Contraints de s’adapter à un cadre réglementaire qui devient de plus en plus stricte, les acteurs du marché des contrats dérivés de protection contre le risque (CDS) s’engagent pour la création d’outils communs de marché. La Fédération bancaire française (FBF) et l’Association française des marchés financiers (Amafi) ont ainsi récemment transmis aux autorités françaises leurs différentes propositions, parmi lesquelles la création de chambres de compensation sur les grands produits dans chaque zone monétaire, «avec priorité aux CDS».Le projet de mise en place d’un cadre adapté à une chambre de compensation commune ne pourrait que difficilement se réaliser sans la participation des principaux acteurs sur ce marché. En février, les neuf plus importantes maisons du secteur des CDS (Barclays Capital, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JPMorgan, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley et UBS) ont donc répondu aux souhaits de l’Union européenne et se sont engagés à utiliser une chambre de compensation centrale basée en zone euro et ce, d"ici à la fin juillet 2009. Elles ont par ailleurs proposé de dialoguer avec la Commission européenne et les régulateurs pour préparer un certain nombre de détails techniques. En attendant, la nature stratégique du secteur suscite un certain nombre de convoitises, le marché de la compensation des CDS étant évalué à 60.000 milliards d’euros. LCH.Clearnet Limited, basée à Londres, qui pourrait être achetée par la chambre américaine DTCC, a fait savoir qu’elle prévoit de se lancer sur la compensation des CDS en zone euro d’ici fin 2009, par le biais de LCH.Clearnet SA, la branche française du groupe. Eurex, la filiale de dérivés de Deutsche Börse est pour sa part à la recherche de partenaires potentiels sur ce créneau. Des discussions seraient d’ailleurs en cours entre le groupe allemand et LCH.Clearnet SA, rapportaient récemment Les Echos. Les acteurs en provenance des Etats-Unis et de Londres ne veulent pas laisser passer la manne de revenu en provenance de la compensation et sont eux aussi sur le pied de guerre. The IntercontinentalExchange Inc. (ICE), qui a ouvert début mars sa plate-forme de compensation pour les credit-default swaps (CDS) aux Etats-Unis ICE Trust, veut rééditer le modèle en Europe, en lançant avant fin juin une chambre de compensation baptisée ICE Trust Europe, qui sera régulée par la FSA britannique.

Bank Medici a annoncé jeudi avoir communiqué la veille à l’Autorité de surveillance des marchés financiers (FMA) que son conseil de surveillance a pris la décision de rendre la licence bancaire de l'établissement «madoffé».De fait, précise un communiqué sur la page d’accueil du site Internet, la fraude Madoff a causé un dommage important à la banque et, dans l’environnement actuel, il n’est pas possible de développer une activité bancaire substantielle nouvelle qui puisse compenser celle qui a été perdue. Bank Austria (groupe UniCredit) a annoncé pour sa part que la participation de 25 % dans Medici a été dépréciée à 1,5 million d’euros. Pour sa part, le Standard affirme que l’exposition réelle de Medici à Madoff serait non pas de 2,1 milliards d’euros mais de plus de 3,6 milliards, dont 2,5 milliards sur le fonds herald USA et 1,1 milliard pour le Thema International.

HSBC Global Asset Management, Banco Real Asset Management et Unibanco Asset Management font partie d’un groupe de gestionnaires qui vont adresser un courrier à toutes les entreprises cotées sur le Bovespa (Bourse brésilienne) pour les sensibiliser aux risques réputationnel, commercial et financier de l’esclavage et du travail non rémunéré (indentured labour), rapporte Responsible Investor. Le courrier encourage les sociétés cotées à rejoindre le pacte national brésilien pour l'éradication de l’esclavagisme qui a été promu par l’Organisation internationale du travail (OIT ou ILO en anglais), Ethos et l’ONG Reporter Brazil. Les gestionnaires demandent aussi aux entreprises d’obliger leurs fournisseurs à adhérer au pacte et à mettre en place des mécanismes de surveillance.

Rothschild a recruté comme head of investment banking à Francfort l’un des deux patrons de la banque d’investissement pour l’Allemagne chez UBS, Martin Reitz, rapporte la Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. L’intéressé sera responsable de l’activité en Allemagne en étroite collaboration avec Hans Lotter et Dirk Pahlke (fusions-acquisitions) ainsi qu’avec Heinrich Kerstien (conseil en restructurations). La Börsen-Zeitung précise néanmoins que Martin Reitz sera le «primus inter pares» de la banque d’investissement en Allemagne et qu’il prendra ses nouvelles fonctions le 1er août.

