The Upper Tribunal in the United Kingdom has directed the Financial Services Authority (FSA) to fine Stefan Chaligné, a Swiss-based hedge fund manager GBP900,000, (plus disgorgement of the financial benefit he obtained of EUR362,950) and Patrick Sejean, a former senior salesman on Cantor Fitzgerald Europe’s (CFE) London-based French desk GBP650,000. The FSA did not seek to fine Tidiane Diallo, a former junior trader on the same desk, as it accepted that he was in a position of serious financial hardship. Had this not been the case, it would have sought to fine him GBP100,000. The Tribunal also directed the FSA to ban all three individuals from performing any role in regulated financial services.Chaligné, a French National who was both the fund manager of, and a shareholder in, the Cayman Islands based “Iviron” hedge fund deliberately manipulated the market in a total of nine securities traded on a number of different European and North American exchanges, according to the FSA website. He did so by placing orders, through CFE, which were designed to increase the closing price of the securities, and thereby increase the value of the hedge fund, on two key portfolio valuation dates for the fund.The practice of manipulating share prices on portfolio valuation dates (month and year ends) is known colloquially as “window-dressing the close”. Having manipulated the price of eight securities on 31 December 2007, Chaligné then also manipulated the price of two securities on 31 January 2008.The increases in the valuation of the fund enabled Chaligné to present a positive view of the performance of the fund, at a time of difficult market conditions, to current and prospective investors, and thereby present himself as a competent fund manager. The practical effect of his market abuse was to increase the performance and management fees paid to him by the beneficiaries of the hedge fund.Sejean and Diallo effected and executed Chaligné's orders for the purpose of achieving Chaligné's objective. Diallo was involved on one of the dates. Sejean was involved on both dates and deliberately influenced and involved more junior members of staff, including Diallo, in the misconduct. They both understood the manipulative nature of the orders.

At a presentation in Paris, Patrick Moonen, senior equity strategist at ING Investment Management (ING IM), has emphasized that for asset allocation and absolute return portfolios (EUR30bn in assets), tactical asset allocation has been upated in the direction of higher risk.In other words, the Netherlands-based asset manager is currently preferring equities and real estate, whose valuations are attractive. In equities, Moonen prefers Europe to the United States, and has a neutral position on Japan. In the sectoral area, he is overweight in base materials, durable consumer products and financials, as well as value equities in general, which perform well at the beginning of economic recovery. In addition, ING IM is betting on “high dividend” strategies. However, telecommunications are on the list to underweight.Meanwhile, portfolios are underweight in commodities, since energies and agriculture represent 60% of indices, segments that are not popular with ING IM. Moonen says that although he is overweight in spread products, he is underexposed to government bonds.

The Luxembourg-based LRI Invest SA (EUR8bn in assets) on 1 October announced the recruitment of Angelina Andonova as director international business development. She will be responsible for the recruitment of and relationship management for institutional clients outside Germany, Austria and Switzerland. She had previously been senior investment strategist at Tungsten Capital Management in Frankfurt. The Frankfurt-based team at LRI Invest on 1 October also welcomed Juan Pablo Torres, who will be responsible for the recruitment of and relationship management for institutional clients in Germany. He will be based in Frankfurt, and joins from Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW).

It has not only been malicious observers who have been saying for a long time that Allianz Global Investors (AGI) is merely a brand name label for RCM in equity management and Pimco in fixed income. The German/American James D. Dilworth, CEO of AGI Europe, has shown at a conference in Munich that the lines have moved, and that the “surgical removal” of the US firm Pimco, formerly an affiliate of AGI, which on 1 January became a direct affiliate of Allianz, has not set back the ambitions of the German asset management firm.Of EUR300bn in assets, in fact, fixed income represents slightly over 40% of the total, as do equities, while 20% are in multi-asset classes and alternative assets. “In other words,” Dilworth tells Newsmanagers, “we have a very solid fixed income unit. And we are particularly well-positioned in niches such as credit in Europe, high yield in Europe and in the United States, and Asian bonds.”When asked about the consequences of the reorganization, which will involve the disappearance of the names of all affiliates acquired over the years by AGI worldwide, the CEO says that the elimintation of redundancies in the fund range is currently under study. But he declined to comment on whether the phenomenon would be of a size similar to the one in Germany, where one fund out of every two disappeared from the range inherited from Allianz, Dresdner Bank (DIT, etc.) and Commerzbank (Cominvest, formerly ADIG). “At any rate,” he says, “it will not have noticeable repercussions on personnel, since, though we can easily slough off a product range, it would be difficult to resize our teams, which are well-honed.”The asset allocation currently recommended by Dilworth privileges high yield bonds, Asian bonds, products with return, risk and maturity objectives (custom solutions, “since the real problem is uncertainty, not volatility,”) and equities from companies that pay high dividends.

