The 27 member countries of the European Union have reached agreement on the supervision and regulation of clearing houses, Les Echos reports. It will be impossible to bar a clearing house, as London had sought, unless a college of national supervisors unanimously votes to do so. However, finance ministers have agreed to add an appeal procedure: if a two-thirds majority of countries vote against the creation of a clearing house, it may ask the European Securities Markets Authority (ESMA) to settle the case. This compromise will now be put to a vote of the European Parliament at the end of January, on a final legislative text.

Yam Invest has announced the appointment of Pierre Coloin as CEO and board member at the group. Before joining the investment firm, Colin served as chairman of Bank of America Merrill Lynch for France. Via its affiliates Time Investors, Helse and Yareal International, Yam Invest is specialised in investments in mid-sized European businesses, particularly in the health and real estate sectors. The firm’s tier 1 equity totals over EUR350m, a statement says.

Marc Tournier has left Tocqueville Finance, confirming an information which had leaked in the press late last year (see Newsmanagers of 23 December 2011). The star manager of the Ulysse fund is no longer employed by the asset management firm, where he had been deputy CEO, and is also no longer a shareholder. At the end of the negotiations which have taken place over the past several days, the Banque Postale has acquired the 15% stake in the capital in Tocqueville that had been held by Tournier. The firm now controls 90% of the company. The sale price for the stake has not been disclosed.The departure of Tournier comes shortly after the sanctions commission of the French financial regulator, the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), in early December issued a sanction against Tocqueville Finance. This included a fine of EUR250,000 for the fund manager and EUR150,000 for the asset management firm, for price manipulation of shares in the rental car business Ada (see Newsmanagers of 5 December 2011). This event is not said to have been the reason for the fund manager’s departure. Bruno Julien, CEO of the asset management firm, tells Newsmanagers that it “was a personal decision on which we have no comment.” Julien also says that Tocqueville Finance has no intention at this time to appeal the AMF’s verdict. Tournier may yet appeal the decision in a personal capacity.In now appears that the graft of a manager known as a firebrand and free spirit to La Banque Postale, which invested in the capital of Tocqueville Finance in 2009, never took root. The arrival of the partner firm in the capital of the asset management firm, however, helped to reassure clients of the asset management firm and cemented its position in the competitive independent financial adviser market. For its part, the firm contributed a value management style, which the group had not previously had, and a “flagship” manager. “The increased stake in the capital of Tocqueville Capital is a successful integration.” says La Banque Postale. “Following the departure of Tournier, the ADN for active management at Tocqueville Finance, the firm he founded, will remain unchanged,” says Julien.In practice, the departure of Tournier will lead to changes in the management of funds: the man who had been co-manager of the Ulysse and Odyssée funds with Didier Roman will be replaced by Jacques Burlot, head of collective management, who is already manager of the Tocqueville Dividende fund, another heavyweight in the range, with EUR318.1m in assets as of the end of 2011, compared with EUR354.3m for the Ulysse fund, and Tocqueville Olympe Patrimoine.“Our organisation allows managers to continue to realise our value management philosophy with complete independence,” says Julien. “The solid shareholder which is La Banque Postale allows us to plan for the forthcoming development of our management teams and fund launches, while continuing to work to meet client expectations.”

Ignis Asset Management has registered the Absolute Return Government Bond Fund (see Newsmanagers of 2 March 2011) for sale in Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, France, Sweden, Finland, and Spain. The UCITS-compliant long/short absolute return fund, specialised in government bonds (LU0579398933), is a sub-fund of the Ignis Fund Sicav. It carries a front-end fee of 5%, management commission of 1%, and a commission of 10% on performance exceeding the Eonia.

Normative exclusion, which consists in banning investments in businesses which violate international, social or environmental conventions, may help to make socially responsible investment more credible, a new study by Novethic which surveyed 30 French and northern European investors has found. “the practice makes it possible to exclude the most visible black sheep in portfolios,” explains Anne-Catherine Husson-Traore, CEO of Novethic. However, due to its limited impact on businesses, exclusion may be considered only a step in the direction of SRI in the strict sense. It is thus best suited to be associated with other practices (best-in-class, engagement), the authors of the study claim. Respondents in the Novethic study have eliminated an average of only 13 businesses from investment universes of 500 to 3,000 shares. Only severe and repeated violations without the introduction of corrective measures may lead to exclusion. In addition, the composition of lists varies from one investor to another. As a result, nearly three quarters of businesses are excluded by only one player participating in the study. The other limit of the practice is index-based management. Most businesses which are subject to normative exclusion are listed on most global indices, while an increasing proportion of institutional assets are allocated to passive management.

The German Andreas Wenk, who until recently was region head EMEA at Pioneer Investments, is joining Itaú UK Asset Management Ltd as director of wholesale distribution for Europe, alongside Griff Williams, who will retain his position as head of institutional clients, Fonds Professionell reports.Wenk will be based in London, and will report to Rainer Schwarz, managing director and head of Itaú Asset Management for Europe and the Middle East.Itaú UK Asset Management is the European asset management affiliate of the Brazilian firm Itaú Unibanco, whose assets total USD159bn.

