Georgia Pardoe, director of marketing at Neptune Investment Management, has left the management firm, effective immediately. She will not be replaced, Money Marketing says. Alasdair Johnson, head of marketing, will assume her former responsibilities.

The British Barclays bank on 27 June announced that it will be paying a fine of GBP290m to settle legal investigations in the United Kingdom and the United States, and its head has confessed and agreed not to accept a bonus this year. The bank says in a statement that it has settled amicably with several financial regulatory authorities, as part of an investigation of the entire banking sector in the matter of the setting of interbank interest rates on a series of derivatives. In another statement, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) says that it has fined the bank GBP59.5m for represensible conduct in relation to interbank reference rates on the London market, the Libor and for the European interbank rate (Euribor). It says that it is the largest fine ever imposed by the FSA. In addition to the FSA, Barclays reports that it has also reached settlements in the United States with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Justice Department. The latter has also granted Barclays immunity in investigations into violations at competing banks. Following this case, and to reflect his collective responsibility as director, the CEO of Barclays, Bob Diamond, has announced that he has decided to forego his bonus this year. Three other members of management have taken the same decision: the CFO, Chris Lucas, the COO, Jerry del Missier, and the executive director in charge of investment banking, Rich Ricci.

The British Financial Services Authority (FSA) on 27 June launched a consultation on regulation on the activities of platforms, which includes a proposed prohibition on kickbacks from product providers, as well as increased transparency about fees charged. According to the FSA, a ban on kickbacks paid by fund managers to platforms would represent a shortfall for the operators of these platforms of about GBP10m to compensate for. The costs related to the rules proposed by the FSA are in a range from GBP11.6m to GBP37.8m, according to estimates by Deloitte. The FSA hopes to release final rules on platforms by the end of the year, to come into effect on 31 December 2013.

Schelcher Prince Gestion has recruited Carole Imbert as head of financial research. The asset management firm led by Sébastien Barbe adds to its own analysis office in the areas of fixed income, credit and convertibles. Imbert, 41, has served as a sell-side equities analyst for nine years, at Natexis, CPR, and then Exane, before becoming head of Investor Relations and Financial Communications for ten years at BIC and then Eurazeo.

After more than five years at Financière de l’Echiquier as director of marketing, Nicolas Lesur has announced, by mail, that he is leaving the asset management led by Didier Le Menestrel at the end of the month.

The Franco-Belgian Dexia bank, which is in the process of being dismantled, on 27 June announced that it is in the final phase of negotiations with three international invetors, to sell its asset management affiliate Dexia Asset Management. The sale of Dexia AM will conclude the process of dismantling the bank, which ceased operations in October 2011.Dexia has already undertaken the sale of Dexia Banque Belgique (now renamed as Belfius Banque et Assurances), its Luxembourg affiliate (Dexia Banque Internationale in Luxembourg), its Turkish affiliate Denizbank, and its 50% stake in the securities custody joint venture which it operates with the Royal Bank of Canada.Dexia has also announced the resignation of its chairman, Jean-Luc Dehaene, and its CEO, Pierre Mariani, as part of a reorganization of the management of the Franco-Belgian bank now in the process of being dismantled.The bank explains in a statement that Dehaene will be leaving his position on 1 July, and that the Belgian Karel de Boeck will serve in the position in the interim. Mariani will be leaving his position only after the first half 2012 books have been approved.

The Teachers’ Retirement System of the State of Illinois, USD37bn in assets) admits that its performance projections, which were 8.5% per year for the past 25 years, have become unrealistic, the Wall Street Journal reports. The performance objective will now be revised downward, which will increase the fund’s liabilities be several billion dollars.

Jean-Pierre Cave, trésorier général du Groupe Pasteur Mutualité lors d’une table ronde organisée mi juin par amLeague et Newsmanagers : Dans notre groupe, nous pratiquons la gestion quantitative depuis 2007. Juste avant la crise. Donc on a pu apprécier le bienfait de cette gestion pendant la crise, ce qui fait que cela a été plus facilement accepté par le conseil d’administration. Par contre, j’ai essayé de leur présenter en commission des finances la technique de la gestion, et là, cela a été un peu difficile à digérer. Mais nous la pratiquons beaucoup. Ils n’ont pas tellement compris comment cela se passait. En revanche, ils ont vu les performances et ont accepté le principe... Tout est confié à des compétences extérieures. Nous avons plusieurs formes de gestion quantitative. Pour vous donner une idée, cela doit représenter à peu près 50% du portefeuille actions qui représente un encours d’environ 200 millions d’euros sur un total de 1,3 milliard d’euros. Toujours par rapport à cette approche de faible volatilité. C'était au départ le fondement de notre investissement. Nous avons l’obligation de perdre le moins sur les marchés. Nous avons un univers de 12 mois, mais en tant qu’assureur, un univers qui est aussi beaucoup plus long. C’est vrai que nous avons des échéances annuelles où je suis attendu au virage.

