After eleven years at Gartmore, where he was most recently head of intermediary sales, Warren Shiels was recruited by Man Group on 6 June as director, UK retail. He will be in charge of overseeing sales of long-only and absolute return funds from Man as well as GLG to third parties such as life offices, platforms, and IFAs.

Anthony Cheung, a fund manager specialised in China in the global emerging markets team at Gartmore Investment Management, has been recruited by Pictet Asset Management, and has joined the Asian total return team, in which he will be co-manager of long/short funds, under Nidhi Mahhurkar, CityWire reports.

State Street Global Advisors will be launching its first range of ETFs in the United Kingdom next quarter, Investment Week reports. In total, the US management firm, which is one of the largest ETF suppliers in the United States, is planning to launch 50 products in the UK in the next two years.

By the end of the year, Vanguard Investments UK (GBP1.9bn in assets) is planning to increase the number of its funds on sale in the UK from 14 currently to 25, Fundweb reports. Among the products for which a sales license has been applied for from the FSA are some ETFs, risk objective funds, horizon funds, and a strategic allocation fund. Tom Rampulla, CEO, also says that personnel will be increased by the end of the year to 105, from 68 currently.

On 22 April 2011, the Italian UniCredit bank announced that it will not be selling its asset management unit Pioneer Investments, and will be preferring internal growth. The announcement marked the end of a long period of uncertainty and speculation about the future of the firm, which was being wooed by the French firms Amundi and Natixis. Despite these difficult times, in 2010, the Paris office of Pioneer had “its best year ever” in terms of inflows, according to the director, Fabien Madar. The firm has posted net inflows of EUR300m, and finished the year with EUR1.5bn of assets under management. “2010 was a year of great success for our sales team. We needed to show that despite the strategic review our company was subject to, our future was not up in the air. We therefore needed to stay close to clients, which we did, and which they appreciated.” And since the beginning of the year, the Paris office has taken on a further EUR100m, putting assets at EUR1.6bn, of which 60% are for wholesale clients, and 40% for institutionals. The objective is to achieve net subscriptions of EUR250m by the end of the year. Madar’s ambitions don’t stop at the borders of France, and also extend to Monaco, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and since May, the Netherlands and Nordic countries, an area which represents slightly over EUR1bn in assets. The new position was handed to Madar following the departure of Jilert Blom, who had been head of the Netherlands and the Nordic countries. Combining these countries with the French-speaking ones can be explained as due to the fact that these markets are both institutional and wholesale, and they are at the same level of technicity as France, Madar says. Pioneer has now built itself a presence serving Dutch clients and a few in Sweden. But the firm, led by Madar, is also planning to develop in Denmark, Finland, and Norway. One sales person based in Amsterdam will be serving all these markets, while a country manager for the entire region is in a recruitment phase. For these countries, “we have no quantitative objectives for the moment, but rather qualitative objectives: to take on as many clients as possible,” says Madar. As to a potential physical presence in Scandinavia, that will come in time, depending on the results of ongoing development.

According to an annual survey by the French financial management association (AFG) of employee savings levels, assets under management in this area as of the end of December totalled a record EUR88.6bn, which represents a 4.5% increase over a total fo USD84.8bn as of the end of 2009 (as of the end of 2008, they were down to EUR71.42bn, comapred with EUR87.6bn twelve months earlier).The AFG states that contributions to employee savings plans totalled EUR13.3bn in 2010, compared with EUR11.8bn in 2009, an increase of 12.7%, “largely due to an increase in employees’ voluntary contributions,” which themselves represented EUR4.2bn. Meanwhile, redemptions totalled EUR10.6bn, so that net subscriptions totalled EUR2.7bn, of which over EUR880m (about one third of net inflows) were for PERCO plans.

Luis Muñoz, who joined Société Générale Corporate & Investment Banking (SG CIB) last month, will be in charge of distribution of structured products and multi-asset class solutions for Spain and Portugal. He most recently served as executive director for derivatives activity at Morgan Stanley in London.

In a letter cited by the Wall Street Journal, the head of enforcement at the SEC, Robert Khuzami, has refused to disclose details to Iowa Senator Charles Grassley, Republican head of the legal commission, about the way in which the regulatory authority has made use of referrals from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (Finra) about questionable transactions by the hedge fund management firm SEC Capital Advisors. The senator says that he considers the response unacceptable.

Zvi Goffer, a former Galleon Group trader nicknamed Octopussy, as well as his brother Emanuel Goffer and Michael Kimelman been found guilty of insider trading, according to the Financial Times. They are accused of trading ahead of corporate takeover announcements of which they learnt from two Ropes & Gray lawyers advising the companies on the deals.

Markus Novak, who had served at Skandia at head of distribution clients, wealth management firms and banks in Germany, has joined JPMorgan Asset Management as second in command to Charles Neus, concentrating on sales to insurers and their networks.

