Confrontés à la crise de la dette dans la zone euro, au ralentissement de la croissance en Chine, à l'éventualité d’un nouvel assouplissement quantitatif aux Etats-Unis et aux retombées des printemps arabes, les investisseurs ont limité ces derniers temps leur appétit pour le risque et réduit leur exposition à l’Europe et aux marchés émergents asiatiques.Durant la dernière semaine de juin, les fonds d’actions ont ainsi subi des rachats pour un montant de 7,7 milliards de dollars alors que les fonds obligataires enregistraient une collecte nette de 4,7 milliards de dollars, selon des estimations communiquées par EPFR Global.Sur l’ensemble du trimestre écoulé, seuls les fonds obligataires américains et globaux ont réussi à drainer plus de 10 milliards de dollars. Les fonds d’actions japonaises ont terminé le trimestre sur une collecte de 5,6 milliards de dollars et de 5,49 milliards sur le premier semestre, à comparer à une collecte de moins de 2 milliards de dollars pour les six premiers mois de 2011.En revanche, les fonds d’actions européennes ont subi leur plus forte décollecte trimestrielle depuis le troisième trimestre 2008. Après un très bon départ, les fonds d’actions émergentes ont subi des rachats pour un montant de 10,5 milliards de dollars sur l’ensemble du deuxième trimestre, avec plus de 8 milliards de dollars à mettre sur le compte des fonds d’actions asiatiques hors Japon. La collecte des fonds obligataires high yield s’est tarie à la mi-mai et les fonds d’actions de dividende ont subi des rachats en juin pour la première fois depuis plus de deux ans.Les fonds monétaires ont terminé le trimestre sur une décollecte de 19,67 milliards de dollars, qui s’explique par des rachats sur les fonds monétaires américains de 28,39 milliards de dollars. En Europe, les fonds monétaires ont enregistré une collecte de 6,5 milliards de dollars au deuxième trimestre.Sur six mois, la décollecte des fonds monétaires atteint 115,35 milliards de dollars contre un peu plus de 49 milliards de dollars au premier semestre 2011.

L'UFF, la première banque conseil en gestion de patrimoine de France entend tirer profit des temps de crise. En recrutant plus et mieux ses conseillers, en lançant des fonds d'opportunités avec des sociétés de gestion partenaires et enfin, comme l'explique Thierry Guérillot, en profitant des exagérations à la baisse des marchés d'actions et du potentiel que possèdent actuellement le non-coté ou les actifs réels en termes de diversification et de rentabilité. Dès la rentrée, la gamme de l'UFF s'étoffera dans ce sens...

Kneip, a provider of services to the fund industry, has appointed Mario Mantrisi, an executive member of the board of director and former head of product management and innovation, to the position of chief strategist and research officer, Investment Europe reports.

BaFin and the FMA have issued sales licenses for Germany and Austria, respectively, to two share classes in the GLG Financials Alternative Fund, an Irish-registered product which deploys the GLG financials long/short strategy launched in 2002. The portfolio of the UCITS product is composed of 30 to 60 positions; it is managed by David Sanders and Stephen Holliday.Minimum subscription is set at EUR1,000 for the retail share class (IE00B73DP106) and EUR100,000 for the institutional share class (IE00B771GJ57).

Swiss & Global Asset Management on 29 June listed four actively-managed ETFs for trading on the Active ETF segment of the Xetra electronic platform from Deutsche Börse. These include the primary listings of Luxembourg-registered funds which are part of the Julius Bär Smart Equity product range, replicating MSCI indices. TER for the products range from 0.60% to 0.70%.

On 29 June, the Chinese securities commission (CSRC) issued a sales license for two ETFs launched by companies with status as Qualified Domestic Institutional Investors (QDII). They are the Hang Seng Index ETC from China AMC and the Hang Seng China Enterprise fund from E-Fund. The license also covers feeder funds for these two products. Subscriptions are expected to begin in early July, with official launch in early August.

The TCW Group has recruited David Loevinger, a former senior coordinator for Chinese affairs at the Treasury. He will join the emerging markets division of the firm as management director and analyst for sovereign debt. TCW has more than USD9bn in assets under management in emerging markets, a statement says.

Convictions Asset Management has awarded an execution mandate for fixed income transactions to BNP Paribas Securities Services. Convictions AM, whose assets under management currently total about EUR630m, would like its portfolio managers to concentrate on analysis, research and allocation of investments, in order to adapt to difficult market conditions. The asset management firm has chosen BNP Paribas SS, which already held a five-year outsourcing mandate for middle and back office functions. The outsourcing of front office functions is a new trend in the asset management sector, with Convictions AM one of the first exemplars.

