Since 2007, the performance of European equity markets has lagged behind those recorded in American markets. As a corollary of this development, in terms of net inflows since 2007, European equity funds (ETFs and mutual funds) have not yet returned to their 2007 levels, and in fact show a deficit of USD100bn, Société Générale Cross Asset Research estimates in its most recent edition of the monthly SG Mutual Fund & ETF Watch. All other markets hae returned above their 2007 levels. This has been the case in emerging markets for several years, and more recently the United States has clearly overtaken its reference levels. It is also the case in Japan, but still to a more modest extent.

The downgrade of French banks in July has not had an effect on the ratings of European money market funds, the financial ratings agency Fitch notes in its most recent surveillance report on money market funds. However, the downgrade has resulted in all three currencies experiencing a decrease in the portfolio weighting of ‘F1+' holdings. The average exposure in ‘F1+' in July has decreased to 44% from 64% in June for Euro MMFs, 46% from 61% for GBP MMFs and 50% from 61% for Offshore USD MMFs.

The new head of emerging market debt at Vontobel, Luc D’Hooge, is planning to launch a corporate emerging market debt strategy, as well as a strategy based on debt denominated in local currencies, Citywire reports. Vontobel currently offers only one emerging market fund, the Vontobel Fund Emerging Markets Debt, which was launched in May for D’Hooge, who had recently joined the Swiss group after leaving Dexia AM. The team dedicated to emerging markets at Vontobel includes four people, including D’Hooge, the only portfolio manager at the group, while the other three members are largely responsible for research and analysis functions.

Assets under management at the Banque cantonale vaudoise group (BCV) as of the end of June were up 3% compared with the end of 2012, to CHF84.4bn, according to a statement released on 22 August. Net inflows for the half totalled CHF540m, resulting in subscriptions totalling CHF1.1bn on the Swiss market, partly offset by redemptions from offshore funds totalling CHF560m. The bank in first half 2013 earned net profits of CHF151m, down 4% compared with the corresponding period of last year.

Jeroen F.J. de Munnik has been appointed chief of institutional business (CIB) and member of PGGM’s executive committee. He succeeds Else Bos, who has been CEO of PGGM since the beginning of March and served as CIB previous to that. Jeroen de Munnik will start at PGGM on 1 October.Jeroen de Munnik joined Aegon Nederland’s management board in 2008, becoming responsible for Aegon’s entire pension business. At the end of 2012 Jeroen de Munnik decided to leave Aegon, after more than 19 years with the company, and take a sabbatical and explore his options for a new step in his career. This step turned out to be PGGM.

The board of directors of Catella AB has appointed Knut Pedersen as the new president and CEO. Knut Pedersen was most recently managing director of ABG Sundal Collier in Sweden. He has previously worked for UBS, Nordea and Öhman in various roles in Sweden and internationally.Knut Pedersen will take up his post on 1 January 2014. He succeeds Johan Ericsson who will then continue in a senior operational role within Catella.

The former governor of the Swiss central bank, Philipp Hildebrand, is under investigation by Swiss prosecutors to determine whether he infringed Swiss federal secrecy laws, the Financial Times reports. A spokesperson for BlackRock, where the person is now employed as vice-chairman, has stated that the investigation was initiated by a complaint from an individual in July 2012, and covered the period preceding Hildebrand’s arrival at the asset management firm. News of the investigation was first published in the magazine Die Weltwoche.

The activist investor Edward Bramson has resigned from his position as chairman of F&C Asset Management, effective immediately. He is replaced by Kieran Poynter, who had joined the board at F&C in June 2009 as an independent non-executive director. Bramson, founder of the activist firm Sherborne Investors, took over at F&C in 2011 during a major shake-up at the troubled firm. This decision seems to suggest that the recovery plan has been a success. At any rate, Bramson had announced last spring that a restructuring at F&C was well underway.

