Certaines des exigences des régulateurs européens, EBA et Esma, restent encore à appliquer, explique Guido Ravoet

Le pays prévoit désormais de ramener ses comptes publics à l’équilibre «structurel» en 2017, qui constitue la date limite fixée par Bruxelles

Eric Béquet, Responsable des gestions d’actifs d’assurance de BNP Paribas Cardif, à la rédaction de www.institinvest.com : Sur les prochains mois, BNP Paribas Cardif a pour projet de continuer à diversifier ses investissements au sein de sa poche actions « dans la mesure du possible ». Rappelons qu’il y a 7 ans, l’assureur ne détenait pas d’actions hors zone euro. Il a également l’intention de poursuivre le rééquilibrage entre emprunts d’Etat et titres corporate au sein de sa poche Taux. « Historiquement, nous avions une répartition 60% de titres d’Etat et 40% de corporate, indique Eric Béquet. Or, nous avons commencé à essayer d’inverser la répartition au début de la crise de 2008, en nous renforçant dans les corporates et les financières. Cependant, compte tenu des conditions de marché actuelles, je crains que nous n’ayons atteint le poids maximal pour les corporates et les financières avec 55% de la poche ». BNP Paribas Cardif s’intéresse aujourd’hui aux loans mais avec prudence, de manière à ne pas trop réduire la liquidité de son portefeuille. « Nous avons relativement bien géré la crise, se félicite Eric Béquet. Par conséquent, nous n’avons pas de pression pour courir après le rendement. Nous sommes relativement mobiles dans nos investissements. Aujourd’hui, un assureur n’est d’ailleurs plus un porteur d’obligations à long terme ! Il se doit aussi d’optimiser son portefeuille en valeur de marché ». Enfin, BNP Paribas Cardif reste un acteur dans le private equity et souhaite continuer à soutenir le développement de PME : « c’est un accès à un rendement supplémentaire mais aussi un devoir », insiste le responsable de la gestion d’actifs qui travaille notamment sur des initiatives de place avec d’autres assureurs. Avec un ticket minimum de 50 millions d’euros et un poids maximum de 10% à 20% dans un fonds, BNP Paribas Cardif investit donc dans des véhicules affichant au minimum 200 millions d’euros d’encours. Néanmoins, l’assureur peut parfois investir de manière encadrée et isolée des montants plus faibles afin de jouer le rôle d’incubateur ou d’accompagnateur de la croissance.

Angelino Alfano, secrétaire et numéro deux du Peuple de la Liberté (PDL), le parti de centre droit de Silvio Berlusconi, a appelé mardi «tout le parti» à voter la confiance mercredi au gouvernement d’Enrico Letta. «Je reste fermement convaincu que notre parti tout entier doit voter demain la confiance à Letta», a indiqué le dirigeant à l’agence italienne Ansa, en démentant les rumeurs de scission. Plus tôt, un autre membre du PDL, le sénateur Carlo Giovanardi, avait déclaré que la formation politique soutenait la bataille engagée par Silvio Berlusconi pour éviter son exclusion du Sénat mais qu’une majorité de députés et de sénateurs du PDL ne souhaitaient pas provoquer la chute du gouvernement d’Enrico Letta. Les obligations italiennes ont accru leurs gains après ces déclarations, avec une baisse de 15 pb des rendements à 10 ans à 4,42% vers 17h30.

La croissance de l’activité manufacturière aux Etats-Unis a connu en septembre son rythme le plus soutenu depuis avril 2011 et les entreprises ont créé le plus grand nombre d’emplois en 15 mois, montrent les résultats de l’enquête mensuelle de l’Institute for Supply Management (ISM) publiés mardi. L’indice ISM manufacturier est monté à 56,2 le mois dernier, contre 55,7 en août. Les économistes interrogés par Reuters attendaient en moyenne un chiffre de 55,0.

