Amundi vient de recruter Gert-Jan Verhagen en qualité de responsable ETF, Indexing & Smart Beta Sales au Benelux, rapporte le site spécialisé Fondsnieuws. Gert-Jan Verhagen, qui travaillait précédemment chez BlackRock en qualité de responsable de iShares Nederloand, a pris ses fonctions le 1er juin, précise-t-on. Il est rattaché à Eric ven Eyken, general manager Benelux, et Fannie Wurtz, global head sales Amundi ETF & Index.

Quelques semaines après avoir finalisé le rachat des activités de Barclays Wealth Managers (Barclays WM) en Espagne et avoir rebaptisé les fonds de Barclays, InverCaixa Gestion commence à faire le ménage dans sa gamme de fonds. Selon le site spécialisé Funds People, quatre fonds de Barclays WM vont en effet être absorbés par des fonds d’InverCaixa. Dans le détail, les véhicules FonCaixa – Bolsa USA, FonCaixa – Bolsa Europa, FonCaixa – Bonos Largo et FonCaixa – Bonos Corporativos sont respectivement absorbés par les fonds FonCaixa Cartera Bolsa USA Divisa Cubierta, FonCaixa Bolsa Gestion Europa, FonCaixa Renta Fija Alta Calidad Crediticia et FonCaixa Renta Fija Corporativa. Par ailleurs, 23 autres fonds provenant de Barclays WM pourraient également faire l’objet d’une fusion avec des produits InverCaixa existants.

Le Fonds de Consolidation et de Développement des Entreprises (FCDE) a annoncé lundi 8 juin la levée d’un nouveau fonds de 200 millions d’euros, le FCDE II. Les souscripteurs historiques tels que Bpifrance, CNP Assuranaces, BNP Paribas, AXA, Allianz ou AG2R La Mondiale réinvestissent à hauteur de 70%, tandis que six nouveaux investisseurs significatifs font leur apparition représentant 30% des montants levés : le FEI, Natixis Private Equity, Pactinvest, Malakoff Mederic, Amundi et Swen Capital Partners.Le fonds FCDE II a pour objectif d’investir dans des PME et des ETI à fort potentiel et entend investir des tickets de 5 à 25 millions d’euros pour prendre des positions minoritaires ou majoritaires sous la forme d’augmentation de capital et de transmission, indique un communiqué.En cinq ans, le FCDE a réalisé 17 opérations (entreprises dont le chiffre d’affaires varie de 20 à 300 millions d’euros) et a déjà retourné plus de 116 millions d’euros à ses investisseurs.

p { margin-bottom: 0.25cm; line-height: 120%; } Franklin Templeton France has recruited Edouard Guilloux for its Institutional Relations department. Guilloux will report to Ariane Hober, director of sales for Franklin Templeton in France. Guilloux began his career in 2001 at BNP Paribas Cardif, as a financial controller. In 2006, he joined the teams at BNP Paribas Investment Partners as a private manager. In 2013, he was promoted at BNP Investment Partners to become head of relationships with institutional clients in the banking/insurance sector.

p { margin-bottom: 0.25cm; line-height: 120%; } 49% of the 200 largest US institutional asset management firms actively use one or more social networks, including LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook, according to a study by BackBay Communications of a sample of asset management firms with total assets under management of USD9bn, and nearly USD5tr. Presence on social networks appears to depend on the size of the company. About 74% of the 50 largest asset management firms are active users of social networks, compared with about 56% of the followoign quartile. In the third quartile, the percentage of users falls to 44%, and in the last quartile, it is only 22%. The two most used channels are LinkedIn and Twitter. About 38% of the 200 largest asset management firms are present on LinkedIn, and an equivalent percentage is present on Twitter. 23% use Facebook. Most companies used LinkedIn as a platform to present their activities, and as an alternative tool for job offers. However, a growing number of managers are using LinkedIn to exchange original content. Twitter is primarily used as an information distribution platform for the firm. Most of the large asset management firms use social networks to promote their marketing strategies.

p { margin-bottom: 0.25cm; line-height: 120%; } Legg Mason Global Asset Management, which has USD703bn in assets under management, has reinforced its partnership with Banca Popolare di Milano, with the aim of extending its range of products on offer on the Italian market. Through this new agreement, the Italian bank becomes the largest distributor of Martin Currie funds in Italy, as the latter company was recently acquired by the Legg Mason group and is now one of its affiliates. The boutique, based in the United Kingdom, is specialised in active equity management. Italian investors will have access to the Legg Mason Martin Currie GF European Absolute Alpha fund, among others.

