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30/05/2011

SimCorp launches a website for regulatory compliance

The solutions provider SimCorp on 27 May announced the launch of a portal dedicated to bringing companies into compliance with international regulations, aimed at investment management professionals. With the updating of existing standards and the adoption of new regulations in Europe (IFRS 9, Solvency III, UCITS IV and the AIFM directive), and the Dodd-Franck law in the United States, investment management firms need to know what the best ways are of bringing themselves into compliance with the new requirements imposed on the sector, SimCorp says. To help financial institutions more easily measure the extend and the implications of all of the various regulations, SimCorp has brought together several information resources on the subject via a single dedicated portal. The compilation includes articles, online talks, videos, and links to websites in the sector. “Regulatory obligations are not negotiable,” Peter L. Ravn, CEO of SimCorp, says in a statement. “Investment management companies need to prepare to comply with them without considering it a burden, but rather an advantage to exploit to become more competitive.” SimCorp also offers investment management professionals a way to evaluate the impact of new regulations on their IT systems online. The results of the test will be sent as a personalised report, also containing advice on measures to consider for each regulation.
30/05/2011

UFG-LFP releases Delff Euro High Return fund in Spain

The CNMV on 24 May issued a license for the Luxembourg-registered LFP Opportunity sicav, and for B (capitalisation) shares in the Delff Euro High Return (LU0306489781), a sub-fund of the Sicav. The fund, specialised in high-yield bonds on the European market, will be available in Spain from Banco Inversis.
30/05/2011

Ahorro Corporación liquidates its fund of hedge funds

In a notification to the CNMV dates 25 May, the management firm Ahorro Corporación Gestión has announced that in agreement with the Spanish confederation of savings banks (the depository), it has decided to liquidate the fund of hedge funds Ahorro Corporación Alpha Multiestrategia, whose assets totalled only EUR4m as of the end of February. Funds People reports that the product earned 18% since its launch in 2007, with annual volatility of 5.25%.
30/05/2011

BlueCrest makes its debut on Spanish market

The alternative management firm BlueCrest Capital Management on 13 May registered the Strategic Bond sub-fund of its Luxembourg Sicav Alignment Global Fund for sale in Spain. The product will be available in Spain from RBC Dexia Investor Services España. It is the first fund from BlueCrest to be available in the country.
30/05/2011

FSA streamlines process for client complaints

The British Financial Services Authority (FSA) on 27 May announced that it is toughening regulations governing client complaints. The FSA has decided to discontinue its two-stage processing for complaints, which had given financial establishments an opportunity to initially reject them. The FSA has also issued a warning over two funds on sale from Connaught Asset Management. The two funds in question, high yield products, had been presented as “very low risk” or “low risk.” Information distributed to clients did not explain that quarterly payments depend on the performance of investments in the fund, either.
30/05/2011

Greenwich Associates reports that ETFs still gaining ground with professionals

A survey undertaken between February and April 2011 by Greenwich Associates, covering 45 pension funds and charities as well as 25 major US wealth management firms, with total assets under management by respondents of USD7.5trn, finds that 35% of the first group and 48% of the second are planning to make increased use of ETFs by 2013, while none of the first and 9% of the second group are planning to reduce their use of this type of fund.Handelsblatt reports that wealth managers retain ETFs in their portfolios for up to one month, while pension funds and charities hold onto them for often more than one year. In both categories, ETFs are used either to park liquidity between investments, or to increase equities allocation in the short-term, or to minimise the effects on a portfolio of a change of manager.Professionals invest in ETFs largely because of their liquidity and trading volume, and also because of their low TER and faithful replication of indices.
30/05/2011

