The French regulator, AMF, is preparing to publish an «administrative agreement» on its website by the end of this week, which it has reached with the asset management firm Carmignac Gestion. The asset management firm, based in place Vendôme in Paris, will pay a total of EUR500,000, following an audit by the regulatory authority undertaken between summer 2008 and summer 2010.All infractions by the asset management firm have been addressed; these mostly concerned flaws in information/reporting and internal controls at the firm. The first complaint concerned the Carmignac Patrimoine and Carmignac Investissement funds, for which the regulator found insufficient information concerning strategies based on derivative products. This is despite the fact that the latest were significant drivers of performance during the period under consideration.The AMF’s second compliant concerned human resources dedicated to risk controlling, with only one person at that time dedicated to the investigation undertaken by the regulator, and not two as originally planned. The Authority also found that for some funds which rely on derivative products, calculation of risk using a probabilistic “value at risk” method would have been necessary.In another area, the AMF also expressed regrets that controls on the development of bond liquidity levels was not in place.When asked about these developments by Newsmanagers, Eric Le Coz, deputy CEO of the asset management firm, first of all admitted that the AMF was acting within its capacities, and that Carmignac Gestion entends to fulfil its responsibilities. “Between the end of 2010 and early 2011, all the points raised by the AMF have been corrected,” Le Coz says. To respond to the first complaint, he says, “we have since been releasing information about the risk exposure of our portfolios and on the constitution of their performance. In relation to the second point raised by the AMF, the options which were used as part of what are considered complex operations on derivative products were bought up by the asset management firm in such a way that the risk clients were subject to was limited to only the premium.”In response to the third complaint, “personnel dedicated to internal controls includes six people, of whom three are dedicated to risk control,” Le Coz says, “and we have our own internal control system, which allows us to undertake our own stress tests, and all of this has been further reinforced since last year.”Lastly, the director of management points out that no clients were subjected to any losses during this period. “To the contrary,” he exclaims. The EUR500,000 fine may appear to be high, and this is the outcome of negotiations. On this point, Le Coz states that “the amount should be viewed in the context of owners’ equity at Carmignac Gestion of EUR1.2bn, and assets under management of EUR52bn.”

The Omaha, Nebraska-based third-party money manager CLS Investments (USD6.5bn in AUM as of-end July) has promoted Todd Clarke from president to CEO.The firm also hired Ryan Beach to take his place; he most recently oversaw legal matters as associate general counsel of CLS’ parent company, NorthStar Financial Services Group.John Russel «Rusty» Vanneman has been hired as new CIO. He previously worked as a CIO and PM at Kobren Insight Management.

US financial institutions now hold more than two thirds of shares in businesses in the United States, which gives them total control over votes, John C. Bogle, founder of Vanguard, observes in a column in the Financial Times. This capital is concentrated at a few major asset management firms: of USD9trn in shares held by the 300 largest US asset management firms, USD6trn are held by the 25 largest companies. The top 5 (Vanguard, BlackRock, State Street Global, Fidelity and American Funds) control about USD3trn. But so far, these companies have stood out for the lack of influence they exercise on the businesses in which they collectively invest. Bogle claims it is time for asset managers to assume their responsbilities in governance, and to break their silence.

For an undisclosed amount, Franklin Resources (Franklin Templeton Investments) on September 19th announced that it has agreed to acquire a majority stake in K2 Advisors Holdings («K2»), an independent fund of hedge funds manager with USD9.3bn in AUM as of end-August).The proceeds of this acquisition by Franklin Templeton will be used by K2 to purchase all of the equity currently held by TA Associates and to retire all of K2’s debt obligations. The current management of K2 will not sell any of its interests at this time. Beginning in 2016, Franklin Templeton will acquire the remainder of K2 over a multi-year period.

Ali Ould Rouis has left Robeco Gestions, the French affiliate of the Netherlands group, where he had been chairman, a statement released on 19 September states. His departure comes in the wake of the closure of the firm’s asset management activities in Paris, while resulted in the loss of 20 jobs, equivalent to two thirds of Paris staff. The remaining structure will concentrate exclusively on distribution, and will now become known as Robeco France. It will be led by Philippe Sabbah. Sabbah joined the Robeco group in August 2011 as CEO and board member in charge of commercial and marketing activities at Robeco Gestions, after previously working at Threadneedle. “Philippe Sabbah will work to ensure the growth of Robeco on the French market, and to extend the product range on offer to French institutionals,” a statement says.

FundQuest will become an advising structure, according to reports in Citywire Global. The firm, which has about EUR33bn in assets under management, will cease to be an asset management firm. The new entity will be renamed as FundQuest Advisors. Asset management will be transferred to BNP Paribas Asset Management. The reorganization will be announced in early October.

