difficulties with the financial authorities, is one of the largest positions in the portfolios of 60 British funds, Money Marketing reports. FE Analytics reports that Standard Chartered is one of the ten largest positions in the portfolios of 64 funds falling into the categories maintained by the IMA, the British asset management association. The team dedicated to Asian equities at Aberdeen has StanChart shares in several of its funds, including a 3.1% exposure of the Aberdeen Global Asia Pacific Equity fund as of 30 June. The fund has assets under management of GBP4.5bn. The Aberdeen Asia Pacific fund (GBP2.1bn) is 3.6% exposed. Overall, Aberdeen Asset Management is thought to hold about 6% of Standard Chartered shares.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has scheduled a vote on proposed tougher regulations for the money market fund market for 29 August, the Wall Street Journal reports. The proposals have been rejected by the industry, and by three SEC commissioners. They would require money market funds to allow their net asset value to “float,” rather than remaining set at USD1 per share, or else that funds set money aside in order to protect themselves against losses, while holding back a portion of investors’ money for 30 days when they seek to redeem their investments.

The French government on 7 August published a decree in the Official Journal which establishes a mechanism to tax modifications or cancellations of market orders related to high-frequency trading from 1 August. The decree defines a maximum time period of one half-second to identify high-frequency trades on capital securities, referring to the time between the issuance of an order and its modification or cancellation. “The degree to which this threshold is exceeded increases with the latency time ordinarily separating two events affecting a given share, understood as the duration of time separating a buy or sell order on a share and an instruction either to modify, or to cancel the aforementioned buy or sell order,” the decree explains. It also defines the threshold from which the tax will be levied on cancelled or modified buy or sell orders. Starting from 80% of orders cancelled or modified in a single trading day, the operator will be required to pay the tax on all cancelled or modified orders above that threshold. The decree comes as an addition to a law creating a tax on financial transactions, which came into force on 1 August. This tax, which has been doubled by the new government to 0.2%, applies to trades on shares in companies whose market capitalisation is over EUR1bn, and whose headquarters are in France. According to statistics from the French market regulator, the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), high-frequency trading now represents about 50% of orders issues, and nearly 20% of trading volumes in Europe.

Rule no. 648/2012 of the European Parliament, and the ruling of the European Council of 4 July 2012 on over0the0coutner derivative products, central clearing houses and central reference numbers (EMIR) were published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 27 July 2012, and will come into force on 16 August 2012. The French market regulator, the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), adds in a statement released on 7 August that the new reguations still need to be supplemented by technical standards, which were the subject of a public consultation by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) held until 5 August, which will be submitted to the European Commission by 30 September 2012 at the latest. For the most part, publication of this consultation will permit for the regulations to come into full force. The AMF draws the attention of the parties concerned to the fact that all legislation will be applicable in France immediately. “The AMF is aware of the changes which these are likely to bring to current practices, and would like to assist actors in carrying out these reforms, which represent a key element in strengthening financial stability and security,” the AMF says. The practical terms of the assistance provided to actors will be described in a subsequent statement, the AMF states, adding that the major consequences of the EMIR regulation, applicable to counterparties, such as the requirement to compensate eligible over-the-counter derivatives, the development of risk management procedures for over-the-counter and uncompensated derivatives, and the requirement that transactions on derivative contracts be declared. The EMIR regulation may be consulted at the following address: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2012:201:000…

The hedge fund manager John Paulson, who finished 2011 with record losses, has seen further losses of 2% in July from the Advantage Plus fund, according to the Bloomberg news agency, which has obtained a copy of the monthly report sent to investors in advance. Since the beginning of the year, the fund would then have lost 18%. The Gold Fund from Paulson, for its part, gained 0.2% in July, and now shows losses of 23% since the beginning of the year. However, merger arbitrage funds, credit and recovery, which represent more than 60% of USD21bn in assets under management by the firm, have gained value since the beginning of the year, Paulson points out in his report.

According to local banking sector sources, two ICBC affiliates, ICBC Asia and ICBC International, are offering 3-year corporate bonds denominated in Chinese yuan (Dim Sum), Agefi reports. The size of the issues is said not to exceed CNY1bn (EUR127m), and the returns on offer are said to be 3.15%. Five banks, including HSBC and Goldman Sachs, are organising the operation.

