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20/02/2009

Monde - Le Comité technique de l?OICV se renforce

Les pays dits émergents vont prendre plus d"importance au sein de l"Organisation internationale des commissions de valeurs (OICV ou IOSCO). Le Comité technique de l"OICV, qui compte actuellement quatorze participants, a décidé d"inviter trois poids lourds de l"économie mondiale à devenir membres à part entière, à savoir le Brésil, la Chine et l"Inde. Les autorités de marchés de ces trois pays (CVM pour le Brésil, CSRC pour la Chine et Sebi pour l"Inde), déjà membres du Comité des marchés émergents de l"organisation, devraient rejoindre le Comité technique à l"occasion de sa prochaine réunion de juin. « Les nouveaux membres ont été choisis sur la base de la taille de leurs marchés de capitaux, le caractère international de leur marchés et le développement de leurs autorités et systèmes réglementaires », indique l"OICV dans un communiqué.
20/02/2009

Suisse - Un avocat dénonce "la veulerie" d?UBS

Dans un entretien à L"Agefi suisse, Charles Poncet, avocat à Genève, estime qu"avec la communication des noms des clients d"UBS, « les Américains ont bien joué le coup et on ne peut que déplorer la veulerie d"UBS » qui n"a pas pris ses responsabilités car « plutôt que de se se confondre en excuses auprès de ces clients et d"assumer sa décision de les trahir, la banque a choisi de demander à la Finma (l’Autorité fédérale de surveillance des marchés financiers) de la couvrir. Car celle-ci n"aurait jamais ordonné la diffusion de ces noms de son propre chef, et sans véritables bases légales ».
20/02/2009

United States - Head of private banking at Citi joins BGI

John Longley, who was previously head of private banking for the United States and Canada at Citigroup in New York, will join iShares (Barclays Global Investors) in San Francisco this spring, as head of national accounts, the Wall Street Journal reports. He will be director of strategy, and will lead a team in charge of developing distribution of ETFs via partnerships with national and regional banks and broker-dealers. At Citi, which is dissolving its wealth management division, private banking activities will now become part of the investment bank.
20/02/2009

United States - FBI tracks down Allen Stanford

The FBI has found the billionaire Allen Stanford in Fredericksburg, Virginia, according to a spokesman for the FBI, Richard Kolko, in a statement relayed by several press agencies. Stanford is accused of a USD8bn fraud by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Stanford, who has been missing since the accusations of fraud were made public, has still not been arrested.
20/02/2009

United States - Criminal proceedings against R. Allen Stanford

According to sources with knowledge of the case, civil proceedings filed by the SEC against R. Allen Stanford will now be joined by criminal charges made by the FBI in Fredericksburg, Virginia, the Wall Street Journal reports. The objective is to establish whether Stanford set up a massive Ponzi-type pyramid scheme similar to that of Bernard Madoff.
20/02/2009

Switzerland - UBS faces fine

The Financial Times reports that, in the wake of an investigation by the tax authorities of UBS, which is accused of abetting tax evasion by its US clients, UBS has agreed to a settlement. It will pay the US authorities a fine of USD780m. Banking confidentiality will no longer apply to some clients.
20/02/2009

United Kingdom - LSE joins consortium to acquire LCH.Clearnet

The Financial Times reports that the London Stock Exchange (LSE) has joined the consortium led by the British broker ICAP, alongside ten investment banks including Société Générale and Morgan Stanley. The consortium will launch a bid to acquire the London-based clearing-house LCH.Clearnet.
20/02/2009

EU - CDS: Market actors rally for European centralised chamber of compensation

Les Echos reports that the major actors on the credit derivatives market yesterday agreed to ?use a centralised chamber of compensation, based in the European Union, for eligible European credit default swaps (CDS) by the end of July.? The EU government in Brussels has been demanding since October 2008 that the profession organise such a centralised organisation itself for these financial instruments, which are supposed to provide coverage against the risk of default by debt issuers.
20/02/2009

United States - Profits up at Morningstar

In 2008, Morningstar earned consolidated operating profits up 18.6% to USD139.1m, on revenues up 15.5% to USD502.5m. Net profits totalled USD92.5m, or USD1.88 per share, compared with USD73.9m and USD1.53 per share in 2007.Joe Mansueto, chairman and CEO, estimates that the past year was good overall, but that the increase in revenues slowed significantly in fourth quarter. He also emphasizes that 13% of revenues were from commissions based on assets, while the strong downturn on the markets had a negative impact on inflows.
20/02/2009

Spain - Santander facing another lawsuit

The law firm Cremades & Calvo Sotelo, which has already coordinated proceedings against Santander by several parties over the Madoff affair, on Thursday announced that subscribers to the real estate fund Santander Banif Inmobiliario are planning to file a suit against Santander, Handelsblatt reports. They accuse the bank of orchestrating and aggravating a liquidity shortage in the fund.
20/02/2009