Oyster Funds recruits in Paris

From 1 April, Denis Chasteauneuf (ex BlackRock) has joined Oyster (France) SAS as head of commercial development (see Newsmanagers of 8 April). The move is a sign of a desire onteh part of Banque Syz (about EUR20bn in assets) to shift its Oyster funds into high gear on the French market, which now represents about one tenth of assets for traditional funds from the Swiss management firm, at about EUR500m.As in Italy, with Albertini, and in Spain with N mas 1 (N+1), the group will be relying on a partnership in France to start up its local activity, and to this end has signed an agreement with the management firm of the French/Swiss PGC group, with offices on place Vendôme in Paris, to provide assistance with payroll plans and IT. Staff at Syz in France will also be set to grow in the near future, Ricardo Payro, director in charge of communication at Banque Syz, told Newsmanagers at the Oysterdays conference in Madrid. As planned, Claudia Eftimie will be joining the Paris office this Monday as chief product specialist. According to information obtained by Newsmanagers, another recruitment will be officially announced on 6 June. The Geneva-based parent company has also not ruled out a fourth person as an addition to the team dedicated to the French market in second half.
30/05/2011

KBL Gestion recruits two new managers

KBL Richelieu Gestion announced on Friday, 27 May, that it has added to its management team with the arrival of Dominique Dequidt and Pascal Bernachon.Dequidt will co-manage the KBL Richelieu Europe fund with Nathalie Martin Pelras, and the KBL Richelieu France fund with Roland Fernet. For his part, Bernachon will manage the KBL Richelieu Flexible Sicav.Dequidt, 50, had been co-head of the European Small and Mid Caps Equities unit at Robeco Asset Management since 2007. For his part, Bernachon joined the KBC Richelieu private bank, the parent company of KBL Richelieu Gestion, in 2004, and there most recently served as director of mandated management, and then as a strategist.
30/05/2011

Generali Investments launches SRI selection method

Generali Investments, the management firm which manages the financial assets of the Generali Group, is launching an internal socially responsible investment (SRI) selection process. The method will initially be applied to three funds from Generali France, of which two are denominated in euros and one is unit-linked, with total assets of EUR6bn. The method will gradually be extended to the rest of the group. At the core of the method is a database known as S.A.R.A. (Sustainable Analysis of Responsible Asset), which monitors 465 European businesses. The businesses are filtered on the basis of extra-financial ratings on the basis of 34 analysis criteria (11 environmental, 11 internal social, 8 related to external social issues, and 4 related to governance), “for which we measure the financial and extra-financial impact over the mid and long term,” says Franca Perin, an ARI analyst, in a statement.
30/05/2011

“The acquisition of Gartmore will allow us to offer new investment strategies”

In early April, the British management firm Henderson, which managed GBP60.5bn as of the end of March, completed its acquisition of its rival Gartmore, whose assets totalled GBP15.7bn. The operation, which is not expected to be the last of its kind, gives Henderson a slightly more solid positioning as an international actor in asset management. In France, the acquisition will allow Patricia Kaveh, director of development for France, Monaco and Geneva, enlarge the firm's range of clients, who currently represent GBP1.2bn in assets.
30/05/2011

High-frequency trading under fire from AMF

Jean-Pierre Jouyet, the president of the French financial market regulator, the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), just before the weekend denounced high-frequency trading’s impact on the wider economy. “The impact of ‘high-frequency trading’ on trading macrostructures has not been adequately studied to date,” Jouyet said in a speech given at the ICMA’s annual general conference.“High-frequency trading leads to rapid changes to order books, at such a pace that between the time when investors make an order and when it is executed, the order has already been changed. This constant instability is a source of concern to investors,” Jouyet explains, and warns that circuits breakers should be put in place, so that processes could be halted to prevent a domino effect from gathering pace. A mechanism “which would allow for moving trading from an autopilot to a manual pilot whenever the pilot wants to take back control of the market seems necessary to me, as has been decided in the United States as well,” the AMF president announced.
30/05/2011

Further net redemptions from Spanish funds in May

According to VDOS Stochastics, relayed by Funds People, assets in Spainish funds fell by EUR1.111bn between 2 and 20 May, to a total of EUR143.577bn. This 0.77% decline is due to net redemptions of EUR725m, and a negative market effect of EUR385m.
30/05/2011