La production manufacturière britannique a baissé de 2,9% au mois de juin, après une hausse de 1,2% en mai, selon l’Office national des statistiques. Le consensus s’attendait néanmoins à une baisse plus marquée de 4,1%, mais a peiné à évaluer l’impact des jours fériés. Sur le deuxième trimestre, la production industrielle a diminué de 0,9%, pour une contraction du PIB de 0,7%.

Le ministère de l’Agriculture indien a indiqué que le pays envisage de restreindre ses exportations de sucre et de blé afin d’apaiser les tensions sur les prix domestiques causées par la mousson, une des plus fortes en trois ans, qui risque d’endommager les plantations. Les exportations de blé seront limitées aux entreprises étatiques et celles de sucre à 1,5 million de tonnes. L’Inde est le deuxième producteur mondial pour ces deux denrées.

L’agence a abaissé hier soir la perspective de la note grecque de stable à négative, tout en maintenant son CCC, jugeant qu'«il est probable que la Grèce ait besoin de financements supplémentaires en 2012 dans le cadre du plan d’aide de l’Union européenne et du FMI.» Et d’ajouter que «nous projetons une contraction du PIB de 10% à 11% cumulés sur la période 2012-2013, contre les -4% à -5% sur lesquels se base le programme UE-FMI.»

Le gouvernement n’exclut pas un blocage temporaire des prix des carburants dans les prochaines semaines si ceux-ci continuent à augmenter, a annoncé hier le ministre de l’Economie et des Finances, Pierre Moscovici. Une promesse faite, pour une durée de trois mois, par le candidat François Hollande, qui y avait finalement renoncé en raison de la baisse des cours du pétrole.

Selon l’enquête trimestrielle publiée hier par Fitch, les investisseurs européens en produits de taux s’attendent à ce que la zone euro résiste aux pressions qu’elle subit actuellement et reste intacte. Seuls 5% des investisseurs interrogés prévoient un éclatement de grande ampleur et 9% croient à un défaut de plusieurs pays de la zone sans pour autant que cela entraîne son éclatement.

Dans des entretiens avec le quotidien New York Times et la chaîne de télévision CNBC, le président de la Réserve fédérale de Boston, Eric Rosengren, qui ne dispose cependant pas cette année de voix au sein du FOMC, a estimé que la Fed devrait lancer un nouveau cycle de rachats d’obligations du Trésor et d’actifs adossés à des crédits immobiliers pour remettre l'économie sur les rails. «Il faut continuer à le faire jusqu'à ce qu’il soit clair que l’on ne fait plus de surplace», a-t-il même ajouté. Pourtant, les taux restent à des niveaux historiquement bas, comme l’a montré l’adjudication de 32 milliards de dollars d’obligations arrivant à maturité en août 2015 réalisée hier par le Trésor américain à un rendement de 0,37%. Le Trésor adjugera 24 milliards de titres à 10 ans demain et 16 milliards de titres à 30 ans jeudi. Le rendement des obligations d’Etat américaines à 10 ans était de 1,63% hier.

L'appétit des investisseurs pour ces ABS continue de croître. Moody's pointe toutefois le risque de dépréciation

Le PIB italien a reculé de 0,7% au deuxième trimestre, menaçant les objectifs de réduction de la dette

Le PIB italien a reculé de 0,7% au deuxième trimestre, menaçant les objectifs de réduction de la dette

Russell Investments, le gérant d’actifs et créateur des indices portant son nom, a indiqué qu’il passait en revue ses activités d’ETF aux Etats-Unis et «réduisait» ses équipes dédiées à ce marché. Russell, qui détient 26 ETF pesant 309,1 millions de dollars d’actifs, souhaite se recentrer sur la multigestion. FocusShares, filiale de Scottrade détenant 15 ETF pour 100 millions d’actifs, a également annoncé qu’il liquidait sa classe d’ETF d’ici à la fin du mois.

Un décret publié hier au Journal officiel fixe les seuils de taxation des opérations de trading haute fréquence

Les réserves de la Banque nationale suisse ont progressé de 41,4 milliards de francs en juillet. Un ralentissement par rapport aux mois précédents

Le maintien de taux directeurs à 3,5% et le discours plus optimiste sur la croissance chinoise ont propulsé la devise à un plus haut de 5 mois

Le produit intérieur brut (PIB) italien a reculé de 0,7%, affichant son quatrième trimestre consécutif de récession. Six autres pays membres de la zone euro devraient connaître une contraction de l'activité cette année, selon des économistes.