Protests in Spain and Greece and trouble finding an acceptable compromise in the euro zone have slowed investors’ appetite for risk as September draws to a close.In the week to 26 September, equity funds saw net inflows of only USD1.8bn, following a record total of over USD10bn the previous week, according to statistics from EPFR Global. Since the beginning of the year, European equity funds have seen net outflows of USD23.1bn, compared with redemptions of only USD5.1bn in the corresponding period of 2011.Bond funds, for their part, finished the week under review with net inflows of USD7.6bn. High yield debt funds and emerging market bond funds each attracted over USD1bn.Money market funds underwent redemptions totalling USD2.8bn, due to outflows of over USD12bn from European money market funds.

The UK financial services sector has shed 9,000 jobs in the past three months, according to statistics from CBI and PwC cied by the Financial Times. Job cuts were mostly at banks. The Centre for Economics and Business Ressearch expects more than 30,000 jobs to be cut this year, which will bring total employment in the sector below 255,000, the lowest level since 1996.

Iván Martín Aranguez, the second-highest paid manager in Spain, after the Bestinver star manager Francisco García Paramés, is leaving his position as CIO for equities at Aviva Gestión, to become head of the Iberian equities team at Santander Asset Management, Citywire reports. Funds People reports that Aranguez will be replaced at Aviva by Pablo Cano, who has worked under him for the past six years.

David Morant, a former manager at the US hedge fund firm SAC Capital, has reappeared at the London-based CWS, Financial News reports.

As of the end of December last year, total “sustainable development” investments in Germany, Austria and Switzerland in the form of shares in open-ended funds, mandates, deposits with specialist banks and certificates came to EUR103.5bn, virtually 10% more than at the end of 2010.According to the sixth annual report from Forum Nachhaltige Geldanlagen, investments in sustainable funds had total assets of EUR30.5bn, compared with EUR26.3bn in December of the previous year, and EUR20.2bn as of the end of 2009, following a contraction to EUR11.7bn in 2008, compared with EUR17.1bn at the end of 2007.In Germany, volumes in open-ended funds as of 31 December totalled EUR9.9bn, compared with EUR5.8bn as of the end of 2010, and EUR5.9bn as of the end of 2009. In Austria, assets totalled EUR2.11bn, compared with EUR1.88bn as of the end of 2010, and EUR1.63bn one year earlier. In Switzerland, assets under management fell to EUR18.5bn, from EUR19.6bn one year previously, following a strong expansion compared with EUR12.7bn at the end of 2009.

So far, the year 2012 has been good for institutional business at Fidelity Worldwide Investment, the Fidelity arm outside the United States, Chris McNickle, global head of institutional business at Fidelity Worldwide Investment, tells Newsmanagers. But this has largely been thanks to the Middle East, Asia and Australia. These regions will gradually overtake the other regions covered by the firm. In Europe, business is more muted, with pockets of growth, however, in Italy and Germany.

Compared with the past 14 annual events, the 2013 Fonds'13 investment fund convention in Zurich will be one day shorter: the day on Tuesday, 6 February will be a professional investors day, and on Wednesday, 7 February, the roughtly 100 exhibitors will be available to retail investors, finews.ch reports. According to the organiser, 80% of exhibitors feel that they can handle two days’ worth of the general public in one day, which will also result in savings. In addition, the exhibitors are primarily interested in the institutional visitors.

EDHEC-Risk Institute and CFA Institute on Friday announced the reinforcement of their executive education partnership (initiated in 2008 with the Advances in Asset Allocation Seminar) by offering the Advances in Equity Portfolio Construction Seminar. The course aims to provide investment practitioners with the tools to better understand the limits and benefits of different portfolio construction approaches, and to discuss alternative equity index strategies.The two-day programme is intended for finance practitioners who contribute to the design and implementation of portfolio construction models and is also insightful for investment professionals who analyse or decide on the adoption of appropriate model portfolios or benchmarks for equity investments, or who are interested in customising their strategic equity benchmark.The event will take place on 20-21 November, 2012 in Singapore and on 12-13 February, 2013 in London.

