Mario Monti, qui est aussi ministre des Finances, doit présenter son programme économique aujourd'hui. Les taux italiens ne baissent pas

La mission de la Troïka salue des mesures « audacieuses et bienvenues » dans le budget 2012, alors que l'économie devrait se contracter de 3 %

Cette mesure de la peur ne s'exerce pas de façon aussi prononcée sur les maturités plus courtes

Donné grand vainqueur des élections de dimanche, le parti populaire prévoit aussi des mécanismes de soutien aux PME et à l'immobilier

Le resserrement du crédit complique aussi l'aboutissement de projets, en particulier les opérations situées hors des quartiers centraux

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Le marché londonien perd de son attractivité au profit de secteurs dans lesquels les perspectives de croissance sont plus élevées

La crise de la dette pourrait permettre à la finance islamique de quasiment doubler ses actifs à 1.800 milliards de dollars d’ici 2016, selon une étude de Deutsche Bank,la stagnation du crédit corporate poussant les émetteurs à chercher des solutions de financement alternatives. L’industrie des obligations islamiques (sukuk), chiffrée à 50 milliards de dollars, qui représente actuellement 1% de l’émission totale de dette, attire un nombre croissant d’émetteurs et fournit des perspectives de croissance importante des revenus de commission pour les institutions financières islamiques. La liquidité du marché a éveillé l’intérêt d’acteurs de premier plan, à l’image de Goldman Sachs qui vient de créer un programme sukuk de 2 milliards de dollars. Deutsche Bank souligne par ailleurs que le pipeline d’émissions de sukuk pourrait être alimenté par le fait que de nombreux émetteurs européens sont détenus en partie par des fonds souverains du Golfe.

Le chef de file des conservateurs grecs, Antonis Samaras, a annoncé qu’il votera cet après-midi la confiance au nouveau gouvernement d’unité afin de permettre le déblocage de la sixième tranche d’aide au pays, même s’il a refusé de signer l’engagement écrit de respecter les modalités du dernier plan de sauvetage de la Grèce. «Y a-t-il plus grand engagement que de voter la confiance au gouvernement qui a été formé pour cette raison ?», a-t-il déclaré au parlement. Le cabinet de Lucas Papadémos devrait remporter confortablement la confiance du parlement.

L’inflation est ressortie en hausse de 3,0% d’un an sur l’autre au mois d’octobre, a annoncé l’agence Eurostat. D’un mois sur l’autre, la hausse des prix s’est inscrite à 0,3%. Dans les deux cas, ces progressions sont conformes aux attentes. Le mois précédent, l’inflation avait déjà atteint 3,0% en rythme annuel.

Les fonds actions en Europe ont enregistré une décollecte nette de 17 milliards d’euros en septembre contre 26 milliards au mois d’août, a indiqué l’Efama, l’association européenne de gestion. En revanche, sur l’ensemble des fonds Ucits, la décollecte s’est fortement accélérée pour atteindre 49 milliards, soit plus du double des 20 milliards de sorties du mois précédent. Quant aux non-Ucits, les entrées ont été limitées à 4,9 milliards contre 8,1 milliards en août. L’ensemble des actifs gérés par l’industrie a baissé de près de 500 milliards depuis le début de l’année, à 7.478 milliards d’euros.

L’Autorité européenne des marchés financiers (Esma) a transmis mercredi à la Commission européenne ses propositions pour l’application de la directive AIFM sur les gestionnaires de fonds alternatifs (hedge funds, fonds immobilier, private equity). Cet épais document précise les modalités de mise en oeuvre de la directive en matière de calcul du levier dans les fonds, de responsabilité des dépositaires, et d’application des règles aux acteurs non européens. Il reviendra à Bruxelles de les reprendre à son compte, dans le courant de l’année prochaine.

La légère accalmie de ce matin aura été de courte durée. A la mi-journée, l'écart de taux entre la France et l’Allemagne est remonté à un nouveau plus haut depuis la création de la zone euro. Sur le 10 ans, il atteint 195 points de base. De même, les taux italiens sont repartis à la hausse, à 7,189% pour le 10 ans, contre 6,839% hier, grâce aux achats d’obligations italiennes par la Banque centrale européenne.

Après une entrevue en fin de matinée avec le président de la République italienne, Mario Monti a dévoilé la liste de son gouvernement. En plus de son poste de président du Conseil, l’ancien commissaire européen cumulera la fonction de ministre de l’Economie et des Finances. Il a nommé Corrado Passera, l’actuel PDG de la banque Intesa Sanpaolo, au ministère de l’Industrie, des Infrasctructures et des Transports. Enzo Moavero, un proche de Mario Monti lors de son passage à Bruxelles, sera en charge des affaires européennes.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has fined the asset management firm McInroy & Wood Limited (MWL) GBP15,050 The regulator finds that the firm failed to comply with a requirement that client assets must be held in “trust” accounts, which are clearly separated from the company’s assets. The objective is to protect clients in case the firm goes bankrupt.

