Selon les informations de Citywire, Felix Freund, gérant-star d’Union Investment (banques populaires allemandes), a été embauché comme directeur crédit Europe par Standard Life Investments (SLI).D’autre part, Investment Week précise que SLI a recruté Mark Kedar comme sterling credit investment director. L’intéressé était fixed income investment manager chez Kames.

Le fournisseur d’ETP Source et le groupe de services financiers Nomura ont annoncé le 10 avril le lancement d’un nouvel ETF, le Nomura Voltage Short-Term Source ETF. L’ETF a pour objectif d’offrir une exposition réactive et tactique à la volatilité en répliquant l’indice Nomura Voltage Strategy Short-Term 30-day USD TR, un indice qui cherche à tirer parti des pics de volatilité, tout en réduisant les coûts associés à une position longue permanente sur la volatilité. Il s’agit là du second ETF Source de la gamme Nomura Voltage. Le Nomura Voltage Mid-Term Source ETF, qui réplique l’indice Nomura Voltage Strategy Mid-Term 30-day USD TR, a été lancé en avril 2011 et possède à ce jour plus de 540 millions de dollars d’encours sous gestion. Les deux ETF s’adressent aux investisseurs avertis en leur offrant des options d’investissement sur la volatilité différentes de manière à mieux gérer leur profil de risque/performance. Les contrats à terme sur l’indice CBOE Volatility (le « VIX ») constituent des instruments pratiques pour s’exposer à la volatilité. Toutefois, dans la mesure où la courbe des cours à terme du VIX peut se trouver dans une situation de report (ou de « contango »), maintenir cette exposition à long terme peut s’avérer onéreux, selon le communiqué. L’indice Nomura Voltage Strategy Short-Term 30-day USD TR offre une alternative efficace aux investisseurs désireux d’adopter une position longue sur la volatilité. L’indice reproduit une exposition à la volatilité via l’indice S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures TR, mais il peut moduler le niveau de l’exposition de 0 % à 100 % en fonction du modèle d’allocation Nomura Voltage. De cette manière, il cherche à tirer parti des pics de volatilité tout en limitant le coût de roulement des positions sur les contrats à terme de l’indice VIX. caractéristiquesNom du produit Nomura Voltage Short-Term Source ETF Nomura Voltage Mid-Term Source ETF Devise du fonds USD USD Devise de négociation USD USD (London Stock Exchange) EUR ( Xetra) Frais de gestion 0,30 % par an 0,30 % par an Bourse de cotation London Stock Exchange (LSE) London Stock Exchange / Xetra Domiciliation Irlande Irlande

BNP Paribas Investment Partners vient de nommer Guy Williams, le directeur des investissements de FFTW, en tant que responsable de l’équipe dette émergente globale de BNP Paribas Investment Partners après le départ chez BlackRock de Sergio Trigo Paz avec une équipe de six personnes.Il prendra la responsabilité de la gestion des stratégies dette émergente dans le monde gérées depuis Londres. BNP Paribas précise également avoir comme priorité de renforcer ses équipes dédiées à la dette émergente, un processus qui a déjà commencé.BNP Paribas IP gère plus de 4,5 milliards d’euros d’actifs de dette émergente. Sept personnes qui étaient précédemment chez Fortis ont récemment quitté le groupe pour rejoindre BlackRock. Sergio Trigo Paz devrait prendre la direction de l'équipe dédiée à la dette émergente chez BlackRock à Londres. Les autres membres de l'équipe sont Raphael Marechal, Chris Kelly, Laurent Develay, Michel Aubenas, Jane Yu ainsi qu’Ernesto Bettoni. Ils devraient tous prendre leurs fonctions durant l'été.

La Commission des valeurs chinoise (CSRC) a donné une suite positive à la demande de Huatia Securities de lancement d’un fonds de private equity. Ce fonds, Huatai Zijin (Jiangsu) Private Equity Investment Fund, sera géré par Huatai Ruitong Investment Management Company.Huatai est le second groupe de courtage à obtenir un tel agrément après CICC, qui a lancé son fonds de private equity en avril 2011, avec un encours de 1,5 milliard de yuans, souligne Z-Ben Advisors.

Société Générale Securities Services en Italie (SGSS S.p.A.) a été mandaté par Financière de l’Echiquier pour devenir un de ses agents de transfert et fournir des services d’agent payeur et de gestion des relations investisseurs. Parmi les services fournis par SGSS en Italie figurent les services de compensation, de conservation et de banque dépositaire, d’administration de fonds, de gestion des liquidités et des services d’agent de transfert.

Funds People rapporte que le suisse Pictet a fait enregistrer par la CNMV pour la vente en Espagne le compartiment Pictet-Global Flexible Allocation (lire Newsmanagers du 8 mars) de sa sicav luxembourgeoise.

Lázaro de Lázaro, qui était responsable des institutions financières et compagnies d’assurances de Royal Bank of Scotland pour la Péninsule ibérique, a rejoint Santander Asset Management (35,5 milliards d’euros d’encours) en tant qu’administrateur délégué, rapporte Funds People. Il remplace Dolores Ybarra, qui exerçait cette fonction depuis octobre concurremment à celle de CIO mondial.