A survey of 310 institutional investors in Western Europe and the US commissioned to the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) by State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) reveals that 71 percent of institutional investors believe it is “highly likely” or “likely” that significant tail risk event will occur in the next 12 months. The research shows that the crisis in the Eurozone, the prospect of global or European recession and the slow-down in China among the concerns. Only 20 percent of respondents are “very confident” that they have some form of downside protection in place for the next significant event, with a further 61 percent “somewhat confident” of this. However, 73 percent of institutional investors believe that due to changes in their strategic asset allocation, they are better prepared for the next major tail risk event than they were before the start of the financial crisis, a press release explains. The data showed shifts in allocation – although interestingly, despite elevated concerns, the pace of change has been slower than expected. The widespread impact of tail risk events has resulted in a large proportion of investors reconsidering the products available to mitigate the impact of these events, beyond traditional diversification techniques. The survey showed gains in allocation to other alternatives, such as commodities and infrastructure, and managed futures/commodity trading advisor (CTA) strategies. The allocation to fund-of-hedge-funds declined significantly, with a 9 percentage point drop from pre-2008 figures.

US money market fund managers are expecting significant inflows of money in the rest of this year, as a rule established in 2008 by the government to guarantee an unlimited amount of non-interest-bearing accounts at banks. The Dodd-Frank Deposit Insurance Provision expires at the end of 2012. A limit is expected to be introduced, which is expected to be USD250,000 per account. The deposits concerned represent a total of about USD1.6trn, the Wall Street Journal reports.According to EPFR Global, money market funds have already attracted USD50bn in net subscriptions since the beginning of second half, following outflows of USD134bn in January-June.

The Wall Street Journal observes that the price war in ETFs has kicked off again. On 21 September, Charles Schwab announced that it was cutting commissions by an average of 50% on 15 of its ETFs, with the lowest falling to 0.04%. According to XTF.com, Schwab is not alone, as there are 16 ETFs whose annual commissions are under 0.1%.However, investors should not forget that annual management commissions are the most visible, but not the only source of costs: tracking error and spreads are also factors to take into consideration.

Russell Investments has announced that 39 companies recently launched on the stock exchange will be added to the Russell Global index. 19 of these firms are also joining the Russell 3000 US index, a statement says. Two companies will be added to the Russell 1000 large caps index.

The environmental and accounting/governance ratings agency GMI Ratings has announced that it has signed a license agreement with Global Index Group to develop corporate governance indices using non-traditional risk measures developed by GMI ratings, known as Accounting & Governance Risk (AGR) and Key Metrics, an environmental, social and governance (ESG) list. AGR ratings reflect the accounting and governance practices statistically associated with disciplinary enforcement by the SEC, lawsuits and other events which may provoke rapid falls in the value of shares. Concretely, the cooperation between GMI Ratings and Global Invest Group will result in the creation of the GIG/GMI High Governance Index (GIGHGI), which will be available to clients who subscribe for a license of over 60 days. The agency also states that it is already in talks with an asset management firm which is planning to license the GIGHGI index for use as the underlying for a tracker product. The development of the index is led by Kelly Laughton, CEO of Glboal Index Group, who was the founder of the range of Russell indices. GMI Ratings was created in 2010 by a merger of GovernanceMetrics International, The Corporate Library and Audit Integrity.

Lazard Asset Management will be opening an office in Zurich this week. Finews reports that the asset management firm, which has USD134.8bn in assets under management, is planning to take advantage of the development of open architecture in the Swiss market.

Près d’un an après l’inauguration d’un bureau à Milan, DNCA «commence à être connu en Italie, grâce au travail d’une équipe de quatre personnes coordonné par Enrico Tarassinelli», indique le président et co-fondateur de la société de gestion française, Joseph Chatel, dans une interview au site italien Bluerating. DNCA commercialise les compartiments de la Sicav DNCA Invest sur le marché italien depuis 2008 grâce à des accords de distribution.Joseph Chatel indique par ailleurs vouloir développer au sein de sa gamme un fonds obligataire flexible global, mais il confie qu’il est difficile de trouver des gérants ayant les compétences adaptées.

Colin Ng, le responsable des actions asiatiques de Barings, a quitté la société pour poursuivre d’autres opportunités, selon Investment Week. Il a été remplacé par Hyyng Jin Lee. Colin Ng avait rejoint Barings en janvier 2010 en provenance de MFC Global Investment Management.

