This year, as in 2011, the protection of savings investors will be at the centre of the efforts of the French financial market regulator, the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF). The watchdog is planning to scale up its actions to promote improvement in sales conditions for financial products, with the creation of a Savings Observatory, the chairman of the AMF, Jean-Pierre Jouyet, announced on 26 January at a press conference. Having gained much knowledge in the past few months, “we will also clarify the doctrine applicable to investment advising services, for example in the area of training of sales staff and the traceability of advising,” says Jouyet. This doctrine will be elaborated in a concerted manner with the ACP in a joint unit, which Natalie Lemaire has led since the beginning of the year.Investor protection will also be a reason for the AMF to address two major challenged: preparation of the UCITS V legislation, which will aim to harmonise regulation of depositories, and the transposition of the MiFID directive for alternative management. A working group led by Monique Cohen and Jean-Luc Enguéhard will present its conclusions by the end of June for the future of alternative management in France.Shareholder rights will also be on the agenda for 2012 at the AMF, with areas of improvement in the operation of shareholders’ meetings, where rules will be formulated on the basis of the findings of a working group led by Olivier Poupart-Lafarge. The findings of the working group will be open for consultation in the first few weeks of February.In the area of efficiency and integrity of markets, Jouyet points out that the new market direction was intended to become the central interlocutor for financial intermediaries. The AMF will also extend its surveillance to reporting on a significant portion of derivative transactions, which will be included in AMF databases.Jouyet has also reiterated the AMF’s opposition to the introduction of a tax on financial transactions. “The Paris financial centre will be better preserved if we do not penalise it,” the AMF chairman says. Citing the competitiveness of the market and continued efforts to develop bond platforms and allow for CDS settlement in Paris.

A tax on financial transactions would bring in EUR1bn per year, four times more than the market tax repealed in 2008, Les Echos reports. The government will target all securities traded in Paris. Equities would be taxed 0.1%, as stipulated in the European directive. Bonds would not be taxed.

The three open-ended real estate funds from Deka in 2011 posted net subscriptions of EUR500m in total, Handelsblatt reports. Institutional real estate funds had net inflows of EUR460m. Matthias Danne, CFO at Deka, says he is doubtful that the open-ended real estate funds CS Euroreal (Credit Suisse) and SEB ImmoInvest, which have EUR6bn in assets each, will bring in enough liquidity to be able to reopen to redemptions by May, the deadline for reopening the funds. The same question may be asked of the KanAm grundinvest fund, which is considerably smaller.

The Aviva Investors group is planning to add to tis range of multi-asset class funds, with two new products, the Aviva Investors Multi-Asset I and III funds, Investment Week reports. At the same time, Aviva has decided to rename its three existing funds, Adventurous Multi-Asset (now known as Aviva Investors Multi-Asset V), Balanced Multi-Asset (which will take the number IV), and Cautious Multi-Asset (renamed as II). The two new products, managed, like their predecessors, by Justin Onuekwusi, are designed for defensive or moderately prudent investors, and will be launched on 6 February.

Since 23 January, the London Stock Exchange is listing four new synthetic replication ETFs from iShares. The iShares S&P GSCI Dynamic Roll Agriculture Swap, the iShares S&P GSCI Dynamic Roll Energy Swap, the iShares S&P GSCI Dynamic Roll Metals Swap and the iShares S&P GSCI Dynamic Roll Commodity Swap are UCITS-compliant funds which replicate newest-generation S&P GSCI indices, and offer exposure to agriculture, energy, industrial metals and commodities as a whole.The products use the multiple counterparties platform from iShares for synthetic replication ETFs, with 120% overcollateralisation on a daily basis, and total transparency of the portfolio (collateral, indices, swap counterparties, aggregate exposure to swaps and swap spreads), also on a daily basis.

The former co-CEO for Asia at Janus Capital, Jack Lin, is taking over as head at Pioneer (UniCredit group) for Asia and the Middle East, Asian Investor reports. He will be in charge of development for institutional activities in the region. As of 31 December, assets under management at Pioneer totalled EUR162bn, of which 51% were in Italy, 22% in the United States, 12% in Germany, 6% in Austria and 6% internationally.

The Barclays group is hoping to continue development of its wealth management activities in 2012, the head of Barclays, Bob Diamond, has announced on Bloomberg television, Money Marketing reports.Alongside Africa, wealth management is one of the major priorities for the British group in the current year. In the past two years, wealth management has seen double-digit growth, both in terms of volume of activity and pre-tax profits.Barclays has put in place a five-year development plan which sets goals that would make the firm one of the heavyweights in wealth management worldwide.

