Le gouvernement italien se réunit pour tenter de trouver un compromis provisoire sur l’abolition d’une taxe immobilière qui divise la fragile coalition gauche-droite, déjà ébranlée par la condamnation de Silvio Berlusconi au début du mois pour fraude fiscale. Cette réunion ne devrait porter que sur les modalités de l’impôt pour l’année en cours.

Le Fonds européen de stabilité financière a placé 3 milliards d’euros d’obligations arrivant à maturité en 2034. Le spread ressort à mid swap plus 37 points de base, ce qui donne pour les investisseurs un rendement de 3,04%. Barclays, Deutsche Bank et RBS ont piloté l’opération. Le FESF n’a réalisé que deux émissions impliquant une maturité égale ou supérieure à 20 ans depuis janvier 2011.

Les huit principales banques britanniques sont autorisées à réduire leurs réserves de liquidités de 90 milliards de livres (105 milliards d’euros), ce qui permettra de favoriser la croissance économique, a déclaré Mark Carney, le nouveau gouverneur de la Banque d’Angleterre (BoE). Dans un communiqué séparé, l’Autorité de régulation prudentielle, qui supervise le secteur bancaire au Royaume-Uni, a précisé que les banques pouvaient réduire leurs réserves de liquidités à condition d’afficher un ratio de fonds propres durs de 7%.

Les promesses de vente immobilières ont diminué de 1,3% en juillet, leur deuxième baisse consécutive, la remontée des taux des crédits immobiliers pesant sur la reprise du marché, selon les chiffres de l’Association nationale des agents immobiliers (NAR). L’indice des promesses de vente calculé par la NAR s’est établi à 109,5 en juillet, contre 110,9 pour le mois de mai.

La Chine prévoit de taxer davantage de produits de luxe et pourrait étendre une taxe sur l’immobilier actuellement expérimentée à Shanghai et Chongqing, a déclaré mercredi le ministre des Finances Lou Jiwei, cité par l’agence Chine nouvelle. Il a ajouté que Pékin taxerait aussi les biens à l’origine de pollutions environnementales ou de surexploitation de ressources.

The US asset management firm Columbus Circle Investors (CCI) has launched an equity strategy concentrated on Europe, which will be managed by Matt Goldsmith, who had previously worked at Weiss Multi-Strategy Advisers as a portfolio manager, Hedge Fund Intelligence reports. Goldsmith returns to a firm he knows well, having worked there previously between 1996 and 2002 as a senior analyst and portfolio manager. As of the end of June 2013, assets under management at CCI, whose clients are largely institutional, totalled nearly USD15bn.

The asset management boutique Zeus Capital has launched its fourth fund, Zeus Capital Trend Fund, Citywire reports. It comes as an addition to three funds launched since the beginning of summer. The fund, which is domiciled in Luxembourg, aims to capture trends and opportunities created on the European equity market. It may also make use of derivatives to protect itself against losses.

The Swiss Valartis group has posted net inflows in first half of CHF125m, compared with CHF491m in first half 2012, according to a statement released on 27 August. After taking into account a negative market effect of CHF26m, assets under management totalled CHF7.9bn as of 30 June 2013, up 1.3% compared with the end of 2012. The private client segment represented 86% of assets as of the end of June, compared with 14% for institutional clients. The group emphasizes in a statement that it is disappointed with the development of wealth management activities at Valartis Bank, which has one fifth of all client assets under management, and which is responsible for 30% of costs. Despite a reshuffle initiated in first half, the bank does not appear to be in a position to achieve the critical size required within an acceptable time frame. As a result, the group is considering a sale or merger with another Swiss financial establishment within the next few months.

The arbitrage fund led by activist investor Daniel Loeb has bought a stake of 5.7% in the capital of the US auction house Sotheby’s, according to a document submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission. This makes Third Point one of the largest shareholders in Sotheby’s along with Trian Partners (3%) and Marcato Capital (6.6%).

The asset management firm Golden Tree Asset Mangement has recruited a former Barclays employee, Brian Marshall, as managing director responsible for devlopment, particularly for structured products, the news agency Bloomberg reports. CLO issues have increased sharply his year, to USD61bn, a level not seen since 2007. As of the end of December 2012, Golden Tree had ranked in 13th place among CLO management firms, with a total of USD5.5bn under management, according to statistics from Standard & Poor’s. Assets under management at Golden Tree total about USD18bn.