Amidst rumours that the Dutch firm Rabobank was planning to sell off its 46% stake in the capital of Banque Sarasin (with 69% voting rights), the employees of the latter firm have begun to mobilise. Hundreds have attended video-conferences on sites in Basel, Zurich, Geneva, Lugano, Bern and Lucerne. The employees, fearing for their jobs, are hoping to avoid an acquisition by Julius Baer or the Raiffeisen group. According to a statement from the Swiss banking employees’ association (ASEB), employees “have approved a letter to Rabobank, asking it to take into account the long-term interests of clients of Banque Sarasin and the loyalty and engagement of its employees.” The statement from the ASEB adds that “this is also an announcement addressed to institutions that may be interested in acquiring Rabobank’s stake: employees want to continue to work at Banque Sarasin, following the sustainability principles they have embraced. They have mandated their personnel commission and the ASEB to defend their interests.” Banque Sarasin is subject to the labour conditions for banking industry employees, which state that the ASEB may intervene at the request of employee representatives.

Global investors are seeking respite from troubles in the eurozone by turning to U.S. and emerging market equities, according to the BofA Merrill Lynch Survey of Fund Managers for November to which an overall total 258 panelists with USD665 billion of assets under management participated. Globally, investors have slightly increased their exposure to equities since October’s survey. A net 5 percent of the panel is underweight equities, down from a net 7 percent a month ago. The proportion of investors overweight U.S. equities rose sharply to a net 20 percent from a net 6 percent in October. A net 27 percent of investors are overweight emerging markets, up from a net 9 percent last month. The eurozone remains the least popular region, but the proportion of investors underweight eurozone equities ticked down just one percentage point to a net 30 percent. That may appear surprising, insofar as gloom within the eurozone has intensified. A net 72 percent of European respondents to the regional survey believe Europe will experience recession in the coming 12 months, up from a net 37 percent in October. Fears of a global recession have eased. A net 31 percent of investors expect the world economy to avoid a recession, up from a net 25 percent last month. Behind the increased exposure to emerging market equities is increased faith in the resilience of China’s economy, says BofA Merrill Lynch. More than three-quarters of the panel (78 percent) expect a soft landing, with China delivering better than 7 percent growth during the year. The proportion of regional investors believing that China’s economy will weaken in the coming year has fallen to a net 25 percent from a net 47 percent in October. For the first time since March 2009, investors predict that short-term rates will fall in the next 12 months. A net 5 percent of the panel say rates will be lower a year from now, compared with a net 9 percent predicting higher rates last month – a potential signal that as concerns about inflation in emerging markets erode, the question of deflation could be on investors’ minds.

Dexia Asset Management, the asset management company of Dexia Group, has opened an office in Dubai. Sami El-Eid who heads the Bahrain office will also take responsibility for the new office in DIFC Separately, Nabil El-Asmar has been promoted and will assume responsibility for the Client Relations activity at Dexia AM’s Spanish branch, which serves the company’s Spanish, Portuguese and Andorran clients. In his new post, he reports to Javier Ruiz-Villabrille, global head of international client relationship management.

Unlike the vast majority of asset management firms whose emerging markets funds have recently adopted a “growth” orientation, M&G Investments has oped for a “highly value” and “smidcaps” approach, says Matthew Vaight, director of global equities, of the British-registered fund M&G Global Emerging Markets, which he unviled in Paris on 15 November.The product, launched on 5 February 2009, currently has nearly EUR650m in assets, compared with EUR600m at the end of 2010, with 61 positions and a turnover rate of about 25%.In general, companies whose shares are selected for the portfolio offer better returns, are better managed, or have better business models than many big names in developed countries.Currently, the fund is 21% invested in small caps, 35% in midcaps, 24% in large caps, and 16% in “mega-caps.” The portfolio is overweight on Brazilian, Mexican, Thai and South African equities, while it is underweight in South Korea, Taiwan and eastern Europe.

“Frontier markets” refers to all those fast-growing countries that remain largely ignored by most investors. Naturally, these markets are a subject of many kinds of fear for investors, though they present real potential for returns, not unlike the traditional emerging markets at their beginnings. Sven Richter, head of frontier markets at Renaissance Asset Managers, tells Newsmanagers about the added value to be found in these markets, which he says have their own rightful place in an asset allocation.

For multiple services to its international funds in Spain and Mexico (EUR23bn), BBVA Asset Management has selected the Derivatives360 offering from BNY Mellon.The solution offers the Spanish group a variety of custom middle office services, including over-the-counter (OTC) transaction notification and confirmation, independent third-party valuation, portfolio reconciliation, collateral management, and custody.

State Street Corporation has announced that it has been appointed by AllianceBernstein to provide investment operations outsourcing services covering more than USD300 billion in client assets.Building on its more than 30-year relationship with AllianceBernstein, State Street will provide a range of services including trade settlement, portfolio administration and reconciliation, derivative operations, client reporting, and performance measurement for AllianceBernstein’s institutional accounts. As a result of this mandate, approximately 100 employees will transition from AllianceBernstein to State Street to provide global servicing support.