From 1 to 20 January, assets in Spanish funds increased by 1.42%, or EUR1.893bn, due to positive market effects of EUR1.271bn, and EUR622m in net subscriptions, according to statistics from VDOS reported by Cotizalia. The two largest firms by assets are Santander, with EUR24.284bn, and a market share of 18%, and BBVA with EUR21.251bn.

Open-ended funds on sale in Italy in 2011 saw net redemptions of over EUR33bn, according to the most recent statistics from Assogestioni, the Italian association of asset management professionals. No category of funds was spared. But the heaviest outflows were from money market funds (-EUR12.5bn) and bond funds (-EUR8.8bn). Equity funds, for their part, saw outflows of EUR4.1bn.The only market segment to have posted net subscriptions was foreign-registered funds, with EUR1.45bn. As of the end of 2011, assets in open-ended funds in Italy totalled EUR418.9bn. With the addition of outflows from closed funds, collective management in 2011 saw net redemptions of EUR30.7bn. Assets totalled EUR461.8bn. With portfolio management, outflows from the asset management sector totalled EUR40.8bn. The asset management sector as a whole has total assets of EUR937.7bn.

Tony Johnson, global head of sales & distribution at RBC Dexia Investor Services, on 26 January announced the recruitment of four directors worldwide.In Toronto, Siu-Kei Chung joins the firm as relationship director. He had previously been managing director, client executive at Butterfield Fulcrum in Bermuda, and will now report to Nathalie Gagnon, head of relationship & client management for Canada.Riccardo Dalfiume, ex-relationship manager for institutional investors at BNP Paribas Securities Services (BNPPSS) joins RBC Dexia IS as relatinship director for top tier client base in Italy. He will report to Mauro Dognini, managing director, Italy.Moris Pranio, formerly of BNPP SS, joins the firm as bid manager for the preparation and management of complex operations, the development of client solutions, and offers. He will also report to Dognini, as well as to Duncan Lowman, senior manager in charge of global sales enablement.In December, RBC Dexia IS also recruited a director of business development from Credit Suisse: Pierre Aicardi, who now reports to Marco Siero, managing director for Switzerland.

State Street Corporation has announced the expansion of its global servicing capability for exchange traded funds (ETFs). Now leveraging state-of-the-art cloud-enabled technology, State Street’s ETF servicing solution, TotalETFSM, drives full automation throughout the lifecycle of an ETF from the basket-creation process to trade processing and settlement.The new enhancements provide complete integration to core applications, end-to-end automation and full client transparency via an ETF dashboard available on the company’s client website my.StateStreet.com. Additional functionality includes the geographic expansion of State Street’s Fund Connect ETF order management system and a daily performance attribution capability for ETFs.The ETF dashboard on my.StateStreet.com now allows portfolio managers to monitor the basket near real-time, and geographic expansion of Fund Connect ETF order management system includes coverage for Europe, Canada and the Asia-Pacific region. The enhanced daily performance attribution capability also allows for NAV decomposition to break down tracking error into specific components.

Nexity and La Française AM have merged their real estate management, property management and real estate trading activities in a new joint venture (LFP Nexity Services Immobiliers). The new joint venture is 75% owned by Nexity, and 25% by La Française REM.

The largest hedge fund in the world, Bridgewater Associates, last year earned returns of 23%, at a time when the average hedge fund finaished the year with losses of 5%, the New York Times reports.The source of the good results for Bridgewater, whose assets under management total about USD120bn, was positions on US Treasury bonds, German bonds, and the Japanese yen, according to sources close to the firm.In the past 20 years, Bridgewater has earned annual returns of 14.7%, bringing USD50m in profits for investors. In the same period, the S&P 500 made returns of about 8.7%.

The Australian asset management firm First State Investments International has opened an office in Paris, as initially announced in Newsmanagers in September last year.The office, located at 14, avenue d’Eylau in the 16th district of Paris, will have a staff of 2 people, as reported previously.Philippe Taillardat, who in September was appointed as co-head of investments for Euorpean infrastructure, will work alongside Eva von Sydow, head of sales for Europe, who has managed distribution of First State products in the region for nearly 10 years.First State already knows the French market, as the firm first offered its products there in 2002. Now, 13 funds are licensed for sale in France, including Asian equity and emerging markets, global resources, global equities, publicly-traded real estate and infrastructure funds, which are the specialties of the firm, which had GBP87.7bn in assets under management as of the end of September.The firm had previously served French clients from London. These clients include funds of funds, private banks, insurance companies, and family offices, with an undisclosed total amount in assets under management.The Paris office is First State’s first address on the European continent, but the firm is not planning to stop there. The next step is Germany, with an opening planned in Frankfurt later this year.