Old Mutual today announces that it will be combining its Wealth Management Continental Europe business (France and Italy) with the Skandia Retail Europe business unit (Germany, Austria, Poland and Switzerland). Hein Donders has been appointed CEO of the new business unit called «Wealth Management Europe», which will sit within Old Mutual Wealth Management, with immediate effect. Jonas Jonsson, currently CEO of Retail Europe, will work with Hein for several months to establish the new business unit, before assuming a new strategic role within Old Mutual.

With Pimco Deutschland GmbH, which was entered on the commercial register on 7 December 2011, the US firm Pimco (Allianz Global Investors group) has created a German-registered affiliate, based in Munich, with assets of about EUR200bn, led by Craig Dawson and Andrew Bosomworth.The new asset management firm has been licensed by BaFin to sell products aimed exclusively at professional investors.As of the end of November, the Irish-domiciled Pimco Europe managed EUR42.74bn in Germany in open-ended funds.

The global network of UBS, including professional areas such as wealth management, Swiss banking, global asset management and investment banking, will now be supplied with environmental, social and governance (ESG) data by RepRisk, and the data will also be integrated into the compliance database at the banking group, particularly for “controversial” businesses.This will allow the bank to improve risk management and control new, onboarding, clients and investments, as well as to undertake due diligence on transactions. UBS has pledged not to provide financial services and not to use any provider whose primary activities or revenues may carry risks related to environmental and social issues.

Valiant bank has lost several executives from its Bern offices in the past few months in investment advising, Agefi Switzerland reports. Four directors and a client adviser in this segment, who had joined the Private Banking department, have left to join competitors. The style of management of the head of private banking and board member Martin Gafner is said to be the cause.

The institutional asset management firm specialised in convertible bonds, Fisch Asset Managemnt, on 24 January announced a net inflow of CHF900m for 2011. Assets under management have increased by about 20%, to a record level fo CHF5.2bn, despite a strong appreciation in the franc against the euro and US dollar in particular.The firm ,which mostly serves institutional clients in German-speaking countries, now has 49 employees, following the recruitment of several convertibles specialists. Fisch AM also states that it has improved its client reporting.

Assets under management in Swiss investment funds as of the end of December 2011 totalled about CHF621bn, up by slightly over CHF4bn compared with the end of November, according to statistics from the Swiss Funds Association.Net inflows in December totalled CHF923.2m. The “other funds” category, which includes commodities funds, funds of hedge funds and private equity funds, attracted slightly over CHF1bn. Equity funds posted net inflows of CHF244m, while bond and money market funds saw redemptions totalled CHF76.3m and CHF81.4m, respectively. Asset diversification funds finished the month with net outflows of CHF174.2m.

Standard Life Investments has teamed up with Swedish banking group Länsförsäkringar to distribute its GARS fund to investors in Sweden.The fund will be available to the Swedish retail marketplace through Länsförsäkringar’s unit linked platform. Länsförsäkringar is Sweden’s only customer-owned and locally based banking and insurance group.

The CEO of Raymond James, Paul Reilly, has confirmed that Richard K. Riess, executive vice president of asset management a the group, CEO of Eagle Asset Mangement and chairman of the board of trustees for the Eagle fund range, will be retiring on 31 December 2012. Riess, who has spent over 35 years at the firm, will continue to work on some projects alongside Reilly, a statement says. Raymond James has confirmed that it is currently seeking a replacement for Riess.

In Paris, JP Morgan Asset Managment finished the year 2011 on a very positive note from the point of view of assets, with about USD6bn.As at many other asset management firms, retail assets suffered from outflows while institutional clients continued to make net subscriptions.The surprise came from corporate clients, who invested USD2.5bn in new money in money market funds. These may be less profitable products for the manager, but it opens the door to sales staff, who may take advantage of the opportunity to win over new clients.

Axa Investment Managers has appointed Beltina Ducat as head of distribution for the southern European region (France, Italy, Spain) and the Middle East. She succeeds Joseph Pinto, who has been recently appointed as head of the Markets and Investment Strategy department and to the board at the asset management firm. Ducat will be based in Paris, and will report to John Baillie, director for global distribution and a member of the board at AXA IM; she will also join the executive board at the firm. Since 2009, Ducat had been head of the Distribution via Banking Groups team at Axa IM; she joined the firm in 2006. She had previously been a consultant and strategist at Accenture (2001-2006).

From 1 January, Marcel Schnyder, head of multi-asset class products, has been apopinted as chief investment officer (CIO) at LGT Capital Management. He joined the firm in 2005. Rolf Jutos, head of investment management, retains responsibility for sustainable development initiatives at LGT CM, and in addition to these duties, will set up a corporate investment operation and coordinate strategic projects groupwide.