The French asset management firm Seven Capital Management on Tuesday, 27 August announced that on 2 August it had been issued an AIMF license by the college of the French financial market regulator (AMF), and that on 13 August, the first European “management passport” will allow it to directly manage a Luxembourg-registered special investment fund (SIF) from France. In terms of sales, the license allows sales in France and throughout Europe of alternative investment funds (AIF) to retail and qualified investors. To that end, the asset management firm is planning to intensify its development in Europe and internationally, and will soon be launching new alternative investment products. In terms of management, the passport also allows Seven CM to “manage a range of international investment funds, including Luxembourg-registered funds, directly from France, without additional operating costs or risks for investors,” a statement says.

John O’Connor, who had been head of sales in North America at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, has joined DDJ Capital Management as senior vice president, responsible for development and customer service. DDJ Capital is a US asset management firm based in Massachusetts, which is specialised in high yield, bank loans and special situations. It has USD6bn in assets under management O’Connor has also been responsible for institutional sales at Pioneer Investments. He has also serves in positions of responsibility at MFS Investment Management.

Lyxor is recruiting for its sales and marketing team for all of its activities, after a series of departures led to rumours of a sale of the Société Générale affiliate, Financial Times Fund Management reports, relaying a story in Ignites Europe. The firm is planning to recruit a total of 16 people this year, one third of whom will be for ETFs. Lyxor has already recruited eight sales professionals this year in France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan and the United States, all at high levels, and will recruit 8 more. The firm has ambitious growth objectives in the United Kingdom, Scandinavia and the Netherlands.

Andrew Abramsky, chief operating officer of the Eaton Vance subsidiary Parametric, will retire from the company as of August 31. Christine C. Smith, who joined Parametric on May 31, 2013 as chief administrative officer, will assume all of his responsibilities.Andrew Abramsky will remain at Parametric in a part time capacity for six months to continue to support this management transition.

Half of European citizens aged 50 to 70 year old are uncertain if they can maintain their current standard of living in retirement, according to pan-European research conducted by Allianz in close co-operation with Allianz Global Investors. The younger respondents tended to have an altogether more pessimistic outlook. This group were particularly concerned about maintaining their standard of living due to the consequences of pension reforms and the impact of the financial crisis on their financial and pension wealth. Only 40% of 50-to-54-year-olds think they will have the same standard of living in retirement. In contrast, 53% of those aged 60-70 are optimistic or already enjoy a relatively comfortable standard of living.The study looked at retirement finance of 1,402 respondents, aged 50-70 years, living across seven European countries: Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom (UK). Inflation is cited as the biggest financial risk in retirement in all countries. In Germany and UK this is particularly apparent with 60% of Germans and 65% of Britain’s citing inflation as the greatest financial concern to potentially impact their pension. However, when tested on their understanding of the effects of inflation, respondents in the UK and the Netherlands tended to overestimate its impact. French, German and Swiss respondents were most realistic about the effects of inflation.Nearly two thirds of the respondents said they are satisfied with their retirement planning, only 8% said to be dissatisfied, Swiss respondents are the most satisfied at 81%, with only 2% “dissatisfied”). The overall level of satisfaction with retirement planning is significantly lower in France (46% “satisfied” and 11% “dissatisfied”) and Italy (54% “satisfied” and 14% “dissatisfied”).Half of Swiss respondents prefer life-long monthly or annual payments compared to only one quarter to one third in the other countries. Austrian and German prefer by far one-off lump sums (40% and 37% of the respective respondents) other the 50+ generation in other countries.Finally, UK respondents stand out when it comes to investment decision making. Nearly half of the respondents from the UK said that they make their own investment decisions without the assistance of an investment professional or advisor, Only Dutch respondents with 42% are nearly as self-directed in their decision making. In Switzerland the share of respondents not seeking external advice is lowest with 23%.

The Liechtenstein banking group VP Bank has posted a net outflow in first half of CHF439m, according to a statement released on 27 August. This development is due to clients who are withdrawing assets to normalise their tax situation. However, due to a positive market effect of CHF0.8bn, assets under management have risen 1.1% compared with the end of 2012, to a total of CHF28.8bn. Profits at the group are down 17.4% to CHF28.3m in first half, but VP Bank adds in a statement that results in the first month of 2012 benefited from a one-time inflow of CHF22.8m. VP Bank also states that it is seeking new acquisitions, particularly in Luxembourg and Switzerland.