The asset management firm Ignis Asset Management, an affiliate of the insurance group Phoenix, has announced at the release of its interim results that it has been working to broaden its product range with the launch of absolute return strategies. The Ignis absolute return suite of products is expected to be complemented by a hedge fund version this year, targeted primarily at more sophisticated institutional investors. Emerging Market Debt and Tactical Asset Allocation funds were launched internally, with the former expected to be launched to third parties in due course. Ignis Asset Management also continued to grow its third party franchise in the first half of 2013, winning GBP0.9 billion of net third party inflows. Assets under management totalled GBP64.9 billion at 30 June 2013 compared to GBP66.0 billion at 31 December 2012, reflecting the run-off of life company assets offset by third party asset inflows. IFRS operating profits were flat compared to the first half of 2012 at GBP19 million.

The British Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) on 22 August announced that banks would need to reimburse up to GBP1.3bn to their clients for abusive sales of credit card protection policies. In addition to the Card Protection Plan Limited (CPP) company, there are 13 banks implicated, including Barclays, HSBC Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and an affiliate of Lloyds Banking Group (LBG). Seven million clients, who have in all purchased or renewed 23 million insurance policies, are concerned. They had purchased protection products for their credit cards or to protect against theft of identity documents. These clients received misleading or unclear information about the policies, which was intended to incite them to buy protection which was not needed, or which covered exaggerated risks, the FCA explains. The major banks and companies issuing the credit cards incited millions of their clients to buy products from the CPP company. “A large number of companies have teamed up voluntarily to create a recovery plan which will offer a fair solution to clients. This type of responsible, collaborative approach represents a good example of the way that these groups are increasingly taking responsibility for rebuilding trust, step by step,” says Martin Wheatley, CEO of the FCA, in a statement.

The Brazilian hedge fund Peninsula Hedge Master Fundo de Investimiento Multimercado, launched in December last year by Peninsula Investimientos, has posted inflows of USD1.3bn since that date, the news agency Bloomberg reports. The Peninsula asset management firm was founded last year with the support of the Credit Suisse group. The fund, which is now closed to new investors, is managed by the CEO of Peninsula, Antonio Quintella, who had previously led the Americas region at the Credit Suisse group. The fund has earned returns of 7.14% since the beginning of the year, compared to 4.62% for the inter-bank rate.

Aviva Investors is adding to its distribution team in Switzerland, with the recruitment of Alain Meyer as Business Development Director, Agefi Switzerland report. In this newly-created position, Meier will be responsible for distribution activities serving institutional clients, particularly pension funds in German-speaking and French-speaking Switzerland. Meier, 35, has previously served in a similar position at Oddo Asset Management serving German-speaking clients in Europe.

The Groupe Banque Privée Edmond de Rothschild (BPER Group) has reported net inflows in first half 2013 of CHF1.1bn, according to a statement released on 22 August. Assets under management increased by 3.4% to a total of CHF106bn. Net profits for the half remained stable at CHF40m.

Afore Banamex, a pension fund and wholly-owned subsidiary of Citigroup in Mexico, has launched Mexico’s first international investment mandate – initially a $200m global segregated account - with Schroders, with $357.51 billion in assets under management.Afore Banamex awarded Schroders this mandate with the aim of diversifying their investment strategy and taking a specialized approach to investing in international markets. This is the first mandate to be awarded to an international asset manager in the history of the mandatory pension fund system in Mexico.

RBC Global Asset Management (RBC GAM) has appointed Mayur Nallamala as head of Asian equities. Nallamala joined RBC GAM a few months ago to become responsible for Asia-Pacific ex Japan mandates totalling about USD4bn. In his new role, Nallamala will be responsible for Asian equity portfolios at RBC GAM which represent a total of about USD4.5bn. He will lead a team of managers and analysts from Hong Kong.

The US electronic stock exchange Nasdaq on 22 August experienced an extremely rare incident: the suspension of trading of all equities for several hours due to a technical problem. The suspension of trading, which occurred in the middle of the trading day, lasted nearly three hours for most shares. The Nasdaq authorities decided to suspend trading of all equities registered on Nasdaq at approximately 12:15 local time (16:15 GMT), due to a problem which affected the communication system which allows for trades on equities listed on Nasdaq to be made from other market platforms, such as the New York Stock Exchange. Nasdaq is so far not providing any information about the source of the problem, but some observers of the market are pointing the finger at high-frequency traders.