James Dilworth, CEO of Allianz Global Investors (AGI) for Europe, has said that all the companies of the AGI group in Europe will have been merged by the end of 2013 or early 2014, Handelsblatt reports. That will result in trimming the range of products, a unified IT infrastructure, and reduced costs, which will also involve staff reductions.The head of AGI Europe also says that there will now no longer be active cooperation with Pimco, as the US firm is not no longer part of AGI, and has become a direct affiliate of Allianz, at the same level as, and thus in competition with AGI.The manager also states that after net inflows of EUR1.2bn in first quarter, AGI has seen outflows, but still shows net subscriptions since the beginning of the year.

With SAM (for: Strategische Anlage Modellierung), Fidelity Worldwide Investments is offering German retail fund subscribers wealth management and advising. Whether it be for short-term investments, an individual savings retirement plan or to create savings for a real estate investment, SAM is designed as a complete solution. SAM portfolios are adapted to the needs of individual clients, with automated monitoring up to the time of payment, and risks systematically and progressively reduced from five years to the end of the savings period, without the client needing to pay attention to them constantly. This service is available for investments of EUR10,000 and up.After determining via a questionnaire what the client’s expectations are, the SAM system selects the three best funds in each category among the 8,000 funds on sale in Germany from 220 asset management firms, so long as they are rated at least 4 stars by Morningstar and they have an adequate track record and asset levels. In addition, SAM analyses the performance of pre-selected funds with regard to their risks of loss and volatility. That then allows for the creation of profiled portfolios (from prudent to dynamic) able to pass through difficult market phases without excessive fluctuation.

The London Stock Exchange has admitted four more ETFs from db x-trackers (Deutsche bank group) to trading from 11 June, one based on the S&P 500 ( LU0490619275, 4C share class), the other on the MSCI Japan (LU0659580236, 6C share class). But the novelty resides in the introduction as a secondary listing of Luxembourg-registered “frontier market” products, one of them based on the MSCI index of 25 Pakistani shares, and one on the MSCI index of 64 Bangladeshi companies. These db x-trackers sub-funds are managed by DB Platinum Advisors, also an affiliate of the Deutsche Bank group.CharacteristicsName: db x-trackers MSCI PAKISTAN IM TRN INDEX ETFISIN codes: LU0659579147 (1C share class) and LU0755278701 (2C share class)Total expense ratio: 85%Name: db x-trackers MSCI BANGLADESH IM TRN INDEX ETFISIN codes: LU0659579220 (1C share class) and LU0755277992 (2C share class)Total expense ratio: 0.85%.

Schroders has announced the launch of its Global Multi-Asset Income and ISF Global High Income Bond funds, sub-funds of its Schroder ISF, in Germany. The two products will be released on the Italian market from 2 July, InvestmentEurope states.Global Multi-Asset Income is invested in a range of high yield assets, from bond markets (credit, high yield, emerging market debt), and equity markets (developed and emerging). The Global High Income Bond fund bets on global bonds, combining high yield and emerging market bonds.

The Julius Baer bank has appointed Daniel Vegue Dominguez as director of External Asset Managers (EAM) for Latin America, Agefi Switzerland reports. He will begin in his new role on 1 October 2012. Dominguez and his team will be leaving Credit Suisse, where they served in similar roles. Dominguez will report to Roi Yves Tavor, regional director of EAM for Latin America, Spain and Israel. Latin American EAM activities will be operated from Zurich, Geneva and locally.

Julius Bär on 27 June announced that it is going to unify the names of its structured products, in order to increase transparency and comprehension. From the second half of 2012, all products from the banking group will adopt names drawn from the official categories of the Swiss structured product association (ASPS), a statement says.