p { margin-bottom: 0.25cm; line-height: 120%; } Lyxor is launching the ETF UCITS ETF SMART CASH, “the first active liquidity ETF which presents itself as an innovative alternative to money market funds, savings accounts and short-term financial instruments,” on the Milan stock exchange. The ETF, which was launched on 2 March and will be available in Milan from 9 June, marks the debut of active ETFs at Lyxor. The expected returns on an annual bassis are about 20 basis points over the Eonia.

p { margin-bottom: 0.25cm; line-height: 120%; } Hedge funds have posted average growth of 0.72% in May, bringing their performance since the beginning of the year to 3.89%, according to statistics from Hedge Fund Research. In the first five months of the year, the S&P 500 benchmark index is up by only 1.75%. Hedge funds specialised in health and technologies in particular have gained 3.54% in the month of May, bringing returns for the month to 8.50%.

p { margin-bottom: 0.25cm; line-height: 120%; } The British asset management firm Waverton Investment Management has appointed William Tong as business development manager for its managed funds service team. Tong will work alongside Mark Barrington, director of marketing, to develop relationnships with financial advisers in the United Kingdom. Tong joins from Charles Stanley, where he was responsible for sales to intermediaries for the London region. Before that, he worked at Towry Law, and then, from 2011, at Evercore Pan-Asset (now Charles Stanley Pan Asset), where he was business development manager, working closely with independent financial advisers throughout the United Kingdom.

p { margin-bottom: 0.25cm; line-height: 120%; } Amundi has recruited Gert-Jan Verhagen as head of ETF, Indexing & Smart Beta Sales in Benelux, the specialist website Fondsnieuws reports. Verhagen, who had previously worked at BlackRock as head of iShares Nederland, began in his new role on 1 June, according to the site. Verhagen will report to Eric Ven Eyken, general manager Benelux, and Fannie Wurtz, global head sales Amundi ETF & Index.

p { margin-bottom: 0.25cm; line-height: 120%; } BNP Paribas Investment Partners has added to its Parvest Sicav with 3 new socially responsible investment (SRI) themes. The asset management firm is offering access to two SRI strategies - Développement Humain and Aqua, which are already available to its clients in France – to all international investors, via its Parvest fund range, on sale in more than 30 countries. Each of these funds currently has assets of over EUR1bn. Parvest Human Development is an international equity fund which invests in companies that are engaged in a socially responsible and sustainable growth process, and whose activities aim to value the quality of life for as many as possible. Parvest SMaRT Food is an international equity fund which deploys an innovative “ Sustainably Manufactured and Responsibly Transformed Food” (SmaRT Food) strategy, provided by Impax Asset Management. Lastly, in the process of registration, the Aqua strategy, which invests in international equities, has a targeted exposure to the value chain in the water sector. The management of this strategy is also provided by Impax Asset Management.

p { margin-bottom: 0.25cm; line-height: 120%; } Pictet Asset Management is opening new horizons. Following the launch of the Pictet-Chinese Local Currency Debt fund, a UCITS fund which invests in continental Chinese bonds denominated in renminbi, in March 2015, the asset management firm has received permission from the Chinese authorities to operate on the inter-bank market, the main bond market in continental China. As a result, investments are no longer limited to bonds traded in Shanghai and Shenzhen, and the fund can now accept subscriptions up to a maximum capacity of about USD100m, Pictet AM has announced. The Pictet-Chinese Local Currency Debt fund is a sub-funds of the Pictet Luxembourg-registered Sicav, domiciled in Luxembourg and compliant with the UCITS directive. For now, the fund is registered in Germany, Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Spain, Finland, France, Greece, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and lastly, Sweden.