Le luxembourgeois LRI Invest SA (8 milliards d’euros d’encours), a annoncé le recrutement au 1er octobre d’Angelina Andonova comme director international business development. Elle sera chargée du recrutement et du suivi de la clientèle institutionnelle hors de la région Allemagne/Autriche/Suisse. Auparavant, l’intéressée était senior investment strategist chez Tungsten Capital Management à Francfort.D’autre part, l'équipe francfortoise de LRI Invest accueille également au 1er octobre Juan Pablo Torres, qui sera chargé du recrutement et du suivi de la clientèle institutionnelle en Allemagne. Il sera basé à Francfort et vient de la Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW).

Longtemps, les mauvaises langues n’ont pas été les seules pour affirmer qu’Allianz Global Investors (AGI) serait seulement un prête-nom commercial pour RCM dans la gestion actions et Pimco dans l’obligataire. Le Germano-Américain James D. Dilworth, CEO d’AGI Europe, a cependant démontré lors d’un séminaire à Munich que les lignes ont bougé et que «l’ablation» de l’américain Pimco, ancienne filiale d’AGI devenue filiale directe d’Allianz au 1er janvier, n’a pas rogné les ambitions du gestionnaire allemand.De fait, sur les 300 milliards d’euros d’encours, les obligations représentent à peu près 40 % du total, comme les actions, contre 20 % pour le multi-classes d’actifs et l’alternatif. «Autrement dit», a indiqué Jim Dilworth à Newsmanagers, «nous alignons un pôle obligataire très solide. Et nous sommes particulièrement bien positionnés sur des créneaux comme le crédit en Europe, le haut rendement en Europe et aux Etats-Unis ainsi que sur les obligations asiatiques».Interrogé par ailleurs sur les conséquences de la réorganisation qui va faire disparaître le nom de toutes les filiales acquises au fil du temps par AGI dans le monde, le CEO a souligné que la suppression des doublons dans l’offre de fonds est actuellement au stade de l’analyse. Mais il s’est refusé à préciser si le phénomène atteindra l’ampleur qu’il a prise en Allemagne, avec la disparition d’un fonds sur deux dans la gamme héritée d’Allianz, de la Dresdner Bank (DIT, etc) et de la Commerzbank (Cominvest, ex ADIG). «En tous cas», précise-t-il, «cela n’aura pas de répercussions sensibles sur l’effectif, parce que, si l’on peut aisément élaguer une gamme, il serait difficile de tailler dans des équipes qui sont bien rodées».L’allocation d’actifs actuellement préconisée par Jim Dilworth privilégie les obligations à haut rendement, les obligations asiatiques, les produits avec des objectifs de rendement, de risque et d'échéance (solutions sur mesure, «parce que le vrai problème est l’incertitude, pas la volatilité») ainsi que les actions de sociétés à dividende élevé.

Dans la perspective du rachat de la société de courtage par son concurrent Kepler Capital Markets, CA Cheuvreux se prépare à supprimer 290 postes sur 358 employés, soit 80% des effectifs basés à Paris, rapporte L’Agefi citant plusieurs sources concordantes. L’ensemble des équipes sont concernées, en premier lieu celles des fonctions de back-office, de middle-office et les services informatiques. Les premiers départs interviendraient dès le début de 2013. il ne restera qu’une petite partie du front office, selon les mêmes sources. Au niveau du groupe, qui compte 700 personnes, il ne devrait rester que 200 postes, précise le quotidien.

Les non-résidents détenaient 43,3 % du capital social des sociétés françaises du CAC 40 à fin 2011, contre 41,1% l’année précédente, selon une étude de la Banque de France publiée le 28 septembre. À la fi n de l’année 2011, les non-résidents détenaient 334,6 milliards d’euros, sur une capitalisation boursière totale de 772,3 milliards d’euros. La proportion des non-résidents dans le CAC 40 n’est certes pas aussi élevée qu’entre 2004 et 2006 (entre 45 % et 47 %), mais elle est revenue à la moyenne observée depuis 2002.L'évolution observée l’an dernier est liée pour 1 point aux flux nets acheteurs des non-résidents, pour 0,5 point à un effet de changement dans la composition du CAC 40 et pour 0,7 point dû aux autres effets (principalement effets de valorisation). La part des non-résidents dans la détention du capital des sociétés résidentes du CAC 40 varie selon les entreprises. Vingt d’entre elles présentent un taux de détention compris entre 25 % et 50 % de leur capital avec un taux de détention moyen de 38,1 %, treize d’entre elles se situent entre 50 % et 75 % (taux moyen de 58,4 %) et seules quatre d’entre elles ont un taux de détention par les non-résidents inférieur à 25 % (taux moyen de 17,4 %). Les taux de détention par les non-résidents apparaissent plus faibles dans le cas des groupes ayant une part stable d’actionnariat (bloc familial ou concert d’actionnaires par exemple). Mais un taux de détention faible ne reflète pas nécessairement un manque d’appétence des non-résidents pour un titre plutôt qu’un autre, remarque la Banque de France.