AllianceBernstein on 19 September announced the recruitment of George Yepes and Jeff Saltzman to assist with development of the firm’s alternative asset management activities (multi-management strategies, proprietary hedge funds and closed funds). Yepes previously worked at Financial Risk Management, where he had been in charge of client management and distribution for North America. Saltzman joins from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where he had worked in the Cross Asset Solutions and Strategies unit.

Assets under management in Swiss investment funds, according to statistics from Swiss Fund Data SA and Lipper, totalled CHF699bn as of August 2012, CHF4.8bn more than the previous month, according to a statement released on 19 September by the Swiss Fund Association (SFA). Of this total, CHF273.3bn are allocated to funds dedicated to institutional investors. Net inflows totalled CHF2.2bn. Subscriptions were mostly invested in bond funds (+CHF2.3bn), followed by money market funds (+CHF498m) and commodity funds (CHF366m). However, strategic investment funds have seen redemptions totalling CHF179m, while equity funds have seen outflows of CHF755m, particularly from UK, USA, Global and Emerging Markets Global equity funds.

According to reports in Die Welt, Deutsche Bank is planning to sell BHF-Bank to the private equity investor RHJ International (RHJI), owned by Leonhard Fischer, in partnership with BlackRock, the Chinese conglomerate Fosun,, and Aqton, the investment firm of Stefan Quandt.A year ago, RHJI already nearly acquired BHF-Bank, but the transaction was disallowed by BaFin, which was concerned that RHJI did not have the means to ensure that BHF would have adequate owners’ equity.

Julius Baer has taken a further step towards its acquisition of the wealth management activities of Merrill Lynch outside the Unuted States from Bank of America. At an extraordinary general shareholders’ meeting in Zurich, shareholders in the Zurich-based private bank approved a capital increase for this purpose, according to a statement released on 19 September. The owners of the wealth management firm on Wednesday agreed to constitute capital totalling up to CHF500m, via an issue of a maximum of 37.5 million new shares. These shares will be used exclusively to partially finance an acquisition of the wealth management activities of Merrill Lynch outside the United States and Japan. Of the 37.5 million newly-issued securitie, up to 7.5 million share will be issued or transferred to Bank of America (BofA), in keeping with an agreement for the transaction. According to the most recent estimates, BofA would hold a total stake in Julius Baer of between 2% and 4% following the integration of activities. The capital increase is to be held in October.

The Cantonal Bank of Basel has announced in a statement released on 19 September that it has appointed René Bürgisser as director of Private Banking activities in Zurich. Bürgisser will begin in his new role by 1 April 2013 at the latest. Bürgisser has spent 17 years in various positions at Credit Suisse, and was director of the Banque Cial affiliate in Zurich. Since 2007, he has had a seat on the board at AKB Privatbank Zürich.

Lazard Asset Management is this week opening a customer service office in Zurich, Agefi Switzerland reports. The reports have been confirmed to Le Temps by Andreas Hübner, director at Lazard Asset Management. There are two motives for the decision: on the one hand, changes in the Swiss banking market, including opportunities for asset management boutiques thanks to an increase in open architecture, and on the other, Lazard Asset Management is taking advantage of its specialisation in certain investment categories. Lazard AM says that it has EUR108bn in assets under management, of which 30% are on emerging markets.

Jean Pierre Mottura, directeur général de la CAPSSA à la rédaction de www.institinvest.com : « Bien que 80,8% du portefeuille soit investi dans des produits monétaires, notre gestion c??ur-satellite nous permet d’avoir de fortes convictions sur les 19,2% restant. Avec une approche macro économique, nous nous sommes positionnés, entre autres, sur les pays émergents qui représentent un relai de croissance que l’on ne retrouve plus en Europe. La Chine, l’Inde mais aussi la Turquie sont des pays dans lesquels nous croyons. Nos convictions sont bonnes, à titre d’exemple depuis le début de l’année, notre investissement sur la Turquie affiche un gain de 32% au 28 juin. Cependant, nous gérons en premier lieu le risque, et ensuite la performance, c’est pourquoi ces produits restent satellites. A titre d’information, la volatilité annualisée globale du portefeuille oscille autour de 1,53%, avec un c??ur monétaire à 0,10%. »

Dans une lettre aux investisseurs, Generali Investments France a détaillé la réorganisation des activités de gestion en Europe. Au 1er octobre, les activités éligibles au passeport européen seront fusionnées au sein de Generali Investments Europe, qui disposera d’une succursale en France. Les fonds non coordonnées seront transférés à Generali Investments Opera, une nouvelle société de droit français.