In 2011, Janus has seen a decline in its assets from USD169.5bn to USD148.2bn. This is largely the result of net redemptions from long-term funds (USD12.2bn). Market effects played a role in this totalling USD91bn. The US asset management firm has also seen a decrease in its net profits, from USD169.5bn in 2010 to USD148.2bn in 2011.

As of the end of December, assets under administration at Raymond James Financial totalled USD270bn, 5% more than at the end of September, and 3% more than one year previously. Assets under management were up 9% for the quarter and 5% over twelve months, at USD35bn.Net profits in October-December, the first quarter of the new fiscal year, came out to USD67.32m, compared with USD68.93m in July-September, and an all-time record of USD81.72m for the corresponding period of 2010.Pre-tax profits for asset management activities totalled USD15.81m, compared with USD17.76m the previous quarter and USD15.59m in October-December 2010.

For the year to 31 December, Invesco Ltd has reported adjusted net profits of USD781.6m, up 22% compared with 2010. By US-GAAP accounting standards, these net profits total USD729.7m, representing an increase of 56.7% compared with the previous year. These 2011 results take into account a complete year of activity for the retail funds acquired from Morgan Stanley, compared with only 7 months in 2010.Assets as of 31 December were up 1.4% year on year, to USD625.3bn, while average assets in 2011 came out to USD634.3bn, 19.2% more than in 2010.

Vanguard has appointed two new managing directors. The Financial Advisor Services group welcomes Martha King as managing director of the affiliate. Chris McIsaac is appointed managing director of the Institutional Investor Group.

DWS Investments is releasing a range of more than 70 funds for French clients. The objective for DWS Investments is to become one of the top 10 foreign asset management firms in France. “We are going to concentrate on strategies which work well, while offering innovative strategies. Several new products are in preparation,” says Philippe Goettmann, director of DWS Investments for France and Monaco. In spring, the asset management firm will be adding to its range in this asset class in France, and will release a sub-fund of the Luxembourg Sicav DWS Invest, German Equities, on the French market. In 2012, the asset management firm of the German Deutsche Bank group is planning to put the commercial emphasis on five groups of products on the French market: high dividend equities, convertible funds, emerging market funds (Africa, Russia, eastern Europe, and others), theme funds (agribusiness, infrastructure, new resources, and others), and of course, German equity funds. “We have found that French investors hve a strong interest in German equities,” says Goettmann. The DWS Deutschland fund, which has total assets of EUR2.9bn, attracted EUR900m in net subscriptions in 2011. DWS Investments manages EUR256bn in assets worldwide, of which about EUR1bn were for French clients as of the end of 2011, a stable level compared with the end of 2010.

La MGEN a une poche immobilière historiquement importante : elle représente « 3 fois la moyenne habituelle, de l’ordre de 25% du portefeuille, 500 000 mètres carrés au total, indique Fabrice Henry, Trésorier général. Nous sommes propriétaires de tous nos locaux à quelques exceptions près et nous disposons d’un immobilier de placement relativement important par ailleurs. Avec la crise de 1998 et l'évolution des prix parisiens, notre poche immobilière a grossi naturellement avec d’importantes plus-values latentes. Mais il faut être prudent compte tenu des évolutions du secteur. La MGEN est en train de retravailler « complètement » son allocation d’actifs, avec un peu de retard du fait de la crise, selon Fabrice Henry : La crise européenne a montré que les obligations n'étaient pas d’une sécurité absolue. Elles constituent 50% de notre portefeuille géré par Egamo, (soit 30% de l’ensemble des actifs) essentiellement françaises et réparties entre titres souverains et corporate. La mutuelle va dorénavant devoir prendre en compte les effets de Solvabilité II mais aussi ceux de la fiscalisation des mutuelles : « Sans vouloir chercher absolument des placements défiscalisés, il faudra tenir compte de ce que cette mesure peut produire », explique Fabrice Henry. Concernant l’immobilier, les mutuelles sont traditionnellement peu présentes. Cette stratégie va-t-elle changer ? Très clairement l’immobilier nous a permis de passer la crise de 2008, reconnait Fabrice Henry. Mais nous n’avons pas l’habitude de nous endormir sur nos lauriers. Qui dit que l’immobilier va continuer à augmenter ? La chute semble de plus en plus sérieuse pour 2012.