Source, one of the largest providers of Exchange Traded Products (ETPs) in Europe, has launched the Source STOXX Eurozone Exporters UCITS ETF and the Source STOXX Japan Exporters UCITS ETF, which track the new STOXX International Exposure Indices.Peter Thompson, President of Source, said, «We are delighted to have worked with STOXX to develop these innovative new indices that will enable investors to construct their portfolios more precisely by using revenue-based indexing. We identified a particular need from our investors to gain more targeted exposure to the topical themes of currency devaluation and quantitative easing; hence these indices focus precisely on those companies in the Eurozone and Japan that have a majority of non-domestic revenues. This could be especially valuable now with both the ECB and Bank of Japan using QE, offering the potential for weaker currencies that is likely to boost exporters’ earnings."The indices’ analysis of underlying revenues can reveal important characteristics that are ignored by traditional market cap weighted indices. For instance, contrary to Japan’s reputation for being a strong exporting nation, only around 33% of the revenues of the largest 600 Japanese companies are derived from overseas earnings. STOXX uses a transparent and straight forward construction process that is consistent across both the Eurozone and Japan indices: they are constructed from those companies in the respective parent indices with at least 50% of their revenues earned from abroad, and then weighted by the product of the free-float market capitalisation and the percentage of international revenue. Individual positions are capped at 5%.Both ETFs are available in currency-hedged and unhedged versions. The Source STOXX Eurozone Exporters UCITS ETF is being launched on XETRA in EUR, with a USD-hedged version on the LSE, while the Source STOXX Japan Exporters UCITS ETF is being launched on the LSE, with a EUR-hedged version available on XETRA.

p { margin-bottom: 0.25cm; line-height: 120%; } The Spanish asset management firm Bankia Fondos has appointed Pablo Rodriguez Martos as a manager on its team dedicated to funds of funds and absolute return funds, the specialist website Funds People reports. The team is led by Alvaro Martin Sauto and oversees EUR3.85bn in assets under management. Martos, who has over 10 years of experience in fund management, joined Bankia Fondos in 2004, and since then, has served as a European equity fund manager.

p { margin-bottom: 0.25cm; line-height: 120%; } The asset management firm Nordea Asset Management has recruited Lorenzo Gonzalez for its distribution team in Spain, led by Laura Donzella, the specialist website Funds People reports. The new recruit, who has 14 years of experience in the asset management sector, joins from Bankia Fondos, where he had served as a manager of funds of funds and absolute return funds. He previously worked at Bansabadell, and at the Spanish confederation of savings banks (Confederacion Española de Cajas de Ahorro, or CECA), and as an analyst at Analistas Financieros Internacionales.

The International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) on June 8th published its final report on Good practices on reducing reliance on CRAs in Asset Management, which provides a set of good practices for reducing over-reliance on external credit ratings in the asset management industry. The report stresses the importance of asset managers having the appropriate expertise and processes in place to assess and manage the credit risk associated with their investment decisions. To help managers avoid over-reliance on external ratings, the report lists eight good practices that they may consider when resorting to external ratings. The manager’s internal assessment process should be regularly updated and applied consistently. When assessing the credit quality of their counterparties or collateral, asset managers should not rely solely on external credit ratings and consider alternative quality parameters (e.g., liquidity, valuation, correlation, etc.). Where external credit ratings are used, a downgrade should not automatically trigger the immediate sale of the asset. Should the manager/board decide to divest, the transaction is conducted within a timeframe that is in the best interests of the investors.In the report, IOSCO notes that the use of external ratings by asset managers is mainly demand-driven, as various forms of reliance on external credit ratings remain on the investor side. References to external credit ratings may derive from regulatory requirements or an investor’s own internal rules. To address these concerns, IOSCO recommends that the Financial Stability Board consider potential ways to reduce possible investor overreliance on external ratings.

Le gestionnaire d’actifs américain annonce mardi la nomination de Matthieu Louanges, managing director, comme nouveau responsable des activités de la société en France. Il assurera cette responsabilité depuis le bureau de Munich. Il est secondé par Bettina Mazzocchi et Julie-Anna Miny. Ancien gérant obligataire ayant rejoint Pimco il y a plus de 15 ans, il remplace à ce poste Emanuele Ravano, aussi responsable de l’équipe européenne « global wealth management ». Matthieu Louanges supervise également les activités de Pimco en Suisse et le groupe « institutions financières » au niveau européen.

Le déficit du budget de l’Etat français à fin avril s’est contracté à 59,8 milliards d’euros contre 64,2 milliards un an plus tôt, selon le ministère du Budget. Au 30 avril, les dépenses atteignent 135,0 milliards d’euros contre 138,6 milliards un an plus tôt, soit une baisse de 2,6%. Les recettes s'élèvent dans le même temps à 93,3 milliards contre 93,0 milliards à fin avril 2014, en hausse de 0,3%, les seules recettes fiscales nettes diminuant de 0,7%, à 90,0 milliards. L’impôt sur les sociétés est en baisse de 22,7%, à 7,0 milliards d’euros, en raison du CICE. La loi de finances pour 2015 prévoit un déficit budgétaire ramené 74,4 milliards d’euros sur l’ensemble de l’année contre 85,6 milliards en 2014.