The ratings agency Moody’s on 22 August announced that it is planning to lower its ratings for four of the largest US banks, due to an expected reduction in financial support that can be expected from the United States governmet in the future. Moody’s “examines the ratings of priority and subordinate lenders to the holding companies for the six largest US banks, at a time when it is considering reducing its projections of government support” in the event of a financial crisis, the ratings agency has explained in a statement. JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank by asset volumes, whose main rating is A2, Wells Fargo, also A2, an the business banks Goldman Sachs (A3) and Morgan Stanley (Baa1) may see their ratings downgraded in the mid-term. Bank of America (Baa2), the second-largest US bank, and Citigroup (Baa2) are also subject to review by Moody’s. But the ratings agency does not make predictions about the direction that nay potential changes to their ratings may go, where the two ratings had previously been on a positive watch for potential upgrade. Bank of New York Mellon and State Street, whose ratings had previously been on a negative ratings watch, are also in the spotlight.

RBC Global Asset Management (RBC GAM) vient de nommer Mayur Nallamala en qualité de responsable des actions asiatiques.Mayur Nallamala avait rejoint RBC GAM il y a quelques mois pour prendre en charge des mandats Asie-Pacifique hors Japon pour un montant d’environ 4 milliards de dollars. Dans ses nouvelles fonctions, Mayur Nallamala sera en charge des portefeuilles d’actions asiatiques de RBC GAM qui représentent un montant de quelque 1,5 milliard de dollars. Il dirigera une équipe de gérants et d’analystes à partir de Hong Kong.

Le hedge fund brésilien Peninsula Hedge Master Fundo de Investimiento Multimercado, lancé en décembre dernier par Peninsula Investimientos, a collecté 1,3 milliard de dollars depuis cette date, rapporte l’agence Bloomberg. La société de gestion Peninsula a été créée l’an dernier avec le soutien du groupe Credit Suisse.Le fonds, qui est désormais fermé aux nouveaux investisseurs, est piloté par le CEO de Peninsula, Antonio Quintella, qui a précédemment dirigé la zone Americas pour le groupe Credit Suisse. Le fonds a dégagé une performance de 7,14% depuis le début de l’année, contre 4,62% pour le taux interbancaire.

Le produit intérieur brut de la première économie de la zone euro a bien augmenté de 0,7% au deuxième trimestre par rapport aux trois premiers mois de l'année

Fabrice Henry, Trésorier Général de la Mutuelle Générale de l’Education Nationale (MGEN) à la rédaction de www.institinvest.com : Nous avons une petite poche d'« actifs stratégiques » (6 %) que nous souhaitons renforcer jusqu'à 15 %. « Ce sont des prises de participation dans des opérateurs et structures qui entrent dans le cadre de la stratégie du groupe MGEN. Par exemple, nous avons décidé de prendre récemment une participation dans le capital de l’Union Mutualiste de Retraite (UMR), un partenaire avec lequel nous partageons un parcours commun depuis son origine ». Par ailleurs, la MGEN est également entrée au capital de la plate-forme de services Equasanté, à hauteur de 19,4 % il y a deux ans. « Nous la sollicitons beaucoup dans le cadre des conventionnements du groupe MGEN (en optique et en audio prothèses) puisqu’elle réalise, grâce à nous, près de 70 % de l’activité. En investissant dans son capital, le but est de fiabiliser notre activité ». La MGEN investit dans d’autres structures identifiées comme « stratégiques » en raison de leur lien avec sa propre activité. « Vu les évolutions de nos métiers et les reconfigurations entre acteurs du secteur (fusions, regroupements,...), nous souhaitons développer ce type de placement, poursuit le Trésorier général. Il nous semble aujourd’hui que cette poche stratégique est essentielle pour le devenir de notre groupe. Ainsi, nous souhaitons renforcer nos partenariats à la fois avec l’UMR mais aussi avec la MAIF et avec la CASDEN avec laquelle nous construisons une Société de cautionnement. Si nous identifions un prestataire ou une organisation qui joue un rôle essentiel pour notre développement et pour notre stratégie, nous essayons de prendre une participation dans son capital ». L’augmentation de la part des actifs stratégiques en portefeuille de 5 % à 15 % se fera au « détriment » des actions et d’une partie de l’immobilier.