The School of Management at the University of Strasbourg (EM Strasbourg) and CCR Asset Management have announced that they are teaming up to create a chair in behavioural finance. The chair will be funded for three years, and will be led by three researcher-teachers in the LaRGE finance speicalist research laboratory: Marie-Hélène Broihanne, Patrick Roger, and Maxime Merli, who will direct the effort. Research in behavioural finance questions the rationality of investors, behavioural biases in financial decision-making and the impact of these biases on financial markets. “This financing will allow us to develop relationships with colleagues in North America working in these areas, to have access to original databases, which are currently indispensable for the analysis of investor behaviour,” explains Merli in a statement. CCR Asset Management feels that supporting academic research is “a necessary complement to traditional analysis (micro, macro, fundamental, technical, etc), in order to allow us to better understand our clients and better comprehend the markets,” says Lorenzo Ballester, chairman and CEO of CCR AM. The collaboration between researchers at EM Strasbourg and CCR Asset Mangaement has already resulted in two studies. The first, undertaken in partnership with Morningstar in June 2011, found that finance professionals have too much confidence, a bias which influences their financial risk-taking. The second study focuses on investor sentiment and its impact on financial markets. It was presented at the annual conference held by CCR Asset Management in Paris on 28 June 2012, which was attended by nearly 250 professionals.

Sébastien Le Louarn, who most recently had been a senior private banker in the major private investor team at the Indosuez Banque Privée, has joined the management team at Reyl & Cie France “recently,” as director and senior portfolio manager.In his new role. Le Louarn will be in charge of developing and leading the investment advising range for private companies and advising to entrepreneurs. Le Louan, an equestrian jumping competitor, will also be hoping to develop a range more specifically aimed at the equestrian community at Reyl & Cie (France). The arrival of Le Louarn comes soon after that of Virginie Robert (see Newsmanagers of 11 June), who joined from Raymond James Asset Management.

The future of CA Cheuvreux will soon be a story written outside Crédit Agricole, Agefi reports. The bank has initiated a sales process for its equity broker, which it hopes to complete by mid-July, or failing that, to relaunch the process this autumn. Among the two or three potential buyers are the French firm Kepler Capital Markets. Last year, Cheuvreux lost its parent company EUR70m, according to the CA CIB annual report, on net banking proceeds of EUR164m. The cost of a social plan, and the form it will take, as buyer or acquirer, represents a key element in negotiations, the newspaper adds.

The Wall Street Journal reports that at a time when many US money market funds are pulling out of Europe, others, seeking higher returns, are going in deeper.Eight of 20 US money market funds with the highest exposure to Europe in terms of assets as of the end of May have increased their allocation to the euro zone between 31 Augsut 2011 and 31 May this year, among them BlackRock and Goldman Sachs.As an example, the exposure of the Goldman Sachs Financial Square Government Fud has increased to USD12.7bn from USD7.7bn. For the BlackRock Cash Fund Institutional and Prime funds, allocations have been increased to USD13.1bn from USD9.1bn and USD4.9bn from USD3.4bn, respectively.

According to information obtained by Newsmanagers, Eric Boutchnei has quit his job. The co-founder of Métropole Gestion with François-Marie Wojcik and Isabel Levy, deputy CEO oand director of strategy at the firm, is said to have quit on Friday last week. Divergences in point of view at the asset management firm specialised in value style management is reportedly the cause of the departure of Boutchnei, who two years ago gave up his role as head of development to François Carlotti. The co-founder of Métropole Gestion then took over responsibility for the firm’s strategy, and became involved in issues at the asset management firm related to new regulatory constraints on institutional investors (Solvency, etc.). The departure of Carlotti from the asset management firm one year after his recruitment, with more mixed results in terms of development, will not have an effect. Boutchnei leaves a firm which he created with his partners following their departure from CCR in 2002, and which now has EUR2bn in assets. Boutchnei, a member of the SFAF, a graduate of the Centre d’Etudes Supérieures de Banque (1985),and of the Institut Technique Bancaire (1981), Boutchnei began his career as a financial analyst at BNP. Between 1985 and 2000, he was also deputy CEO of BNP Paribas Equities, and then CEO of Julius Baer France, before participating in the creation of Métropole Gestion and serving as a director there

The financial services provider State Street Corporation on 29 June announced that it is extending its partnership with Mitsui Fudosan, a Japanese real estate firm, to offer administration and trustee services for two new real estate funds, Moorgate Property Unit Trust and Mark Lane Property Unit Trust. State Street had originally been retained by Mitsui Fudosan, one of the largest Japanese real estate asset management firms, in 2008, to assist it in its development on the real estate market in the United Kingdom, providing administration services for the 5 Hanover Square Unit Trust. The decision by Mitsui Fudosan to extend its range of Jersey Property Unit Trusts (JPUTS) reflects a rising interest on the part of investors in the real estate market in the United Kingdom.