The world’s major banks will certainly be in compliance with the new proprietary capital requirements of Basel III well ahead of the deadline of the end of 2018, according to the opinion of the Basel Committee, laid out in a report for the G20 heads of state and government who will meet in Russia on 5 and 6 September. The Committee states that in a six-month period to the end of December 2012, the average ‘hard’ proprietary capital level at major global banks has risen from 8.5% to 9% of risk-weighted assets. Only two countries which are members of the Committee, Turkey and Indonesia, have not yet passed laws applying Basel III, which requires banks to have constituted a hard proprietary capital ratio of 7% by December 2018. This percentage represents three times the level prevailing at the time of the financial crisis of 2007-2009. The capital defecits at banks which are below the 7% threshold added up to about EUR200bn as of June 2012, but has since declined considerably, the Committee, says, without adding more details. “This is a positive development which will allow us to build a more resistant banking system and to improve the trust of the public in regulatory ratios,” Stefan Ingves, chairman of the Committee, says in a statement. He adds that the Committee is also studying means to reduce “excessive” variation due to the various methods for calculating risk used by banks to determine their capital levels.

China has signed a multilateral agreement concerning mutual administrative assistance in matters of taxation, the OECD announced on 27 August “All countries of the G20 have now fully met the commitment they made at the Cannes G20 summit to sign the convention and to move towardsa automatic exchange of information as a new international standard,” the OECD says in a statement. Tax administration worldwide is gradually moving from bilateral to multilateral cooperation and from information on request to automatic exchange of information. The Convention defines the complete multilateral framework in which this cooperation should take place, and comes in addition to other initiatives, such as the standard form for automatic mutual exchange of information, which is being developed by the OECD and its G20 partners.

On the basis of a comparison and analysis of inflows and outflows to and from investment funds in over 35 countries, a research by Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management Globoal Finance Institute published on August 27 confirms that the growth of assets under management varies greatly from country to country. For example, the study finds that specific regulations favourable to investment funds in Luxembourg and Ireland largely explain growth in assets under management. However, other factors should be taken into account, including aversion to losses, according to a study led by professor Thorsten Hens at the University of Zurich, a specialist in behavioural finance. As a result, inflows and outflows from investmetn funds fluctuate much more in countries where investors tend to be wary of losses. “Declines in prices of 10 per cent lead to much more pronounced developments than increases of 10 per cent, a statement says, and countries with such an aversion to losses are largely in Asia: Hong Kong, Thailand, and South Korea. However, German investors follow a different behavioural model. According to the research, investors in Germany as well as Sweden, the Netherlands and Switzerland will be much more patient and will wait a long time before changing their behaviour. The study is available as an attachment.

The Global State Street Investor Confidence Index (ICI) fell to 105.1 in August, down 2.6 points from July’s revised reading of 107.7. Although all regions saw a decrease in confidence, the fall was driven mainly by European and Asian investors. European confidence fell by 8.2 points to 97.1 while Asian confidence fell by 7.6 points to 93.0. North American investors also became somewhat more conservative, reporting a decline of 1.5 points to 112.5 from July’s revised reading of 114.0.

Pioneer Investments would like to grow its Asian activities, Sam Wardwell, strategist and senior vice president, has told Asian Investor. “We consider Asia to be perhaps the most important region in the future, geographically speaking. When we have a strong presence in Asia, we will no longer be a company that is stronger on the Atlantic than the Pacific,” Wardwell said during a trip to Asia. Only 3% of assets at Pioneer, which total USD6.6bn, come from Asian clients.

The index provider Stoxx on 27 August announced that twelve companies have joined the Stoxx Europe 600 index, including the Italian financial services group Azimut, the Czech firm Aomercni Banka and Sweden’s Intrum Justitia, according to a statement released after a quarterly review of the index. The firms leaving the index, meanwhile, include the French firms Maurel and Prom, the German Salzgitter, and the Netherlands-based Eurocommercial Properties. Results of this review are to be effective on September 23, 2013.