Northern Trust has announced the promotion of Kidehiro Nakayama to the position of representative director and presdent, in charge of development for asset management activities in Japan, Asian Investor reports. Nakayama, who in this position replaces Kunihiko Nakao, who retired a few days ago, joined Northern Trust in August 2011 as executive managing director in Tokyo. At that time, he was at Pictet AM.

Nearly all asset management professionals meeting in Monaco for the Fund Forum International feel that there is no doubt that the movement of consolidation in their sector is set to increase. Nearly 40% of participants at a conference on the subject find that mergers and acquisitions are necessary to accelerate rationalisation in the sector. 19% of respondents estimate that that would improve the performance and quality of products, and 17% say it would also help firms comply with regulations.Although many asset management firms are now letting word get around that they are up for sale, few buyers are on the market. In fact, an acquisition, if it allows a firm to reach critical size, may also have a negative effect. Bernhard W. Langer, chief investment officer for global quantitative equity at Invesco, says that to finalise an operation takes 12 to 15 months. During that time, the firm will continue to operate at a reduced scale, and may lose market share.Martin Gilbert, CEO of Aberdeen Asset Management, and James Charrington, charman EMEA at BlackRock, two firms familiar with acquisition operations, warn against acquiring boutiques. One needs to have the spirit that the boutiques have often been created by managers who left larger asset management firms to work independently. A decision to sell often represents a will to take profits. Gilbert says acquiring an affiliate of a bank is easier. It may be true that, as Gilbert says, “all you are buying is a distribution network.” But that is much easier to integrate, particularly if the acquisition involves capital and commercial agreements, as there were between Aberdeen and Credit Suisse.Although the affiliates of banks are more likely to find buyers, what does the future hold for boutiques, which are often facing succession issues? According to Eric Helderlé, CEO of Carmignac, the example of Fidelity, which has been able to grow over three generations, shows that it is possible for management structures supporting the firm to remain independent over time. “To do that, you need to ensure that talent at the asset management firm is not concentrated in the hands of only one man, or a few men, in order to ensure that the culture of the firm can survive,” he says.

Jean-Guido Servais, director of marketing and public relations at JPMorgan Asset Management (JPMAM) in Germany, Austria and Switzerland since June 2006, has been appointed as head of marketing for continental Europe, with effect from 1 June. In this role, he will report directly to Richard Chambers, global chief marketing officer for JPMAM in New York.In addition to his responsibilities in this newly-created position, Servais will retain his former responsibilities.

Market volatility and the correlation of new asset classes which have followed the credit crunch of 2008 are not going away soon – at least because the sovereign debt crisis is taking out a loan against future growth.According to an international study of institutional investors undertaken by Create Research and Global Investors, nearly 80% of institutionals are expecting extended turbulence on the markets, and over 60% of them are expecting at least two systemic crises before the end of the decade. Fear, more than fundamentals, will guide the behaviour of the markets, and price anomalies will prosper.Such anomalies will, of course, represent a source of opportunity, a point of view shared by 71% of respondents. However, only 13% of investors surveyed think they will be able to profit from this volatile environment in the next few years.According to the survey, several obstacles are preventing asset managers from profiting from the situation. The sector cruelly lacks managers able to more deeply understand risk premiums, asset correlations and tactical bias in periods of dislocation. In 2009, the survey finds, only a minority of asset managers had drawn lessons from the financial crisis.Global comprehension of these phenomena is more difficult in light of the rising number of specialist mandates to the detriment of diversified mandates. Other obstacle identified by the survey include client mistrust due to moediocre performance in the wake of the crisis, and gregarious instincts of investors, who often fail to remember the basic precept “buy to the sound of the cannon, sell to the sound of the violin.”The consequence of this situation is that a considerable number of asset managers will need to revise their development model if they want to make volatility an investment opportunity.Among the areas for development identified by the study are development of multi-asset class expertise, improved distribution of interests, involving investment professionals, and associated not only with gains but also with losses, the promotion of rapid execution, and conviction investment, and finally, promotion of inceased client engagement, to reduce timing errors and regret risks. This is the price to pay, if the sector is to move away from looking into a lost decade.

L’indice des promesses de ventes de logements a augmenté de 5,9% en mai par rapport à avril, à un niveau de 101,1. Il s’agit de la plus forte hausse depuis octobre 2011, selon les chiffres de l’Association nationale des agents immobiliers. Le marché l’attendait en hausse de 1,0% après une baisse de 5,5% en avril. Sur un an, les promesses de vente sont en hausse de 13,3% en mai.