La Cour d’appel a mis en délibéré sans date fixe son verdict sur le recours d’un des avocats de Bernard Madoff réclamant la libération de son client, rapporte The Wall Street Journal. Selon Me Sorkin, les autorités n’auraient jamais sérieusement pensé que Bernard Madoff risquait de se soustraire à la justice en quittant le pays.

José Oliu, président du Banco Sabadell, a indiqué lors de l’AG de jeudi que la banque dispose de 25,26 milliards d’euros de liquidités, dont 3,26 milliards de garanties de l’Etat, de sorte que le pire de la crise financière est passé, rapporte Cinco Días. D’autre part, le banquier a précisé que toutes les tombées de dette de cette année sont déjà couvertes. Le ratio de fonds propres de premier rang a été renforcé à 9,1 % par l'émission de 500 millions d’euros de titres participatifs préférentiels, contre 8,7 % fin 2008.

Le procureur général de l’Etat de New York, Andrew Cuomo, a reçu jeudi de Bank of America (BofA) la liste des 200 personnes qui ont perçu les primes les plus élevées chez Merrill Lynch juste avant que l'établissement ne soit acheté par BofA au 1er janvier, rapporte the Wall Street Journal.

Jamais les Etats-Unis et la zone euro n'ont été aussi vulnérables à ce risque, selon BNP Paribas

Le graphique ci-contre montre l’évolution de la corrélation moyenne glissante entre l’indice MSCI EMU et respectivement des indices de style, sectoriels et thématiques.

Les tableaux ci-contre présentent les meilleures et plus mauvaises performances des fonds sur le marché des fonds actions américaines et le marché des fonds actions françaises au cours du mois de février 2009. Ces performances sont mises en perspective par le calcul de la volatilité et du ratio de Sharpe sur trois ans d’historique ainsi que du rendement depuis un an.

Alain Papiasse, a board member at BNP Paribas, has told Reuters at the Reuters Fund Summit that the bank may be examining possible acquisition opportunities in the asset management sector. ?Our CEO has told analysts that we may consider new consolidation opportunities so long as we emerge with control,? Reuters reports.

Between June 2007 and February 2009, assets in ETF funds in Europe increased from EUR9bn to EUR31bn, db x-trackers, the specalised affiliate of Deutsche Bank, reports. Net subscriptions to db x-trackers in the area of bonds represented EUR10bn, or 44% of total inflows in this category, and the db x-trackers II Eonia Total Return Index ETF now has more than EUR6.5bn in assets, which represents more than 20% of assets under management in European bond ETF funds. Thorsten Michalik, head of db x-trackers, has announced that the management firm is preparing a range of bond ETFs for the British market to be launched this year. Currently, tracker funds from db x-trackers are listed primarily on Deutsche Börse (XTF) and Borsa Italiana (ETFplus).

The multi-management team at New Star, composed of Craig Heron and Mark Harris, will join Henderson Global Investors, following New Star’s acquisition by Henderson, Citywire reports. The two product ranges will be merged and will result in one of the largest multi-management firms in the United Kingdom.

Of the 13 EDHEC hedge fund indexes, only four strategies have posted positive results for February. The best returns, by far, were in dedicated short bias (3.54%) and convertible arbitrage (1.76%). The worst results were in emerging markets (-1.25%) and distressed securities (-1.22%). Since the beginning of the year, convertible arbitrage has performed best, with 6.8% performance, ahead of dedicated short bias, with 6.5%. Only three strategies are in the red, particularly emerging markets, with losses of 2.4%.Since January 2001, the two segments which have posted the strongest annual performance have been emerging markets (9.1%), distressed securities (8.6%), and CTA global (8.3%).

As expected, the CNMV on Wednesday approved plans for Gas Natural to take over Unión Fenosa, Cinco Días reports. The operation will proceed at EUR18.05 per share over 25 days. Payments are guaranteed by bank loans of more than EUR8.24bn from Santander, Barclays, BNP Paribas, ING, Scoiété Générale, RBS, Caja Madrid and La Caixa. The acquisition will also be financed by a capital increase of EUR3.5bn and sales of assets.

According to figures from VDOS Stochastics reported in Expansión, four of the most conservative funds on the market have attracted EUR2bn in subscriptions since the beginning of the year. The money market fund BBVA Dinero Fondtesoro Corto Plazo posted net subscriptions of EUR552m, bringing its total assets to EU2.71bn. Two guaranteed bond products from Invercaixa, Garantía Renta Fija 14 and Garantía Renta Fija 7, attracted EUR548m and EUR491m, while another BBVA fund rivalled the Garantía Renta Fija 7, with EUR491m.

Harvey McGrath, the new president of Prudential, has defended securities lending to hedge funds by insurers, in the wake of Aviva’s announcement that it is planning to discontinue the practice, to avoid short positions on its shares, the Financial Times reports. McGrath says being able to sell stocks short is an important element in the functioning of the markets.