As of the end of June, Roman G. Trageiser, formerly of Allianz Global Investors (AGI), left the operational management of the fund administration platform Dealis Fund Operations, founded in late 2008 by Deka and AGI (see Newsmanagers of 19 December 2008), and of the Luxembourg affiliate of Dealis. Since the beginning of May, he has been replaced as CEO of the German firm by Bernd Franke.

Following the resignation of Anja Mikus, who will be leaving the asset management firm on 31 July, Union Investment has recruited Björn Jeach, director of global investment solutions for Germany and a member of the board of directors in the private wealth management unit at Deutsche Bank, as director of portfoio management. He will be responsible for a fund management team of 240 people, and assets of about EUR140bn.

Sean Chang, who has recently been recruited from HSBC Global Asset Management (see Newsmanagers of 3 May), has announced as head of Asian debt that Baring Asset Management in Hong Kong that the British asset management firm is planning to launch new Asian bond funds, and to more widely promote existing funds in new distribution channels, Asian Investor reports. The Asian Debt Fund, a UCITS fund domiciled in Ireland, for which Chang is the lead manager, has recently received a sales license from the Hong Kong authorities. Chang has also announced that Barings is studying the possibility of also launching bond/country funds.

Facing a debt crisis in the euro zone, slowing growth in China, a potential new round of quantitative easing in the United States and a continuation of the Arab Spring, investors have recently had a limited appetite for risk, and have reduced their exposure to Europe and to Asian emerging markets. In the last week of June, equity funds saw redemptions totalling EUR7.7bn, while bond funds posted net inflows of USD4.7bn, according to estimates from EPFR Global. Over the past quarter overall, only US and global bond funds have managed to attract more tan USD10bn in assets. Japanese equity funds finished the quarter with inflows of USD5.6bn, and USd5.49bn in first quarter, compared with inflows of less than USD2bn in the first six months of 2011. However, European equity funds have seen their heaviest quarterly outflows since third quarter 2008. After a very good start, emerging market equity funds have seen redemptions totalling USD10.5bn for second quarter as a whole, with over USD8bn to contribute to Asia ex Japan equity funds. Inflows to high yield bond funds slowed in mid-May, and dividend equity funds underwent redemptions in June for the first time in over two years. Money market funds finished the quarter with outflows of USD19.67bn, which is due to redemptions from US money market funds of USD28.39bn. In Europe, money market funds posted inflows of USD6.5bn in second quarter. In the past six months, inflows to money markets total USD115.35bn, compared with slightly over USD49bn in first half 2011.

The board of directors at the private management bank Notenstein, an affiliate of Raiffeisen Switzerland, will be taking on four new members, according to a statement published on 29 June. The candidates in the mid-August election will include Günter Haag, a member of the board at KPMG Switzerland, Heinz Karrer, CEO of Axpo Holding SA< Maya Salzmann, vice president of Bright Entertainment and former managing director of Private Banking at Credit Suisse, and Thomas C. Weissmann, chairman of the board of directors at ALSO-Actebis Holding. In addition to chairman Pierin Vincenz, CEO of the Raiffeisen Switzerland group, and Patrik Gisel, his replacement at Raiffeisen, are already members of the board at the former Wegelin bank. Notenstein has 700 employees, and its assets under management total about CHF21bn.

Barclays has today (Monday, July 2nd) announced the resignation of its chairman, Marcus Agius. The search for a new successor both from within the existing board members and from outside will be led by Sir John Sunderland and will commence today. Mr Agius will remain in post until an orderlu succession is assured and Sir Michael Rake has been appointed deputy chairman Commenting, Marcus Agius said, “It has been my privilege to serve as Barclays Chairman for the past six years. This has been a period of unprecedented stress and turmoil for the banking industry in particular and for the wider world economy in general. Barclays has been well served by an excellent executive team - led, first by John Varley, and now by Bob Diamond – which has worked constructively with a strong and supportive Board of directors. Barclays has remained resilient throughout the crisis, and has worked hard to ensure that today it is a strong, well capitalised and profitable business. But last week’s events – evidencing as they do unacceptable standards of behaviour within the bank – have dealt a devastating blow to Barclays reputation. As Chairman, I am the ultimate guardian of the bank’s reputation. Accordingly, the buck stops with me and I must acknowledge responsibility by standing aside».The Board has also agreed to launch an audit of its business practices.