Les mises en chantier de logements ont augmenté de 2,3% en août, au taux annuel de 750.000 unités en données cvs, selon les chiffres officiels. Celles de juillet, initialement annoncées en repli de 1,1% à 746.000, ont finalement reculé de 2,8% à 733.000. Bien qu’en hausse, le chiffre d’août est inférieur aux attentes. Les permis de construire ont diminué de 1%, au rythme annuel de 803.000 unités.

Les bureaux parisiens d’UBS ont fait l’objet d’une perquisition dans le cadre d’une enquête lancée à la suite de soupçons d’aide à l'évasion fiscale. UBS France, qui évoque «un acte normal dans ce genre d’enquête» entend «poursuivre pleinement sa coopération avec la justice». Cette nouvelle investigation fait suite à d’autres perquisitions menées en juillet à Bordeaux, Strasbourg et Lyon.

Des experts se sont réunis mercredi à Bruxelles à l’invitation du Fonds monétaire international et du think tank Bruegel dans le cadre d’un atelier de réflexion sur la taxation du secteur financier. Les participants ont souligné la nécessité que le secteur financier contribue de manière adéquate afin de supporter les coûts budgétaires des crises bancaires à l’avenir.

Les ventes dans l’immobilier ancien ont atteint leur rythme le plus élevé depuis deux ans en août aux Etats-Unis et les prix s’inscrivent en hausse sur une base annuelle, un signe positif pour la reprise du marché de l’immobilier. Les ventes ont augmenté le mois dernier de 7,8% à 4,82 millions d’unités en rythme annualisé, a annoncé mercredi l’Association nationale des promoteurs immobiliers (NAR).

Philippe Sabbah a été officiellement nommé président de Robeco France SAS, qui est la nouvelle structure de distribution du groupe Robeco à Paris après la restructuration des activités de gestion cette année. Il remplace Ali Ould Rouis, qui présidait Robeco Gestions et a mené la réorganisation. Philippe Sabbah a rejoint le groupe en août 2011 au poste de directeur général, membre du directoire en charge des activités commerciales et marketing de Robeco Gestions.

Les membres du Comité de politique monétaire de la Banque d’Angleterre (BoE) ont estimé lors de leur dernière réunion que les perspectives d’inflation à court terme s'étaient assombries en Grande-Bretagne en raison de la hausse des prix du pétrole et la menace d’augmentation des prix alimentaires et des tarifs des services collectifs. Mais cette poussée à court terme n’inquiète pas la BoE, dont un des neuf membres a estimé qu’il y avait «de bonnes raisons» pour une montée en puissance du programme de rachats d’actifs.

Avec 25% du capital, le fonds d’investissement dirigé par Erik Knight est le principal actionnaire du distributeur coté à Londres. Il détaille son projet dans un entretien aux Echos. Erik Knight prône notamment un retour au «bon sens» en matière de coûts et le recentrage de l’activité sur la France et la Belgique. Il entend tirer les leçons de la vente de Comet, l’enseigne anglaise de l’ex-groupe Kesa Electricals. Tout cela passe par la séduction de nouveaux investisseurs, «cette fois plutôt côté français» souligne le quotidien, «dans la perspective à moyen terme d’une réinscription à la cote de Paris».

Face aux blocages des négociations, la Commission européenne est tentée de reprendre la main

La chute des prix des matières premières et la force de la devise conduisent la RBA à envisager une nouvelle baisse de taux en octobre

Certaines sociétés nippones ont préféré fermer leurs points de vente ou usines en Chine à cause des manifestations nationalistes

Un pôle, baptisé Seeyond et gérant 14,7 milliards d’euros d’encours, dont 12 milliards de produits structurés, a été constitué. Il regroupe quatre expertises disposant d’une plate-forme de recherche commune. Natixis AM vise une collecte additionnelle de 2 milliards d’euros d’ici à 2016.

Le pôle, baptisé Seeyond et gérant 14,7 milliards d’euros d’encours, regroupe quatre expertises disposant d’une plate-forme de recherche commune

Les analystes de Barclays ont revu à la hausse leurs prévisions d'émissions pour 2012 en dépit d'un environnement britannique moins favorable

La baisse de la prime de risque a permis aux indices européens de rebondir. A court terme, ceux-ci apparaissent désormais en surchauffe

L’appétit des fonds souverains pour l’immobilier de bureaux européen devrait encore se renforcer. Ils pourraient y investir près de 50 milliards de dollars dans les cinq prochaines années, selon une étude. La France, principalement Paris, ainsi que le marché londonien restent leur cible privilégiée.

Ils pourraient consacrer près de 50 milliards de dollars à l'immobilier européen sur cinq ans, essentiellement en France et au Royaume-Uni