Le Chicago Mercantile Exchange a averti mardi ses clients que l’arrêt de services administratifs fédéraux («shutdown») en raison de la bataille sur le budget pourrait perturber le règlement de certains contrats sur matières premières agricoles. Ces marchés sont en effet dépendants de statistiques de prix fournies par l’USDA, l’United States Department of Agriculture.

The British asset management firm Aberdeen Asset Management has appointed Álvaro Antón Luna (ex AON Accuracy) and Ana Guzmán Quintana (ex DekaBank) to manage its office in Spain, Funds People reports. They will take over the activities which had previously been carried out from London by Marina Poleto.

Hedge funds’ bets on falling asset values have dropped to their lowest levels in years, as traders predict a long period of rising equity markets in the coming months, the Financial Times reports. According to statistics from Mirkit, the total value of short positions on European equities has fallen to USD144bn, the lowest level since the data provider began publishing data in 2006.

Nicolas Walewski’s Alken Asset Management is soft closing its Alken Fund European Opportunities Fund. «Following very strong interest from investors for the Alken Fund European Opportunities Fund in the past few months (...) it has been decided to temporarily soft close the Sub-Fund to subscriptions with some exceptions for existing investors», wrote the asset management company.Launched in January 2006, the fund managed by Nicolas Walewski has assets under management of EUR3.9bn. The soft close will be effective for orders placed after 16h00 CET on the 3rd of October 2013. Existing shareholders’ maximum daily subscriptions are limited to EUR 500.000,00.

The financial research office of the US Treasury on Monday published a report detailing the ways in which the asset management industry could create vulnerabilities for the financial system, the Financial Times reports. The data will be used by the Financial Stability Oversight Council, which ordered the report, and decides whether certain non-banking institutions present a systemic risk. The research office finds that asset management firms can create vulnerabilities in the financial system, if they increase their leverage, buy similar assets at the same time due to competitive pressure, or start massively selling off.

Marc Seidner, interim head of equities at Pimco, is responsible for managing thee products of the StockPlus Pimco GIS U.S. Fundamental Index StocksPlus Fund, Pimco GIS Global Fundamental Index StocksPlus Fund and Pimco GIS EM Fundamental Index StocksPlus Fund, which will be available in Europe, Citywire reports. The manager will be assisted by Research Affiliates, an independent firm specialised in tactical asset allocation, which works only for Pimco funds.

About 7,000 jobs in Swiss private banking may be lost if European regulations aiming to improve market infrastructures go ahead as planned, Financial Times fund management reports. The Swiss banking association has warned that significant job losses are inevitable if proposals contained in the MiFID directive, which would require Swiss bankers to open branches or affiliates in the European Union to access onshore clients, are approved. Nicolas Faller, managing director of UBP, admits that the directive is “definitely a problem for small banks.” He says that it “will hurt profitability terribly.”

The Swiss private bank Bank Julius Baer AG on 1 October anounced that it has opened an eighth branch in Germany, in Mannheim, to offer its wealth management services in the Rhine-Neckar region.The Julius Baer network (CHF304bn in assets as of the end of June) in Germany already included branches in Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Kiel, Munich, Stuttgart and Würzburg.

Alfred Berg, the Swedish affiliate of BNP Paribas Investment Partners, has recruited Sara Stevinger for its sales team in Stockholm. Stevinger, who will deal with institutional clients, previously worked at Bank Vontobel AG/Harcourt Investment Consulting. The recruitment comes at a time when Dagens Industri has recently announced that BNP Paribas Investment Partners is planning to transfer all of its Eastern European management to Alfred Berg. Alfred Berg has about EUR19.6bn in assets under management.