One of two former traders at JPMOrgan Chase who are wanted in the United States on suspicion of concealing losses of nearly USD6bn in the While of London scandal has been arrested in Madrid, the Spanish police announced on 27 August, AFP reports. The police arrested a Spanish citizen wanted by the United Staates for fraud and financial crimes in Madrid, the police said in a statement, adding that he will appear before a preliminary hearing. The suspect arrested was Javier Martin-Artajo Rueda, AFP has learned from a police source. On the authority of an international arrest warrant, the Spanish police were able to locate the person sought by the US police, and after talks with them, he agreed to voluntarily present himself at a police station, where he was arrested, the police have explained. The US authorities began proceedings on 14 August against Martin-Artajo, who had been head of brokerage strategy at an investment department of JPMorgan, and the Frenchman Julien Grout, one of his subordinates. They are accused of having conspired to falsify accounts at the largest US bank in order to conceal losses at their unit, which accumulated into the hundreds of millions of US dollars. Grout, a trader at the London office of the proprietary investments department (CIO) at JPMorgan Chase, aged 35, has been charged with the preparation of daily internal balance sheets of losses and profits in credit derivatives at his department, largely positions taken by his superior Bruno Iksil.

The US authorities are demanding JPMorgan Chase pay over USD6bn (EUR4.5bn) to settle allegations it mis-sold securities to government-backed mortgage companies, according to sources familiar with the matter cited by the Financial Times. The bank is resisting the payment, which it claims is excessive.

Goldman Sachs Asset Management is planning to increase the proportion of its fiduciary assets to 10% of total assets under managemetn in the United States and the United Kingdom in the next three to five years, Financial Times Fund Management reports. Katie Koch, head of the international global portfolio solutions team at GSAM, which has USD20bn in assets under management, says that the United Kingdom is a particularly important region for the US asset management firm.

Artemis Investment Management has hired Alan Gadd as head of product & distribution development.Reporting to the head of asset gathering, Dick Turpin, Alan Gadd will be responsible for identifying and developing how Artemis should respond to the Retail Distribution Review; and how to extend what Artemis offers to clients. He will also review opportunities overseas.Alan Gadd has worked for Henderson Global Investors, HSBC Asset Management, Aviva Investors & Allfunds Bank in similar roles.

Le groupe bancaire du Lichtenstein VP Bank a enregistré au premier semestre une décollecte nette de 439 millions de francs, selon un communiqué publié le 27 août. Une évolution due aux retraits de clients qui régularisent leur situation fiscale, précise-t-on. Compte tenu toutefois d’un effet marché positif de 0,8 milliard de francs, les actifs sous gestion ont progressé de 1,1% par rapport à fin 2012 pour s'établir à 28,8 milliards de francs.Le bénéfice du groupe a reculé de 17,4% à 28,3 millions de francs au premier semestre mais VP Bank rappelle dans son communiqué que le résultat des premiers mois de 2012 avait bénéficié d’un apport exceptionnel de 22,8 millions de francs.VP Bank indique par ailleurs être à l’affût de nouvelles acquisitions, notamment au Luxembourg et en Suisse.

Le gestionnaire d’actifs américain Columbus Circle Investors (CCI) vient de lancer une stratégie actions concentrée sur l’Europe qui sera pilotée par Matt Goldsmith, qui travaillait précédemment chez Weiss Multi-Strategy Advisers en tant que gérant de portefeuille, rapporte Hedge Fund Intelligence. Matt Goldsmith revient dans une société qu’il connaît bien pour y avoir déjà travaillé entre 1996 et 2002 en tant qu’analyste senior et gérant de portefeuille.A fin juin 2013, les actifs sous gestion de CCI, dont la clientèle est essentiellement institutionnelle, s'élevaient à près de 15 milliards de dollars.

Andrew Abramsky, le chief operating officer de Parametric, filiale d’Eaton Vance, va partir à la retraite à compter du 31 août. Christine C. Smith, qui a rejoint la société le 31 mai 2013 en tant que chief administrative officer, va le remplacer.Andrew Abramsky va rester chez Paramtric à temps partiel pendant six mois afin d’assurer la transition.

La boutique de gestion Zeus Capital a lancé son quatrième fonds, Zeus Capital Trend Fund, rapporte Citywire. Il complète la gamme de trois fonds lancée depuis le début de l’été. Le fonds, domicilié au Luxembourg, vise à capturer les tendances et opportunités créées sur le marché des actions européennes. Il pourra aussi utiliser des dérivés pour se protéger des baisses.