Le présent marché a pour objet la désignation de prestataires ayant qualité d'établissements de crédit ou de sociétés spécialisées dans la gestion de sociétés de capital-investissement, de fonds de financement ou de portefeuilles de participation, pour la gestion administrative et financière du fonds de financement CCI Prévention 2 d’un montant global de 2 000 000 EUR (deux millions d’euros). Le marché est conclu pour une durée correspondant à la période d’attribution des prêts (12 mois), augmentée de la durée de remboursement des prêts consentis (4 ans) et jusqu'à restitution définitive des soldes créditeurs du fonds de financement CCI Prévention au Pouvoir adjudicateur. Le marché prendra effet à la date du versement des sommes constituant le fonds de financement CCI Prévention. Lot nº: 1 : Gestion administrative et financière d’une enveloppe de 1 000 000 EUR Lot nº: 2 : Gestion administrative et financière d’une enveloppe de 1 000 000 EUR Le marché a été attribué à : IRD Nord-Pas-de-Calais 2 avenue de Kaarst 59777 Euralille Pour lire l’avis complet : cliquez ici

Profitant des mesures de soutien mises en œuvre récemment par le pays, l'indice PMI provisoire est repassé au-dessus de la barre de 50 en août

Le PMI en zone euro est au plus haut depuis 26 mois, celui de la France au niveau d’il y a deux ans

Le PMI en zone euro est au plus haut depuis 26 mois, celui de la France au niveau d’il y a deux ans

La cotation sur le Nasdaq a été interrompue hier soir pendant trois heures, quelques jours après les incidents de Goldman Sachs et d'Everbright Securities

Les minutes de la Fed publiées hier ont une nouvelle fois fait chuter les devises des pays émergents, notamment la lire turque, le real et la roupie

Les minutes de la Réserve fédérale publiées mercredi soir ont conduit à de nouvelles dépréciations des devises des pays émergents. Le real brésilien, la lire turque ainsi que la roupie indienne sont les principales victimes du ralentissement imminent des rachats d’actifs de la Fed. Le montant des sorties de capitaux de ces pays commence en outre à devenir inquiétant.

Dans une étude publiée hier, S&P estime que le renforcement de la régulation bancaire en Europe et aux États-Unis met à mal le modèle économique des paradis fiscaux et fragilise leur solidité financière, qui repose en partie sur leur forte dépendance au secteur des services financiers qu’ils abritent. La finance représente par exemple 14% du PIB de Saint Marin et 42% celui de Jersey, estime l’agence de notation. «Il n’est pas encore clair jusqu’où les régulateurs vont aller pour limiter les activités logées dans les paradis fiscaux et jusqu'à quel point les changements intervenus dans la régulation vont affecter la solidité financière de ces petits pays», ajoute Benjamin Young analyste chez S&P, cité dans l'étude. C’est pourquoi S&P conclut que les discussions réglementaires en cours en Europe et aux États-Unis pourraient forcer les paradis fiscaux à réorienter leurs économies vers d’autres secteurs.

L’indice composite des indicateurs économiques américains a légèrement augmenté de 0,6% au mois de juillet pour atteindre 96 points, après s'être stabilisé au mois précédent. Une hausse globalement en ligne avec les attentes du consensus. L’amélioration observée en juillet «semble annoncer de meilleurs chiffres pour la croissance et l’emploi au second semestre 2013», a indiqué Ken Goldstein, économiste au Conference Board.