The Luxembourg investment fund association (ALFI) on 30 September published a report on the impact of the financial crisis on the behaviour of Eiropean invetsors and the future of asset management, the report, undertaken by the research agency MackayWiliams, and entitled “Beyond 10%: The Case for Enlarging the Pool of Retail Investors in Europe’s Investment Funds,” points out that in Europe there are about EUR4trn in household assets which are not managed by professionals, and which are either losing value or are unable to seize opportunities for growth available in long-term vehicles.“The clear conclusion of this report is that there is an enormous amount of cash available, an amount of cash higher than the net worth of South American households, which would have a lot to gain from being invested in investment vehicles. However, in order to capture these unmanaged assets, asset management firms need to look beyond the 10% wealthiest,” the chairman of ALFI, Marc Saluzzi, says in a statement.In other words, this is a missed opportunity both for asset managers and for savers. The report finds that since the financial crisis, assets from European households in collective management have fallen to EUR1.2trn in 2011 from EUR1.7trn in 2006. In the United States, however, assets in mutual funds have risen 8% in the same period. In Europe, cash represents 42% of the wealth of households, compared with only 18% in the United States.Despite market turbulence and mediocre performance of equities, which are often cited in the press, European household assets (excluding pensions and insurance) have posted returns of 34% in the past ten years, while the assets of US households, which are more invested for the long term, have earned 47%.The report emphasizes the need for asset management firms to pay more attention to certain aspects of the household market. In addition to the cash level, which exceeds 40%, the port cites factors, such as taxation, which may slow investors’ interest in OPCs, but which management firms can influence, and changing demand on the part of investors, for example, for capital preservation or transparency.These are genuine changes, which represent so many opportunities for asset management firms who are prepared to do a little learning and to take up the challenge of winning back households to financial markets which they still consider “too risky” for their savings.

On 1 August, Olivier Jaquet, former CEO of Clariden Leu (Credit Suisse group), was appointed as CEO of the Liechtenstein-based Centrum Bank (Marxer group), replacing Thomas Lips, who is retiring. And on 1 October, Centrum (CHF8bn in assets) appoints Daniela Lohner Amman as director of wealth management, a statement released on 30 September states.Amman served in the wealth management unit of Credit Suisse from 1991 to 2013. Since 2011, she was both head market & wealth managementt and a member of the executive committee at Clariden Leu.

AXA Investment Managers has announced that it has finalised the sale of its stake in AXA Private Equity, which is becoming known as Ardian. The transaction values AXA Private Equity at EUR510m, before transition costs.The capital is already majority controlled by management and employees of Ardian, led by the board, composed of Dominique Senequier, Vincent Gombault, Dominique Gaillard and Benoît Verbrugghe.These are the first circle of investors, with 46.4% of capital. External investors, consisting of European institutions and French family offices, control 31%, while the Axa group holds 22.6%.The AXA group has said in a statement that it plans to continue to invest in funds offered by the new entity. Commitments are expected to total about EUR4.8bn between 2014 and 2018.Ardian has a total of USD36bn in assets under management or advised, for 255 investors in Europe, North America, Asia and the Middle East.

As Newsmanagers announced last week, BNP Paribas Investment Partners (BNPP IP) has overhauled its operations. From today, the organization of the firm will be focused on three categories of priority clients: institutional investors, distributors, and clients in the Emerging Markets and Asia-Pacific regions. The three new business lines will have entirely dedicated sales and marketing departments, a statement read by Newsmanagers says. The institutional investors business line will be headed by Philippe Marchessaux, CEO of BNP Paribas IP. Christian Dargnat will supervise the distributors and Theam line. The third business line will be directed by Ligia Torres.

Jean-Pierre Jouyet, CEO of the Caisse des dépôts group, has assigned Laurent Vigier to develop CDC International, accordint to a statement from CDC released on 30 September. Vigier, chairman and CEO of CDC International, will set up an ambitious strategy for the Group to attract sovereign funds and other major international institutional investors by investing by their side as a partner. The objective for the Caisse des Dépôts is to strongly help to attract foreign capital to multiple assets classes, for ongoing financing of the French economy and to sterngthen its competitiveness. CDC International had already allowed for a dense network of sovereign fund partners to be developed, and for the first long-term international business partnerships of the Caisse des Dépôts (Fonds Inframed et Marguerite, Fonds Franco-Chinois) to be created. The largest French firm dedicated exclusively to sovereign funds, the company will primarily aim to continue construction of bilateral investment vehicles with Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and the Russian Federation. It will manage the investments of the Caisse des Dépôts in these vehicles, and will be responsible for providing management of these investments. It will also be responsible for developing a multilateral investment platform in order to attract more sovereign capital more sustainably. CDC International thus becomes the Group’s resource for long-term investment in partnership with sovereign funds.