Jusqu’ici, l’année 2012 a été bonne pour l’activité institutionnelle de Fidelity Worldwide Investment, la structure hors Etats-Unis de Fidelity, a confié Chris McNickle, responsable global de l’activité institutionnelle de Fidelity Worldwide Investment, à Newsmanagers. Mais surtout grâce au Moyen-Orient, à l’Asie et à l’Australie. Des régions qui peu à peu dépassent les autres zones couvertes par la société. En Europe, l’activité est plus mitigée, avec tout de même des poches de croissance en Italie et en Allemagne.

Le fonds Dynamic Manager Alpha, géré par la banque suédoise SEB, a été ouvert aux particuliers, rapporte Citywire. Le fonds de fonds de droit luxembourgeois, géré par Andreas Johansson et Otto Francke, a été lancé en 2008.

Dogfinance.com, le réseau social professionnel financier, poursuit son développement international. La société française attaque le marché luxembourgeois en nouant un partenariat avec l’acteur du recrutement en ligne local Moovijob. «Il s’agit d’un partenariat commercial très important pour nous», se félicite Sébastien Guichard, co-fondateur de Dogfinance . «L’objectif est de nous occuper de la communication et du développement technique de la version luxembourgeoise, et de permettre à Moovijob de vendre nos produits aux sociétés implantées». D’autres pays sont maintenant dans le viseur de la société. Dogfinance projette de se lancer rapidement en Belgique et en Suisse.

David Morant, un ancien gérant de la société américaine de hedge funds SAC Capital, a refait surface chez le londonien CQS, note Financial News.

BNP Paribas Investment Partners (BNPP IP) doit annoncer ce jour le renforcement de son équipe obligations émergentes avec le recrutement de quatre professionnels issus d’une filiale de State Street Global Advisors (SSgA), Rexiter Capital Management. Ils seront affectés à l'équipe de Londres portant ainsi au nombre de dix le nombre de gérants de portefeuille intervenant sur cette classe d’actifs. L’un des recrues, John Morton dirigera l'équipe global emerging markets fixed income au sein de la société partenaire de BNP Paribas IP, Fischer Francis Trees & Watts (FFTW). FFTW couvre l’activité «global fixed income» dont l'équipe est basée à Boston, Londres et Singapour sous la direction de Guy Williams, CIO de FFTW. John Morton est accompagné de Mark Capstick, Lewis Jones et Daniel Wood qui travaillaient chez Rexiter Capital Management depuis fin 2007. Avant de rejoindre FFTW en juillet 2012, John Morton était le chief investment officer de l’obligataire et managing director de Rexiter CM.De son côté, avant d’exercer ses fonctions de gérant de portefeuille dette émergente chez FFTW spécialisé sur l’Asie, Mark Capstick était gérant obligataire et responsable de l’analyse et du management de l’obligataire en Asie et des investissements en devises.Pour sa part, Lewis Jones a été nommé gérant de portefeuille obligataire émergents chez FFTW spécialisé sur les investissements en Amérique latine : il occupait des fonctions similaires chez Rexiter depuis 2005.Enfin, Daniel Woods est désormais gérant de portefeuille obligataire émergents chez FFTW spécialisé sur les investissements d’Europe de l’Est, du Moyen-Orient et de l’Afrique. Chez Rexiter CM, gérait un portefeuille de ce type sur les mêmes régions depuis 2005.

Vendredi, Bank of America a accepté de payer 2,43 milliards de dollars à cinq plaignants, dont les fonds de pension publics State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio et Teacher Retirement System of Texas, qui lui reprochaient d’avoir occulté la véritable situation financière de Merrill Lynch lors de l’acquisition de cette maison de courtage en seulement un week-end de septembre 2008, rapporte The Wall Street Journal.Les plaignants auraient réclamé 22 milliards de dollars si l’affaire était passée en audience comme prévu le 22 octobre. Compte tenu du nombre d’actions détenues, chacun des deux fonds de pension devrait récupérer environ 20 millions de dollars.