Feri EuroRating Services announced on Wednesday that it is offering ratings of bonus, discount, guaranteed, and index-based certificates. The ratings will be 70% based on qualitative criteria related to the product and 30% on qualitative estimates of the issuer. Feri has 52,000 ratings of certificates in its database. To be eligible for a rating, the certificate must be traded on Scoach (Francfort) or Euwax (Stuttgart), information about the issuer and the price must be available in real time, and the remaining time to the maturity of the certificate must be at least 180 days. In addition, there must be at least 20 products in the peer group.

Royal Bank of Scotland will offer debt denominated in Australian dollars underwritten by the British government, the WSJ reports. The bank is hoping to raise at least AUD500m, or USD330m.

Les Echos reports that the agency which manages British debt has announced that gross issues will total GBP147.9bn in the 2009-2010 fiscal year.

An association entitled Anticor (short for anti-corruption) is challenging the appointment of François Pérol as head of the new firm born of the merger of the French co-operative banks and savings banks, due to ?illegal conflicts of interest,? as Pérol participated in the government’s project to merge the entities to create the new banking entity.CGT has already filed a similar suit against Pérol.

Paddy Bingham is joining Invesco Real Estate as director of pan-European management for direct real estate. In this role, he will be in charge of two non-public pan-European real estate funds, including the OPCI OPC1 (Opportunité Placement Ciloger 1), which invests in the Euro zone.Bingham will be based in London and will work with all transaction and asset management specialists at Invesco Real Estate based in Paris, Madrid, Munich, Prague. Before joining Invesco Real Estate, he served as director of real estate at Henderson Global Investors.

The Financial Times reports that KKR and Permira have recruited advisors to restructure about EUR1.8bn in debt at the firm the jointly control, Lavena, which owns a 88% stake in ProSiebenSat.1. In March, the German group announced that it would be reducing dividends.

Hedge funds are licking their wounds after their strategy of buying preference shares in Citigroup and selling ordinary shares turned against them, the Wall Street Journal reports. Since 5 March, the price of ordinary shares in Citigroup has tripled, to finish Wednesday at EUR3.08.

Although managers are increasingly optimistic about the macroeconomic environment, they are still not moving their assets from cash to equities, according to the most recent survey from Merrill Lynch-Bank of America. Pessimism about this asset class has increased in the past month, as 41% of respondents say they are expecting to be underweight in equities, compared with 34% in February. Managers are preferring bonds, in which 26% of respondents are overweight. In February, only 7% of respondents favoured bond investments.

Redemptions from funds on sale in Italy seem to be slowing, in a sign that the market is beginning to stabilise, Marcello Messori, chairman of Assogestioni (the Italian association of management professionals), has said at the association’s annual meeting. Redemptions primarily affected mid-sized and large firms, particularly those owned by banking groups, Il Sole - 24 Ore reports.

David Bloom at HSBC, cited by the Financial Times, says that ?the best refuge currency in our opinion is currently the Norwegian Kroner. It is probably the best currency in the world.? The Norwegian Kroner is one of the few currencies in the world to have outperformed the US dollar since the beginning of the year. It has climbed 3% to NOK6.694. Bloom says the currency can be expected to rise in the next 18 months.

The Wall Street Journal reports that it is likely that the yields of money market funds will decline as the recommendations of the Investment Company Institute (ICI) are applied. The ad hoc working group formed in the wake of the Reserve Primary Fund affair recommends increasing liquidity and shortening maturities. Paul Schott Stevens, president & CEO of the ICI, says fund management firms will probably follow the recommendations in advance of any rule-making from the SEC.

Rolf Enders, partner at the new firm Sal. Oppenheim Private Equity Partners (Sopep), says that the private equity firm born of the merger of the private equity activities of Sal. Oppenheim with CAM Private Equity and VCM Capital Management has assets of EUR5bn. About 95% of this total is invested in 380 funds from private equity firms worldwide, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. Enders expects assets under management to double through organic growth. This year, Sopep will launch an infrastructure fund and a buyout fund of funds.

DEGI, which was taken over by Aberdeen Property Investors on 28 March 2008, has stated that last year it invested EUR1.7bn. The occupancy rate for properties in the portfolios of its five open-ended funds as of 28 February 2009 ranged from 93.3% for the DEGI Europa fund and 100% for the DEGI Europe Retail, while the one-year performance ranged from 4.4% (compared with 4.7% one year ago) for the DEGI Europa to 5% (compared with 4.5%) for the DEGI Europe Retail.Assets total roughly EUR6bn. The manager says the evolution of prices and returns have now extended the number of markets on which investments may be attractive. Among the markets which have now become affordable are the UK, France, and Germany.