Simon Borrows, the new CEO of 3i, is seeking to bring a fresh start to the veteran British private equity firm, closing six offices and cutting staff at six more, Les Echos reports. One third of all jobs at the firm will be affected. Fundraising has been extended for one year to the end of 2013. The share price of 3i has fallen by more than 80% in five years.

Since the end of last week, the listings of the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange (LSE) include 1,006 products in the area of ETPs. The 1,000 product threshold was passed with the addition of 64 ETPs from UBS Global Asset Management, which is the largest number of products added in a single day since the launch of the segment in 2000. These ETFs in one fell swoop bring the number of ETFs from UBS Global AM listed in London from 2 to 66. They replicate numerous indices and providers, such as FTSE, MSCI, S&P, Markit iBoxx and Euro Stoxx, for European, American, Asian and emerging markets, as well as bonds and commodities.Since the beginning of 2012, the LSE has added 74 ETFs and 14 ETCs.

UFF, the top wealth advising bank in France, is planning to take advantage of the times of crisis. By recruiting more and better advisers, launching opportunistic funds with partner asset management firms, and lastly, as Thierry Guérillot explains, by taking advantage of exaggerated downsides on equity markets, and the current potential which private equity and real assets have in terms of diversification and profitability. The UFF product range will be moving in this direction from this autumn.

In June, the Chinese State Office of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) issued Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII) quotas totalling USD1.35bn, Z-Ben Advisors reports. Among the beneficiaries who did not have quotas previously are BlackRock Trust, Northern Trust, Mercuries Life Insurance, American International Insurance, Capital Research and Management, City of London Investment and Okasan Asset Management.

Les dépenses de consommation des ménages américains ont stagné en mai pour la première fois en six mois, en raison notamment de la baisse des achats automobiles sur fond de croissance ralentie des revenus, montrent les statistiques officielles. Le chiffre d’avril a en outre été révisé à la baisse et ne montre plus qu’une hausse de 0,1%, trois fois inférieure à celle annoncée initialement.

Le FBI a annoncé l’arrestation du frère de Bernard Madoff, condamné à 150 ans de prison pour une escroquerie financière portant sur des dizaines de milliards de dollars. Peter Madoff, le frère cadet de l’escroc, devait être présenté dans la journée à un juge fédéral de Manhattan. Il est soupçonné d’implication dans la fraude mise au point par son frère.

Un cadre de la filiale française de la banque suisse UBS a été mis en examen hier pour «complicité de démarchage illicite» et «blanchiment». Il s’agit de la première mise en examen dans cette enquête menée par le tribunal de grande instance (TGI) de Paris sur la banque suisse. Le parquet de Paris avait ouvert le 12 avril une information judiciaire sur les pratiques d’UBS en France, soupçonnée de montages favorisant l'évasion fiscale. Des perquisitions avaient eu lieu ces derniers jours dans les bureaux du groupe. «C’est un développement classique dans ce type d’enquête. UBS France coopère pleinement avec la justice», indique un proche de la banque.

L’inflation dans la zone euro est restée inchangée en juin à 2,4% en rythme annuel, son plus bas niveau depuis 16 mois, montre l’estimation «flash» d’Eurostat.Ce chiffre, conforme au consensus des estimations d'économistes interrogés par Reuters, laisse la voie libre à la Banque centrale européenne pour abaisser ses taux la semaine prochaine.

L’Agence France Trésor annonce l’adjudication, le jeudi 5 juillet, d’un montant compris entre 7 et 8 milliards d’euros d’obligations assimilables du Trésor (OAT). Cette opération portera sur les lignes 3,75% octobre 2019, 3,0% avril 2022 et 4,25% octobre 2023. L’AFT aussi annoncé l’annulation de l’adjudication de titres de dette de moyen (BTAN) et long terme (oAT) prévue initialement le 2 août. L’AFT précise qu’elle a déjà émis au cours du premier semestre 117,7 milliards d’euros de BTAN et d’OAT, soit 66% du programme annuel d'émission 2012.

Le crédit au secteur privé s’est contracté contre toute attente en mai dans la zone euro, de 0,1%, alors que le consensus Reuters donnait une hausse de 0,1%. La croissance annuelle de M3 a par ailleurs dépassé les prévisions, atteignant 2,9% en mai contre 2,3% attendus. Sa moyenne mobile sur trois mois donne une croissance de 2,8% sur la période mars-mai contre 2,7% sur février-avril.