United Arab Emirates - Bank bailout plan in preparation

La Tribune reports that a government plan to support the banks is under preparation in Dubai, and the prospect of the program was enough to breathe new life into the stock markets (which gained 5.38% on Thursday and are up 8% for the week). ?If we want banks to continue lending to the real estate sector, the government will need to come to their aid,? said sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, in charge of economic evaluation, La Tribune reports.
20/02/2009

United States - Heads of management firms making out better than bankers

On Wall Street, bankers will have to go without bonuses and agree to work for one dollar per year, but this wave of austerity had not affected the heads of the major mutual fund management firms, the Wall Street Journal reports. Their pay has been cut, but by much less. On average, equities funds in the United States lost 39% last year, but the pay scales of directors of management firms are tied to profits for the business, not the performance of funds. In addition, management firms have generally not received financial assistance from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), which comes with an obligation to limit management pay scales. At State Street, which has claimed aid from TARP, however, the CEO, Ronald E. Logue, will be paid only USD1m in 2008, down from USD20.7m in 2007. But non-cash benefits (car, bodyguard, etc), which were worth USD35,000 in 2007, will certainly be increased.
20/02/2009

Spain - 70% of Madoff victims accept Santander offer

Santander announced on Thursday that 70% of its retail clients affected by the Madoff scandal, those who had invested in the Optimal Strategy US Equity fund, have accepted a settlement offered to them by the Spanish bank, while 7% to 9% have refused the offer and preferred to continue with their class action lawsuit against the bank, Cinco Días reports.
20/02/2009

United Kingdom - Citigroup recruits a head from Cheyne Capital

Citigroup is replacing Nick Roe, who has been European and global head of prime finance since March 2008, and who becomes global head of prime finance, with Mark Harrison, COO of Cheyne Capital, as European head of prime finance. Hedge Week reports that Harrison, who founded Carlyle Blue Wave after leaving Deutsche Bank, where he was international head of prime brokerage and securities lending, will be in charge of securities lending and prime brokerage for Europe at Citi, and will be based in London, like Roe.
20/02/2009

Germany - DWS to overhaul bond and money market fund ranges

Asoka Wöhrmann, who will become head of FI management at DWS, replacing Heinz Fesser, has told the Financial Times Deutschland that the Deutsche Bank management firm is planning to reduce the number of bond funds on offer from 70 to 30, and to ?drastically? reduce the number of money market funds on offer. The bond range will be composed of funds with more clearly readable risk profiles. For money market funds, there will be two sub-groups with different risk levels, which will invest in assets with different maturities.
20/02/2009

Germany - DWS: Increase in proportion of assets intermediated by IFAs

DWS has announced that in 2008, approximately 77% of its assets came from Germany, compared with 71% the previous year, while the proportion of assets in Europe ex-Germany is down by corresponding proportions, to 23%. The Deutsche Bank group’s fund manager also states that the proportion of assets intermediated by the bank’s own network has increased by one percentage point to 49%, while assets intermediated by IFAs (and brokerage networks or major distributors) increased 4% in one year, to 21% of assets under management.
20/02/2009

Luxembourg - Sal. Oppenheim spins off shareholding

Sal. Oppenheim announced on Thursday that it will be transferring possession of its stakes in publicly traded companies to an independent holding company, whose financing will be entirely provided by about 40 family shareholders, who have all recently subscribed to a EUR200m capital increase at the bank.The holding company will control a 28.6% stake in Arcandor, a 20% stake in IVG Immobilien, and a 20% stake in Continental, held on behalf of the Schaeffler family and the new affiliate Sal. Oppenheim Private Equity Partners. The operation will allow the private bank to concentrate on its wealth management and investment banking professions.
20/02/2009

Switzerland - Reichmuth to launch a new fund of hedge funds to replace Matterhorn

The private bank Reichmuth & Co on Thursday expressed regrets that the Swiss financial markets surveillance authority (Finma) refused its application to create a side pocket containing about one quarter of assets in the Matterhorn fund of hedge funds, which has undergone losses of about 8.5% of its assets due to its Madoff investments (see Newsmanagers of 15 December 2008). The fund will now be liquidated, and about 50% of assets will be redeemed to investors in April. The remainder will be paid on a quarterly basis, and Reichmuth predicts that redemptions will be completed by the end of 2010 at the latest. Until then, as the fund generated performance of 7.4% per year from its launch in 1997 until the end of 2008, compared with 4.2% for the HFRI fund of funds index, Reichmuth has decided to launch another product in the near future using the same strategy.
20/02/2009

Germany - Scope appeases real estate fund investors

The Scope agency on Thursday published its 2008 annual report on 31 open-ended real estate funds in Germany. 15 of these funds had their ratings improved, while twelve received a downgrade, three remained unchanged, and one, the Degi German Business, received a rating (of AA+), while it had no rating in 2007. Only the WestInvest ImmoValue received a AAA rating, but it is a product reserved to institutional investor clients of the savings banks. Scope awarded only one D rating, to the Euro ImmoProfil fund from iii-investments, which received a B rating in 2007.
20/02/2009