La Commission européenne a bien reçu mardi les nouvelles propositions de la Grèce dans le cadre de la négociation d’un nouvel accord sur sa dette avec ses créanciers internationaux, a confirmé mardi un porte-parole de l’exécutif européen. «Diverses propositions circulent dont de nouvelles suggestions qui ont été reçues ce matin», a déclaré Margaritis Schinas lors d’un point de presse. Le commissaire européen aux Affaires économiques et monétaires Pierre Moscovici a rencontré lundi des représentants du gouvernement grec, a-t-il souligné. La Commission européenne, la BCE et le FMI «sont en train d'étudier avec soin ces propositions».

L’Autorité des marchés financiers attire l’attention du public sur certains produits commercialisés par Legendre Patrimoine, la dénomination commerciale de la société Global Patrimoine Investissement. Celle-ci propose des solutions de défiscalisation dans le domaine immobilier (Girardin Industriel) et différents placements dans des domaines variés, dont le secteur photovoltaïque. L’AMF «a transmis les éléments qu’elle détient sur Legendre Patrimoine et les sociétés impliquées tant dans la conception et la gestion des produits susvisés que dans leur commercialisation, au Parquet de Paris auprès duquel les investisseurs peuvent se faire connaître», souligne-t-elle dans un communiqué.

Le futur patron de la banque se heurte aux mêmes problèmes que ses prédécesseurs: une BFI trop gourmande en capital, et l'absence d'autres relais.

Le fonds de pension veut diminuer de 212 à 100 son pool de gérants pour économiser sur les frais et commissions de performance.

Selon le quotidien, les créanciers d’Athènes ont proposé la semaine dernière de prolonger la durée de vie du plan d’aide à la Grèce à fin mars 2016 en contrepartie d’une diminution du montant des retraites, d’une hausse des impôts et d’autres mesures. Des représentants de la Grèce n’ont présenté lundi aucune proposition nouvelle susceptible de parvenir à un accord.

Le Comité de Bâle veut rendre les banques plus solides et limiter les arbitrages réglementaires

La devise et les actifs locaux ont chuté au lendemain du résultat des élections, la formation d'un gouvernement de coalition à Ankara restant hypothétique.

Le MSCI doit annoncer aujourd'hui s'il intègre dans son indice émergent les actions A qui signent des hausses record depuis le début de l'année.

Bruxelles veut revoir à la baisse les exigences en capital imposées aux banques et aux assurances. Un changement très attendu par les professionnels.

Le rendement total offert par les obligations corporates a chuté en territoire négatif la semaine dernière sur le compartiment investment grade.

Le rapport annuel du Conseil d’orientation des retraites (Cor) qui sera adopté mercredi confirmera que le retour à l'équilibre du système français par répartition à moyen terme dépend de la croissance mais aussi, pour une part, de mesures draconiennes. Selon ce document obtenu par Reuters, il y aura un besoin de financement de 0,4 point de PIB en 2020, c’est-à-dire, sur la base d’une croissance moyenne du PIB de 1,5% par an, environ 9,2 milliards d’euros. Le système de retraite pourrait revenir à l'équilibre financier au début des années 2030 avec une progression moyenne de 1,5% des revenus d’activité et un taux de chômage ramené à 4,5% de la population active. Un scénario qui paraît optimiste. Le Cor introduit cependant l’hypothèse plus réaliste d’un chômage maintenu à 10% sur la période. Dans ce cas l'équilibre s'éloignerait et le besoin de financement serait encore de 0,5 point de PIB à l’horizon 2040.

Cuba et le Club de Paris, qui regroupe des pays créanciers, ont abouti à un accord sur le montant de la dette cubaine restante après le défaut de 1986, soit 15 milliards de dollars (13,3 milliards d’euros), une première étape importante vers une renégociation, ont annoncé lundi des diplomates occidentaux. Le montant de 15 milliards de dollars correspond à la dette de Cuba envers 16 pays du Club de Paris et il inclut le principal, les intérêts et les pénalités.