In a context of ongoing euro zone crisis in early 2012, the European economy is facing a slight recession, and it is not yet known whether it will worsen or lessen. “We have entered a world full of uncertainty and unknown factors, but we have also entered a world full of opportunities,” said Valentijn van Nieuwenhuijzen, economist in chief and strategist on the asset allocation team at ING IM, at an investment committee meeting on 24 January. In this unstable environment, in which limited growth and muted returns are the norm, the worst case is not a certainty. “The cost of a collapse of the euro would be so monumental that European political leaders have a will to avoid such a scenario,” the ING IM strategist says. Since 2008, the environment has completely transformed, and for a long time. “The first thing for an investor to do is to accept the new environment and to move over to a passive vision of investment. To finds returns in all market conditions, investors now need to adopt a dynamic tactical approach, take risks, if there are strong convictions, but also to expect unexpected shocks and manage the risk pudget over the whole portfolio,” he explains. With this in mind, ING IM currently has a marked preference for high yield and emerging market debt. Michel Ho, investment specialist in the credit team at ING IM, says “the credit cycle is continuing to improve, with a minority of firms losing money and default rates expected to remain at a low level in 2012.” The signs are pointing to weak economic growth, or even a slight recessino, which would net necessarily have an impact on this asset class. At least in an unexpected collapse of the euro zone, high yield would post double-digit growth this year, says Ho. The other major opportunity at the moment is in emerging market debt, where investments have increased impressively. This is a rapidly-growing asset class, which already accounts for over USD10trn, which is not closely monitored by analysts, and which offers significant diversification, with excellent fundamentals and improving quality, and which, as a result of what has come before, offers far higher returns that bonds on developed markets. Rob Drijkoningen, co-director of the emerging market debt team at ING IM, recommends an overweight position on government bonds in hard currencies which will continue to resist these headwinds. He is neutral on corporate debt due to the potential impact of emerging markeet growth and European crisis, but remains underweight on emerging market currencies, with a potential reduction in this position of global growth is better than expected and if extreme risks are reduced in Europe.

Dans son discours sur l’état de l’Union prononcé cette nuit, le président américain a appelé à un montant de taxe minimum de 30% sur les revenus excédant un million de dollars par an. Parallèlement, il a indiqué qu’il comptait envoyer au Congrès une proposition «qui donnera à chaque propriétaire responsable la chance d’économiser 3.000 dollars par an sur ses créances hypothécaires, en les refinançant à des taux historiquement bas». Une proposition qui sera financée par les banques.

A l’occasion de la mise à jour de son code de gouvernement, l’Association française de la gestion financière souhaite que les administrateurs informent préalablement le conseil avant d’accepter d’autres mandats (5 maximum), les dirigeants mandataires sociaux devant même lui demander une autorisation préalable (2 mandats extérieurs maximum). Les administrateurs doivent également inscrire leur action «dans le respect des règles déontologiques» et diffuser ces principes. Pour l’AFG, le recours aux censeurs doit être «exceptionnel» et «faire l’objet de justifications précises à l’égard des actionnaires». Par ailleurs, l’Association souhaite la publication in extenso du rapport spécial des commissaires aux comptes sur les conventions réglementées dans le rapport annuel. Un sujet sur lequel le groupe de travail de l’AMF sur les AG devrait prochainement se prononcer. Enfin, l’AFG encourage les émetteurs à proposer à leurs actionnaires le vote électronique.

«Au moins à court terme, il y a un risque que de nouveaux entrants viennent en offrant des notes plus élevées ou des prix plus bas », redoute Verena Ross, directeur exécutif de l’Autorité européenne des marchés (Esma), en réaction au projet de libéralisation du secteur présente en novembre. Finance Watch a fait de son côté des propositions, souhaitant notamment que toutes les références externes à des notes de crédit soient systématiquement supprimées des règlements ou directives existants.

L’économie japonaise a enregistré en 2011 son premier déficit du commerce extérieur depuis 1980 de 2.490 milliards de yens (24,5 milliards d’euros), selon le ministre du commerce. Les exportations ont chuté de 8% sur le mois de décembre. Le yen chutait de 0,4% contre dollar à 77,96 suite à l’annonce.

La banque centrale a baissé hier le ratio des réserves de trésorerie de 6% à 5,5% et ouvert la porte à une baisse future des taux directeurs

Président des Trustees de la Fondation IFRS depuis le début de l'année, Michel Prada dévoile à L'Agefi ses priorités

Les professionnels regrettent le manque de liquidité de certains titres et appellent à accroître la transparence des produits

Le pays a émis 4,75 milliards de livres à 50 ans hier. La Banque d'Angleterre doit décider en février si elle étend son programme de rachats de Gilts

L'activité a progressé en Allemagne et en France au mois de janvier, mais a ralenti dans le Sud

L'activité a progressé en Allemagne et en France au mois de janvier, mais a ralenti dans le Sud

Les négociations avec le Parlement vont cependant reprendre la semaine prochaine sur la base d’un nouveau compromis entre Etats membres

Le Fonds, qui revoit ses perspectives de croissance, plaide pour une augmentation du fonds de secours européen et des recapitalisations massives