Italy - Sator buys a majority stake in Banca Profilo

The private equity fund Sator will acquire a majority stake in Banca Profilo by subscribing to a EUR110m capital increase at 20 cents per share. The deal marks the return of Matteo Arpe, CEO and largest shareholder in Sator, to the foreground, the Wall Street Journal notes. Arpe was CEO of Capitalia before its acquisition by UniCredit in 2007, the newspaper notes.
20/02/2009

Spain - 291 guaranteed funds will mature this year

VDOS Stochastics reports that 291 Spanish guaranteed funds with total assets of EUR22.09bn (+17%) will mature in 2009, Funds People reports.Of this total, 176 are equities funds, while 115 are bond funds, with respective assets under management of EUR9.6bn and EUR12.49bn.VDOS states that only two of the guaranteed funds maturing this year have over EUR1bn in assets, the BBVA Extra Tesoreria (EUR3.5bn) and the BBVA Extra 5 Garantizado (EUR1.9bn).
20/02/2009

Spain - Best-performing hedge funds are the most heavily penalised

Funds People has noted that the Valórica Global, the best Spanish hedge fund, with performance of 11.78% in 2008, was also one of the funds which suffered the heaviest redemptions. Its assets were reduced to EUR70m at the end of December, compared with EUR90m at the end of July. Also hard-hit was the BBVA & Partners Retorno Absoluto, which has fallen to EUR30m from EUR50m at the end of July, while it showed gains of 4.9% for last year as a whole.In total, assets in Spanish hedge funds and funds of hedge funds as of 31 December totalled about EUR1bn, compared with EUR1.6bn at the end of July.
20/02/2009

Spain - Massive redemptions from Mosaic Iberia

Renta 4 has notified the CNMV that as of 31 December, its Pictet fund of hedge funds, the Mosaic Iberia, received redemption demands in a single day amounting to more than 20% of its assets, Funds People reports. At the end of November, assets totalled EUR1.75m.
20/02/2009

United States - Citigroup loses head of private banking

Investment News reports that, according to an internal memo at Citigroup, John Longley is leaving his job as CEO of Citi Private Bank for the US and Canada to pursue other interests. He will be replaced in the interim by Mark Connolly and Richard Ditzio as co-CEOs; they will report to Ned Kelly, global banking head. Connolly was head of wealth management activities for the US bank (which also includes Citi Fiduciary Services), while Ditzio was head of high net worth private clients.
20/02/2009

France - Promotions at CAAM RE

Nicolas Simon and Nicolas Kert have been appointed as CEO and CIO at Crédit Agricole Asset Management Real Estate (CAAM RE). Previously, Simon had been deputy CEO at Crédit Agricole Asset Management Real Estate since 2005, and Kert was head of asset and portfolio management for all real estate funds at CAAM RE since 2008.
20/02/2009

Europe - Use of open architecture declines at banks

Sales of third party funds distributed by European banks are expected to fall in favour of house products from captive management firms and savings accounts, Ignites Europe reports in its 19 February edition. Cristobal Mendez de Vigo, head of distribution and development at F&C, says the commitment of banks to open architecture has been knocked back five years.
20/02/2009

Switzerland - Capital increase for CSA RES oversubscribed

Credit Suisse announced on Thursday that a CHF200m capital increase for CSA Real Estate Switzerland (CSA RES) attracted subscriptions of CHF1.07bn. As of the end of January, the fund had a portfolio worth over CHF4bn. Credit Suisse also announced that a further subscription period may be opened in second quarter for the fund, which had been closed to investors since 8 January 2004.
20/02/2009

Iceland - Finance jobs in danger

Up to 40% of employees in Icelandic finance (including those in asset management) will lose their jobs, Ignites Europe estimates in its 19 February edition.
19/02/2009

Spain - Harbinger Capital shorts BBVA and Popular

According to the CNMV, the alternative management firm Harbinger Capital, led by Philip Falcone, is continuing to bet on a falling share price for BBVA and Banco Popular, Cotizalia reports. The fund has declared short positions amounting to 0.56% of capital in BBVA (compared with 0.39% in October), and 0.75% of capital in Popular.Since investors have been required to declare short positions to the regulator whenever they exceed 0.25% of capital in a firm, shares in BBVA and Popular have respectively lost 45% and 50% of their value.
19/02/2009

Germany - Sustainable development funds underperform

According to calculations by Feri covering 42 sustainable development funds on sale in Germany, products in this category last year suffered an average loss in Euros of 35.42%, while the MSCI World Standard Core index in US dollars lost 31.60%, Handelsblatt reports.The best results in the category were for the Liga-Pax-Cattolico-Union fund from Union Investment, whose selection of shares that comply with the principles of the Catholic church is undertaken by the Milan-based firm E-Capital: the fund shows losses in 2008 of 28.74%. However, funds invested in small and midcaps tend to amplify the movements of the stock markets, and products such as the Fortis Green Future and the SEB-Oekolux show respective losses of 45.84% and 41.08%.

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