The OnCore platform from BNY Mellon will provide Bridgewater Associates with data warehousing, transaction processing, portfolio compatibility and derivatives trading services on USD125bn in assets whose middle- and back-office services have recently been outsourced, following a request for proposals, to BNY Mellon Asset Servicing.The tender is an extension of the existing services from BNY Mellon AS, which has been serving Bridgewater Associates since 1994, with custody, fund accounting and fund administration services. The new contract will involve the transfer of about 100 software experts, business analysts, accountants and other Bridgewater employees to BNY Mellon AS.

Anthoney Lawler, head of portfolio management at Man Group since 2009, has joined GAM Global Asset Management (CHF50.7bn in assets) in London, as a member of senior management, and the investment committee of its hedge fund multi-management unit. He will be in particular charge of developing activities serving institutional clients, primarily in the United States, through the creation of customised fund of hedge fund portfolios. In will also serve as co-manager for the GAM Diversity Institutional strategy, alongside David Smith. Smith will be his hierarchical superior, as CIO of GAM Multi-Manager and a member of the executive board at GAM.

Threadneedle is the biggest provider of onshore funds which have outperformed their benchmarks over five years, according to a study by Fund Strategy. With 19 funds out of a total of 254, or 8%, Threadneedle tops the rankings, followed by BNY Mellon Asset Management, with 12 funds, or nearly 5% of the total, and M&G Investments, with 10 funds, or about 4% of its total. These are followed by BlackRock, Henderson and Jupiter, with 8 funds each. The study also finds that only 18% of funds outperformed the benchmarks for their class.

After losses averaging 3.96% in September (for a sample of 2,555 products), the 1,799 hedge funds which had submitted results to BarclayHedge as of 15 November earned average returns of 3,63% in October, which reduces cumulative losses since the beginning of the year to 3.54% (compared with losses of 6.60% as of the end of September).Only the equity short bias strategy (5 funds) saw losses in October (of 8.77%), while it is up by 4.53% for the first ten months of the year.The two strategies with the best results in October were equity long bias, with 6.53% (234 funds) and emerging markets, with 4.16% (282 funds). These two strategies are also the ones which have seen the heaviest losses in January-October, with 6.51% and 8.68%, respectively.

GLG is launching a Strategic Bond fund which will invest in government and corporate debt, convertibles, convertible preference shares, index-linked securities, derivatives, money market instruments, deposits and cash or equivalents, FundWeb reports. The fund, which aims for a return above three-month GDP LIBOR and the IMA £ Strategic Bond sector average, will be managed by the bond manager Christophe Akel. Minimal investment has been set at GBP1,000 for retail shares, with a front-end fee of 3.5% and a management commission of 1.25% per year.

In the past few months, European ETPs have attracted a net USD1.3bn, and their assets as of 31 October totalled USD327.6bn, but some actors saw net outflows, including Lyxor Asset Management, part of the Société Générale group (-USD1.2bn), UBS Global Asset Management (-USD0.5bn), and ETF Securities (-EUR0.4bn). ComStage (Commerzbank) and Source have seen net redemptions of USD0.1bn each, according to statistics from BlackRock.However, iShares (BlackRock) has attracted USD2bn; the Cantonal Bank of Zurich has attracted USD0.5bn, and db x-trackers/db ETC (Deutsche Bank) saw inflows of USD0.3bn.In the first ten months of this year, net subscriptions to the entire industry in Europe totalled USD28bn, of which USD17.5bn were for iShares. The next-best inflows were at UBS Global AM (USD4.5bn) and db x-trackers/db ETC, with USD2.9bn.However, Lyxor has seen net outflows of USD7.7bn. Since the beginning of January, assets have fallen by USD12.2bn to USD40.1bn, and its market share has fallen 4.4 percentage points, to 12.2%.In the first ten months of 2011, db x-trackers/db ETC has seen a decline in its assets of USD0.6bn, to USD48.5bn, and its market share has fallen by 0.8 points. iShares, meanwhile, has posted an increase of USD9.3bn in its assets, to USD111.1bn as of the end of October, giving it 1.6% more market share.

On the markets, calls for decisive action by the ECB are building, Agefi reports. The central bank did buy up bonds yesterday, but it is doing it reluctantly, which undermines the effectiveness of the intervention. “Either things go on like this, and Italy will probably soon find itself short of financing options, or Germany resolves to accept real quantitative easing measures,” says Keith Wade, economist in chief at Schroders. The European Financial Stability Facility, for its part, is suffering due to the troubles of the governments that guarantee its AAA rating.

Pour de multiples services au profit de ses fonds internationaux (23 milliards d’euros) en Espagne et au Mexique, BBVA Asset Management a retenu la formule Derivatives360 proposée par BNY Mellon.Cette solution offre au groupe espagnol de nombreuses services de middle office sur mesure, comme la notification et la confirmation de transactions de gré à gré, valorisation indépendante par des tiers, réconciliation de portefeuilles, gestion du collatéral et conservation.