BNP Paribas Securities Services vient de nommer Florence Fontan au poste de responsable du segment Gérants d’Actifs. Elle sera responsable de la stratégie, du développement mais aussi des produits et des services proposés par la banque pour répondre aux besoins de ses clients et prospects gérants d’actifs, indique un communiqué. Florence Fontan sera sous la responsabilité de Charley Cock, responsable du développement clients et de Philippe Ricard, responsable de la ligne de métier dédiée aux actifs et aux fonds. Depuis 2007, l’intéressée travaillait aux affaires publiques de BNP Paribas Securities Services. En tant que responsable, elle veillait à la conformité de la banque aux réformes réglementaires et aidait les clients à s’adapter à l'évolution de l’environnement. Elle est remplacée aux affaires publiques par Laurence Caron-Habib, spécialisée sur ces sujets depuis 2007.

BNP Paribas Real Estate has acquired the Netherlands-based property management activities of the Aberdeen Asset Management company, whose team manages a portfolio in the Netherlands of 33,000 m², including 40% in retail, 38% in offices and the remainder in logistical properties, a statement released on 30 September says. “This acquisition is an excellent opportunity to develop our activities in the Netherlands, relying on the experienced team at Aberdeen. Our mission will concern administrative, commercial and technical management of business properties (offices, commercial and logistical), and to assist with rental throughout the territory of the Netherlands,” Says Lauric Leclerc, chariamnf of BNP Paribas Real Estate Property Management. The operation, which comes as part of a development plan at BNP Paribas Real Estate to strengthen its positions in Europe, aims to complement the range of services from BNP Paribas Real Estate in the Netherlands, following the acquisition of Holland Realty Partners (Transaction, Asset Management, Corporrate Services, Expertise & Advising) in October 2012, which firm has since become BNP Paribas Real Estate Advisory Netherlands.

Edouard Carmignac, the founder and chairman of Carmignac Gestion, has declared that he could be the son of Warren Buffett in an interview with Financial Times fund management, while admitting that the performance of his funds is disappointing so far this year. Carmignac Investissement, which he manages singlehandedly, has gained 4% since the beginning of the year, compared with gains of 9% for the index. Carmignac Patrimoine, which he manages with Rose Ouahba, has lost 1%, while the index has gained 2%. Investors lost their patience, and in August withdrew EUR545m from the product range at the asset management firm, bringing net outflows since the beginning of the year to EUR155m, according to Morningstar. In terms of succession, Carmignac says there are political reasons that he refuses to name an “heir.” “If you name your successor before your departure, a certain number of would-be successors will leave the firm to go elsewhere.”

Natixis has appointed Selim Mehrez as global head of equity derivatives from 1 January 2014. He will be based in Paris and will report to Luc François, global head of market solutions at the Key Client Bank. The new recruit had previously, since 2011, been global head of financial engineering and derivative strategies at Morgan Stanley in London.

Société Générale Securities Services (SGSS) Ireland has been mandated by EQI Asset Management LLP to provide depository, custody, transfer agency, fund administration, financial and fiscal reporting services, according to a statement released on 30 September. SGSS was selected “for its recognized expertise in alternative investment funds, for its experience working with prime brokers, and for its avbility to collaborate closely with its clients in order to provide them with services which meet their specific needs in every respect, particularly with respect to compliance with the AIFM directive.” EQI Asset Management LLP was founded in London in 2009 as a limited liability company which is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. The firm is specialised in market neutral strategies via equities, and over-the-counter and publicly-traded derivative products. It manages a fund registered in Ireland.