Directrice du pôle gestion et investissement de Banco Madrid Gestión de Activos (1 milliard d’euros d’encours), Iratxe Oria a été promue directrice générale de la société en remplacement de Rafael Valera, qui a été nommé directeur général adjoint de la banque, rapporte Funds People.

Depuis le 10 avril, le fonds obligataire haut rendement émergent de droit néerlandais BNP Paribas Fund III NV a été admis à la négociation sur Euronext Fund Services (EFS) de NYSE Euronext. C’est le 186ème fonds d’investissement coté sur cette plate-forme.CaractéristiquesDénomination: BNP EM HIEF (Unh)Code Isin: NL0010060604Indice de référence: S&P Global Emerging Markets High Income Equity (Euro)TFE: 1,6 %

Since 10 April, the Netherlands-registered emerging markets high yield bond fund BNP Paribas Fund III NV has been admitted to trading on Euronext Fund Services (EFS) from NYSE Euronext. It becomes the 186th investment fund to be listed on that platform.CharacteristicsName: BNP EM HIEF 5Unh)ISIN code: NL0010060604Benchmark: S&P Global Emerging Markets High Income Equity (Euro)TER : 1.6%

Funds People reports that the Swiss firm Pictet has registered the Pictet-Global Flexible Allocation sub-fund with the CNMV for sale in Spain (see Newsmanagers of 8 March). The fund is a sub-fund of the firm’s Luxembourg Sicav.

Total financial assets of euro zone insurance companies and pension funds in fourth quarter 2011 increased to EUR6.980trn from EUR6.919trn the previous quarter, according to statistics from the European Central Bank (ECB). In the same period, mandated insurance reserves, the major measure of liabilities for insurance companies and pension funds, have increased, from EUR6.113trn to EUR6.131trn. This increase is due in nearly equal proportions to positive transactions and valuation effects. In relation to ventilation of assets on the aggregate balance sheets of insurance companies and pension funds in the euro zone, assets in securities other than equities as of the end of December 2011 represented 39% of total financial assets in the sector. Shares in mutual funds represented the second largest exposure, with 23% of total financial assets. Lastly, equities and other participations represented 12% of the total.

The Chinese regulator, the CSRC, has announced that it is opening a new CNY50bn allocation for “renminbi qualified foreign institutional investors (RQFII)», who will have no investment restrictions, and will be able to invest their assets wholly in ETFs of equities listed in continental China (A-class shares), Z-Ben Advisors reports.For the first wave, investments by RQII funds in A-class shares had been limited to 20% of assets.

Lazard Frères Gestion on 6 April announced the appointment of Gilles Trancart, former inspector at the Bank of France, as managing partner and chief operating officer. Trancart will be based in Paris, and will direct support and control functions. He joined Lazard Frères Gestion in late September 2011. Trancart previously worked at Newedge as chief risk officer and a member of the executive board.

According to a study by Standard & Poor’s *S&P), only 16% of active fund managers in 2011 managed to beat the S&P Composite 1500 index, the poorest result since statistics began in 2002, Handelsblatt reports. In 2010 and 2009, the percentage of “outperformers” was 42% and 59%, respectively. This failure to outperform extends to large caps as well as small caps. The statistics will fuel current controversies about the added value that actively-managed funds offer compared to ETFs.

S&P Capital IQ is adding to its research team, Mutual Fund Wire reports. The firm has recruited Barbara Reguero has managing director of its cross-asset-class research team. Reguero had previously been global chief administrative officer in the fixed income research division at Nomura Securities International.

Swell Asset Management, dedicated to tactical asset allocation, whose foundation Newsmanagers announced on 11 January 2012, has announced that it began its activities on 27 March with the transfer of the Swell Soft GTAA Fund (formerly the LFP Allocation 3). The fund, whose assets total EUR93m, had since its inception in 2005 been managed by Olivier Ramé and Jean-Philippe Collin, the two founders of Swell AM, who were then head of alternative management and a manager, respectively, at La Française des Placements. The French regulator has also issued a license for the creation of the Swell Classic GTAA Fund, a second fund, also in UCITS IV format, which uses the same investment strategy but in a more aggressive mode. Swell Asset Management received its portfolio management firm license from the French regulator on 1 March 2012. Ramé and Collin each own 37.5% of capital in the firm, while La Française AM controls the remaining 25%. In addition to this capital relationship, La Française AM is also making operational infrastructure (IT, middle office, offices, etc.) available to the young asset management firm.

The broker Newedge has announced the appointment of Peter Ward as global head of marketing communications, based in the firm’s New York offices. In his new role, Ward will be responsible for Newedge’s marketing activities worldwide. He will report directly to Kevin Russell, global head, brand & communications. Ward had previously been an independent consultant in marketing and communications. He also spent six years at Greenwich Capital Markets and Royal Bank of Scotland.