Unemployed pull assets out of retirement savings plans

According to the 2010 reports from the insurance and retirement Directorate General, since unemployed persons have been allowed to withdraw money from their retirement savings plans (under a royal decree of July 2009), they have withdrawn a total of EUR219m in 2009, and EUR320m in 2010, for an average of EUR4,797 per person, as 112,560 people, and 70,373 people in 2010 (+67.6% compared with the previous year) have availed themselves of the opportunity, Expansión reports.Despite the strong increase in redemptions, the impact on total assets in retirement savings plans represented only 0.63%. Total assets in pension funds as of the end of March totalled about EUR85bn, in 10.7 million accounts.
30/05/2011

UBS renames a British fund

UBS has received approval from regulators to rename the UK Select fund as the UBS UK Opportunities fund. The decision will be effective from 10 June. Edward Peter-Hoblyn, who has managed the fund since November last year, as modified several of its underlyings in that time.
30/05/2011

GAM offers funds on Cofunds platform

Investment Week reports that GAM is launching a series of equities funds on the Cofunds platform, with the objective of entering the retail market. The management firm will offer nine funds, from 1 Fund, including its flagship fund dedicated to North America. The nine products on offer are: GAM UK Diversified (UK All Companies)GAM Global Diversified (Global Growth)GAM North American Growth (North America)GAM Star Continental European Equity (Europe ex UK)GAM Star Japan Equity (Japan)GAM Star Technology (Technology and Telecoms)GAM Star GEO GBP (Global growth)GAM Star Global Equity Inflation Focus (Global growth)GAM Star Trading (Absolute Return)
30/05/2011

BlackRock critical of commissions charged by banks on IPOs

The Financial Times reports that the BlackRock group, the largest investor on British stock markets, last week sent a letter to the major investment banks to denounce their “increasingly aggressive” approach to commissions on initial public offerings. BlackRock says that commissions are structured in such a way as to maximise revenues on the first day of trading, without regard to the long-term success of the offering.
30/05/2011

BlackRock recruits a head from Fidelity

The director of marketing at Fidelity International for Austria, Nicky Schada, is joining BlackRock in London to become co-head of retail marketing for Germany and Austria.
30/05/2011

La Berd va élargir son mandat aux pays arabes

Le G8 a accouché d’un chiffre destiné à marquer les esprits: 40 milliards de dollars. C’est le montant de l’aide que les chefs d’Etat réunis à Deauville ont décidé vendredi de consacrer à l’Egypte et à la Tunisie sur la période 2011-2013. La moitié sera prêtée par les banques multilatérales, et reprend en partie des promesses déjà faites. La Berd, qui a demandé à ses actionnaires d'élargir son mandat à l’Afrique du Nord, pourrait ainsi prêter 3 milliards de dollars par an jusqu’en 2015 aux deux pays arabes, contre 9 milliards d’euros aujourd’hui pour l’ex-bloc de l’Est. La BEI contribuera à hauteur de 3,5 milliards. La Banque mondiale avait déjà indiqué qu’elle pourrait débloquer 4,5 milliards pour l’Egypte et 1 pour la Tunise, en sus des programmes déjà lancés. L’Agence française de développement prêtera 1,1 milliard. Sur les 20 autres milliards, la moitié proviendra de prêts bilatéraux (dont 1,075 milliard pour la France) et l’autre des pays du Golfe à travers un fonds dédié.
30/05/2011

LCH.Clearnet suscite la convoitise

La chambre de compensation a reconnu avoir reçu des «propositions diverses» de la part de bourses intéressées par un rapprochement. Selon le FT, Nyse Euronext, le LSE, qui a toutefois démenti, et Nasdaq OMX ont présenté des offres s'étalant de 350 millions à un milliard d’euros.

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