The British investment management association (IMA) claims that reforms to the financial services compensation scheme (FSCS) could make the British market more attractive as a platform for international management groups. The failures of the past three years (the Keydata affair not least) had a cost of about EUR500m for the financial services industry, the chairman of the professional association, Douglas Ferrans, says, and calls on the FSA to make reform of the compensation regime a priority.

La prestation de dépositaire, de conservateur et de valorisateur des actifs de l’Ircec recouvre la gestion administrative et comptable centralisée, à savoir: - la conservation des titres et la tenue des comptes de chaque fonds, - la gestion comptable et la valorisation de chaque fonds, - le contrôle dépositaire et le contrôle des directives d’investissement de l’Ircec Il s’agit: - d’améliorer le suivi de sa gestion financière et le contrôle des risques, - de bénéficier d’un reporting harmonisé de l’ensemble des actifs gérés par les différents gestionnaires d’actifs, - d’optimiser la gestion administrative de ses fonds, de manière indépendante des gestionnaires d’actifs, en recherchant la plus haute qualité de prestations. Lire l’avis complet: cliquez ici

A l’issue d’une procédure d’appel d’offres ouvert lancée par le FRR le 22 octobre 2010 visant au renouvellement de son mandat de gestion transversal (overlay), le Fonds a décidé d’attribuer le marché à la société State Street Global Advisors France. Celui-ci est conclu pour une durée de deux ans renouvelable une fois. La mission de ce prestataire consistera, d’une part, à informer et conseiller le FRR, d’autre part, à assurer la gestion du risque de change et à mettre en oeuvre les expositions aux différentes classes d’actifs décidées par le Directoire du FRR.

Deux ans après le rachat de sa maison-mère par BNP Paribas, la banque privée londonienne de Fortis ne va finalement pas fusionner avec BNP Paribas Wealth Management. «Fortis PIM (Private Investment Management, ndlr) va être vendu», a indiqué à L’Agefi une source proche du dossier. De taille modeste, cette activité est axée sur la clientèle domestique mais ne peut s’appuyer sur un réseau bancaire. Or le dispositif onshore (pour résidents) de BNP Paribas Wealth Management repose sur la banque de détail du groupe (principalement en France, en Italie et en Belgique). A Londres, la banque privée de BNP Paribas restera spécialisée dans la clientèle fortunée offshore.

Selon l’enquête annuelle publiée par l’association française de la gestion financière (AFG), l’épargne salariale renoue avec son plus haut niveau depuis 2007 en affichant près de 90 milliards d’euros d’encours sous gestion (+ 4,5 % en 2010). Le nombre d’entreprises équipées croît également, à 243.000 (+6%).

Les députés ont adopté vendredi par un vote à main levée l’article premier du projet de loi de finances rectificative qui fait sortir quelque 300.000 contribuables du champ de l’impôt de solidarité sur la fortune. L’article prévoit que l’ISF s’applique désormais aux patrimoines supérieurs ou égaux à 1,3 million d’euros, contre 800.000 euros jusqu'à présent.

Berne et Washington tentent de résoudre le problème des actifs non soumis à l’imposition détenus par des citoyens américains sur des comptes bancaires suisses. Selon Reuters, le nouvel accord permettrait au gouvernement américain d’exiger des banques le paiement d’une amende, la déclaration d’activités bancaires offshore non déclarées pour le compte d’Américains, et la délivrance des coordonnées de leurs clients.

Le quotidien souligne qu’Helios Investment Partners est parvenu à boucler le plus important fonds de private equity consacré à l’Afrique jamais mis en œuvre, d’un montant de 900 millions de dollars. Le promoteur, cofondé par un ancien de TPG, Tope Lawani, a reçu plus d’un milliard de dollars d’ordres, à 70% hors du circuit des institutions de financement du développement.

Si l’inflation a atteint 5,5% en mai, le ralentissement des nouveaux prêts et de la création monétaire semblent annoncer un apaisement des tensions

Stefan Isaacs, gérant obligataire chez M&G Investments

Roberto Mialich, stratégiste change chez UniCredit

Jean-Luc Proutat, responsable économies OCDE chez BNP Paribas

Franck Nicolas, directeur gestion allocation globale et ALM de Natixis AM

Emmanuel Morano, responsable de la gestion actions chez UFG-LFP

Le Trésor espagnol n'a réalisé que la moitié de ses émissions prévues en 2011 mais a des réserves de cash

La société de gestion de la Banque Postale affichait à fin 2010 un coefficient d’exploitation de 54 %, inférieur à la moyenne du secteur

La société de gestion de la Banque Postale affiche un coefficient d’exploitation de 54%, inférieur à la moyenne du secteur, qu’elle entend conserver dans un contexte de pression sur les marges. Elle maintient néanmoins son programme de recherche et va renforcer ses équipes de risques.

Les investisseurs sont de plus en plus prudents sur les transactions en Europe du Sud, mais le marché n'est pas fermé

Un document de la SEC publié fin mai change le calendrier de convergence. Le poids des Américains dans la gouvernance mondiale est critiqué

Le Trésor espagnol n'a réalisé que la moitié de ses émissions prévues en 2011 mais a des réserves de cash