Brett Langbert, who had been managing director at UBS in charge of the Americas prime brokerage unit, was on 10 April appointed president and chief operating officer (COO) of HedgeCo Networks, which acts as a consultant and operates a hedge fund database.Evan Rapoport, CEO of HedgeCo, says the recruitment comes at a time when US federal authorities are expected to repeal a rule forbidding hedge funds from applying for general subscriptions from the public. HedgeCo estimates that it will be able to offer a service to help investors find decorrelated returns through diversification of their portfolios, and that the repeal of the rule will primarily benefit newly-launched hedge funds.

The US asset management firm Principal Global Investors is hoping to take control of a fund of hedge fund management firm, in order to diversify its USD240bn network, Financial News reports.

According to a study of 10 “sustainable development” equity funds undertaken by the economic journalist Jochen Bettzieche for the Green party’s representation in the German Parliament, nine out of 10 products were directly or indirectly invested in companies that produce weapons, and all ten were invested in firms that produce oil or gas, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports.The Green party financial expert Gerhard Schick says the findings suggest that clear minimal legal advertising standards need to be established for funds which claim to invest sustainably.

After 14 years at AxaRosenberg in London as head of relationship management for institutional clients in Germany, continental Europe and the Middle East, Armin Gudat on 1 April joined the Hamburg-based Aquila Capital Institutional as senior fund manager in the quantitative team. As Roman Rosslenbroich, founder and CEO of Aquila Capital, states, the new recruit will assist in the development of quantitative investment strategies and products.

Although it welcomes the fact that the new ESMA consultation document issued in January 2012 extends its range to a more horizontal approach covering all UCITS-compliant funds, rather than focusing solely on UCITS-compliant ETF funds in a more vertical manner, the EDHEC-Risk Institute expresses regrets in its response to the consultation document that the text does not go further in several key areas.Specialists at EDHEC express regrets that the European regulator did not see fit to propose a definition of passive management which could be associated with an acceptable tracking error level. Meanwhile, they are critical of the fact that the ESMA proposal, although it recommends making information on the performance of indices available for free, does not require that all information on indices be published for free, particularly the composition history of the indices. Furthermore, EDHEC would like to see the quality of governance of indices and a way to audit the decisions of index committees receive more attention from the regulator.

Last month, the Hennessee Hedge Fund Index posted returns of 0.59%, following gains of 1.68% in February and 2.25% in January, meaning that for first quarter, the average returns come out to 4.59%.Only three strategies saw losses in March: macro (-0.29%), short biased (-1.02%), and emerging markets (-1.28%). In January-March, only short bias shows losses (of 10.81%).

The college of the French prudential control authority (ACP) on 6 April announced that it has passed a recommendation to improve information and transparency in communications to retail lending clients about foreign currency risks. Credit establishments and intermediaries for banking operations are offering retail clients loans in currencies that carry forex risks, and promoting them on the grounds of the lower interest rates they charge than loans in euros, and limited variation of the exchange rate. An analysis of sales practices for loans of this type found that currency risks may be misunderstood by borrowers.As a result, the ACP is recommending that credit establishments and intermediaries in banking operations follow a code of best practices for advisers in contact with clients, advertising, explanations provided to the client before the loan is signed, and annual information to the borrower.

The California pension fund CalPERS on 10 April announced that it has been selected by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to become a member of the investor advising commission, newly created under Dodd-Frank legislation.Jow Dear, chief investment officer of CalPERS, will chair the 21-member commission, which will advise the SEC on regulatory questions and pricing issues, and which may also undertake initiatives to improve invetor protection and market confidence.

The US regulator, the SEC, has begun processing data from the major hedge fund firms in the country, provided to the regulator by a deadline of 30 March under Dodd-Frank legislation, the Wall Street Journal reports. The objective is to identify firms whose behaviour may pose potential risks ot investors. About 1,400 new companies, including Moore Capital Management and Tiger Global Management, have provided new information on funds, investors, brokers, and other areas, the WSJ reports.

The Chinese securities regulatory commission (CSRC) has granted approval to a request from Huatia Securities to launch a private equity fund. The fund, Huatai Zijin (Jiangsu) Private Equity Investment Fund, will be managed by Huatai Ruitong Investment Management Company.Huatai is the second brokerage firm to have received such a license, after CICC, which launched its private equity fund in April 2011, with assets of CNY1.5bn, Z-Ben Advisors reports.

In partnership with the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), Deutsche Börse has placed climate change information concerning about 1,800 publicly-traded businesses online, free of charge, since the end of last week. The information makes it possible to compare the businesses in terms of their contribution to environmental protection and their transparency in terms of CO2 emissions.The data are available at http://www.boerse-frankfurt.com/.

In the Swiss financial sector, the number of job openings as of the end of March was 20.5% lower than its level twelve months previously, with a 35.2% decline for banks and a 4% decline at insurers, finews reports.On the websites of 1,400 banks, insurers and other Swiss financial sector businesses (auditors, IT, consultants, etc.), as of 31 March there were 3,430 jobs announced, compared with 4,312 as of the end of March 2011, according to the Finews-JobDirectory-Index, published in cooperation with the website JobDirectory.ch. Of this total, job openings at banks totalled 1,144, compared with 1,765 one year preivously.However, finews states that there has been some stability since the beginning of the year at the two major banks (UBS and Credit Suisse), but that the decline is more pronounced at cantonal and private banks.