On 27 September, Vanguard submitted an application to the SEC for a license for a global low volatility equity fund, the Vanguard Global Minimum Volatility Fund, which will be launched in fourth quarter.The product is actively-managed, and will focus on securities with a lower volatility than global equity markets, and will invest about half of its assets in equities in US firms. In order to minimise currency risks and lower volatility, a part of the exposure to currencies will be hedged with forex futures contracts.Vanguard (USD2.25trn in US mutual funds, including over USD290bn in ETFs) is planning two share classes for the new fund: Investor shares, with a total expense ratio of 0.30%, and a minimal initial subscription of USD3,000, and Admiral shares, with a TER of 0.20%, and a minimal initial subscription of USD50,000.The new product will be managed by the Equity Investment Group from Vanguard, which is responsible for assets of USD13bn in traditional active quantitative strategies.

Using a newly-created index, the WisdomTree Emerging Markets Growth Index (WTEMGC), which covers about 250 shares, WisdomTree has launched the ETF WisdomTree Emerging Markets Consumer Growth fund on Nasdaq, with the objective of profiting form a rise in consumer spending in emerging markets, in a broader manner than the MSCI Emerging Markets index, and taking into account valuations more than the Dow Jones Emerging Markets Titans 30.CharacteristicsName: WisdomTree Emerging Markets Consumer Growth FundTicker: EMCGTotal expense ratio: 0.63%

With Smart World, Turgot Asset Management on 30 September launched a global allocation FCP which invests in equity and bond ETFs. The French-registered product belongs to the international diversified fund category with predominantly equities, and will use the MSCI World 100% as its benchmark index.“This wealth management fund aims to outperform its benchmark by aiming for the top third in returns regularly, and to bring back wealth management professionals and their clients to equities, while limiting their risk, which is not always possible in limited themes where diversification is weaker by construction,” the asset management firm says. The recommended investment duration is 5 years.Turgot Asset Management has set up a management committee composed of the management team and external advising from MyFlow. MyFlow will provide the management team with investment and trade recommendations. Every month, the firm will present both macroeconomic and financial analysis of major current trends.CharacteristicsName: Smart WorldISIN codes:FR0011499599 (AC shares)FR0011563527 (SC shares)Management commission: 4.50%Performance commission: 20% of performance exceeding the MSCI with dividends reinvested

Canadian-owned wealth management company CI Financial has announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire a majority interest in Marret Asset Management, an alternative asset manager specializing in global and Canadian fixed income. CI is purchasing 65% of Marret, along with an option to acquire the remainder after three years. CI Financial has $108.8 billion in assets as of August 31, 2013.

Eastspring Investments, the Asia asset management arm of UK-based Prudential, on September 30 announced the opening of its UK office enabling the fund house to take its Asia investment expertise to prospective UK and European investors. The opening of the London office was evoked by Newsmanagers in June. This follows the announcement in April of the establishment of its Luxembourg-based EU management company. Eastspring Investments currently has about USD18 billion in assets under management on the SICAV fund platform. Eastspring Investments has more than USD94 billion in assets under management In line with this, Eastspring hired Russell Danby as head of Wholesale Business, UK and Europe and Gordon Hogarth as head of Institutional Business, Europe and the GCC. Russell Danby joins from Capital Group and Gordon Hogarth worked previously at Affiliated Managers Group (AMG).

Royal London Asset Management on 30 September announced that it is launching three new funds which aim to meet demand on the part of investors for short-duration bond funds which present lower interest rate risks. The three funds, the Royal London Short Duration Gilt Fund, Royal London Short Duration Credit Fund and Royal London Short Duration Global Index Linked Fund, will be available from 7 October. They will be domiciled in the United Kingdom, and will belong to the Royal London Bond Funds ICVC umbrella fund. The major characteristics of the various funds are attached.