Arnaud Simon, gérant-sélectionneur de fonds à La Banque Postale, dans une table ronde organisée par amLeague et Newsmanagers, le 18 janvier 2012: Nous essayons d’optimiser nos choix dans les styles de gestion quand on comprend bien le mode de fonctionnement des gérants. On sait très bien qu’il y a des styles, des périodes favorables pour la value et d’autres pas. En gros, ce qui a fonctionné l’an dernier, c'était tout ce qui était croissance défensive et tout ce qui était tourné vers les émergents de près ou de loin. Il se trouve que la croissance défensive est tournée vers les émergents. Il y a des thèmes qui se chevauchent. Nos gérants value ont des biais très cycliques et valeurs financières. Il ne faut pas forcément entendre gestion value comme gestion peu volatile et peu risquée. Souvent cela se recroise avec des gérants croissance qui ont des visions un peu plus long terme, sur des activités plus stables. Cela se retrouve dans les cours de Bourse. Il ne faut donc pas tout jeter à la poubelle. Je suis d’accord, on pourrait voir que les derniers de 2011 seront les premiers de 2012. Il faut en être conscient. Mais si on regarde juste les gérants value qui sont en queue de peloton, on constate quand même de gros écarts entre eux. On peut quand même faire son choix et optimiser les choses.

A l’occasion du Forum économique mondial, qui se tient à Davos jusqu’au dimanche 29 janvier, près de 40 chefs d’Etats, 200 membres de gouvernements et 1 000 entreprises débattent de nouveaux modèles économiques qui pourraient favoriser une croissance « juste et durable ». Au programme, notamment, la question de la croissance et de l’emploi. Sophie des Mazery, directrice de Finansol, propose de mettre la finance au service de l’utilité sociale. « S’il y avait une mesure à prendre en France, mais aussi au niveau européen, ce serait d’investir 1% de l'épargne financière dans l'épargne solidaire. Cela permettrait de financer des entreprises à fort impact social, dans le domaine de l’environnement, de la solidarité internationale ou encore du logement social. En France, l’encours de l'épargne solidaire ne représente que 3,1 milliards d’euros contre 3 500 milliards pour l'épargne traditionnelle. Ce 1% d’investissement en plus permettrait de multiplier par 10 l’encours actuel de l'épargne solidaire, et donc de créer des centaines de milliers d’emplois ».

La filiale de neuf mutuelles d’assurance prévoit d’émettre 407 millions d’euros d’obligations adossées à des prêts automobiles à l’issue d’une tournée de présentation devant débuter le 1er février, selon des sources proches du dossier citées par Bloomberg. BNP Paribas et Natixis dirigeront l’opération via le compartiment TitriSocram 2012-1 de son fonds commun de titrisation.

C’est un manque de quelque 45.400 milliards de yens auquel le gouvernement japonais devrait faire face dans le budget 2015/2016, même si la TVA est augmentée de 5 à 8% en avril 2014 et à 10% en octobre 2015, selon des sources Reuters. Or, cette mesure est toujours rejetée par l’opposition. Un échec pourrait faire exploser les besoins de financement que le gouvernement souhaite pourtant limiter à 44.000 milliards de yens d’ici 2014.

Les deux sociétés viennent de procéder au rapprochement de leurs activités de gestion, de property management et de transactions immobilières au sein d’une nouvelle structure commune (LFP Nexity Services Immobiliers). L’actionnariat de ce nouvel ensemble est réparti entre Nexity, 75%, et La Française REM, 25%.

La chambre de compensation européenne a ramené de 55 à 45% les appels de marge sur les obligations gouvernementales irlandaises en réponse au différentiel de rendement entre la dette à 10 ans et un benchmark AAA. Cet abaissement s’applique aux positions longues sur la dette souveraine irlandaise.

Le quotidien indique que le magnat de l’immobilier Vincent Tchenguiz met en vente le plus important portefeuille de loyers outre-Manche pour 3 milliards de livres. De quoi offrir à l’acheteur la propriété de quelque 250.000 logements. Après avoir limité la recherche aux fonds souverains, Lazard aurait assoupli ses exigences pour solliciter des candidats britanniques.

Les minutes de la banque centrale indiquent que les taux directeurs passeront sous les 10%, relançant les craintes d'une résurgence de l'inflation

Une croissance inférieure au potentiel suffirait pour que la Fed se lance dans de nouveaux rachats de titres adossés à des prêts hypothécaires

Jean-Pierre Jouyet juge une taxe sur les transactions financières bonne dans son principe si elle est mise en place au niveau de la zone euro