Le président sortant de la Banque Mondiale se prépare à rejoindre le Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs au sein de l’université de Harvard et le Peterson Institute for International Economics, un think tank basé à Washington. Son successeur, l’ancien président de l’université de Dartmouth, Jim Yong Kim, prendra la direction de la Banque Mondiale à compter du 1er juillet.

Les commandes de biens durables ont augmenté plus que prévu en mai, selon les chiffres du département du Commerce. La statistique est ressortie en hausse de 1,1% pour le mois dernier, contre 0,4% attendu, après une baisse de 0,2% en avril. Sur une base de trois mois annualisée, les nouvelles commandes sont toutefois en recul de 14,5%, «signe que le secteur manufacturier américain a été rattrapé par la tourmente mondiale», souligne BNP Paribas.

Le projet de loi de finances rectificative pour 2012 qui sera présenté mercredi prochain en conseil des ministres sera examiné par les députés à partir du 16 juillet en séance publique, a rapporté Reuters de source parlementaire. Ce collectif budgétaire mettra en œuvre une partie des promesses électorales de François Hollande et doit permettre de réduire comme prévu le déficit public à 4,5% du PIB fin 2012.

Des responsables gouvernementaux chypriotes ont sollicité l’aide du FMI pour résoudre la crise bancaire du pays, a annoncé mercredi sa directrice générale Christine Lagarde. «Nous avons l’intention d’envoyer une équipe du FMI à Chypre dès que possible pour faire une évaluation de la situation sur le terrain et préparer les discussions sur un programme économique qui aidera Chypre à faire face aux défis économiques auxquels elle est confrontée», a-t-elle précisé dans un communiqué.

L’Italie a adjugé mercredi 9 milliards d’euros de bons à six mois à un rendement moyen de 2,957%, au plus haut depuis décembre, un résultat qui fait monter la pression pesant sur le gouvernement italien et les dirigeants de la zone euro à la veille d’un sommet européen censé apporter des solutions à la crise de la dette de la région. Lors de la précédente adjudication de ce type en mai, le rendement moyen s'était élevé à 2,1%.

Le taux d’inflation annuel en Allemagne semble ralentir en juin et être en mesure de rester pour le deuxième mois consécutif sous l’objectif de 2% fixé par la Banque centrale européenne, au vu des données publiées mercredi par les six principaux Länder. Ainsi la hausse des prix à la consommation sur un an a ralenti à son plus bas niveau depuis 20 mois en Rhénanie du Nord-Westphalie, le Land le plus peuplé.

La commission boursière américaine pourrait entamer des poursuites au civil contre Philip Falcone, le directeur d’Harbinger Capital Partners, dès cette semaine, selon des sources concordantes. La SEC le soupçonne d’avoir utilisé l’argent de ses clients pour régler ses impôts, favorisé certains clients, et notamment Goldman Sachs, mais également de manipulation de cours.

La société d’investissement Fortress Investment Group qui gère 46,4 milliards de dollars d’actifs souhaiterait lancer son deuxième fonds d’investissement (Japan Opportunity Fund) ciblé sur l’immobilier japonais d’un milliard de dollars d’ici la fin de l’année, selon Bloomberg. Les investisseurs institutionnels nippons pèsent à hauteur de 40% dans ce nouveau fonds.

Le Chicago Mercantile Exchange a annoncé hier soir avoir augmenté ses appels de marge sur les contrats à terme de maïs, soja, lait, bois, riz, avoine et blé, traités sur le Chicago Board of Trade. Une mesure effective dès la prochaine séance de cotation.

Pamplona Capital Management, un fonds de private-equity russe, a annoncé avoir accru sa participation dans UniCredit de 1,99% à 5%, devenant ainsi le deuxième actionnaire de la banque italienne. Une participation qui a une valeur de marché de 700 millions d’euros, la banque ayant perdu les deux tiers de sa valeur de marché ces trois derniers mois. Les intentions de Pamplona seraient amicales, selon le Financial Times.

L’Espagne envisage de relever la TVA sur certains produits assujettis actuellement à un taux bas, afin de réduire le déficit budgétaire, a déclaré le ministère des Finances. Le taux de TVA espagnol - 18% - est l’un des plus faibles de l’Union européenne et de nombreux produits bénéficient de surcroît d’un taux réduit de 4% ou 8%.