The 27 member countries of the European Union have reached agreement on the supervision and regulation of clearing houses, Les Echos reports. It will be impossible to bar a clearing house, as London had sought, unless a college of national supervisors unanimously votes to do so. However, finance ministers have agreed to add an appeal procedure: if a two-thirds majority of countries vote against the creation of a clearing house, it may ask the European Securities Markets Authority (ESMA) to settle the case. This compromise will now be put to a vote of the European Parliament at the end of January, on a final legislative text.

Normative exclusion, which consists in banning investments in businesses which violate international, social or environmental conventions, may help to make socially responsible investment more credible, a new study by Novethic which surveyed 30 French and northern European investors has found. “the practice makes it possible to exclude the most visible black sheep in portfolios,” explains Anne-Catherine Husson-Traore, CEO of Novethic. However, due to its limited impact on businesses, exclusion may be considered only a step in the direction of SRI in the strict sense. It is thus best suited to be associated with other practices (best-in-class, engagement), the authors of the study claim. Respondents in the Novethic study have eliminated an average of only 13 businesses from investment universes of 500 to 3,000 shares. Only severe and repeated violations without the introduction of corrective measures may lead to exclusion. In addition, the composition of lists varies from one investor to another. As a result, nearly three quarters of businesses are excluded by only one player participating in the study. The other limit of the practice is index-based management. Most businesses which are subject to normative exclusion are listed on most global indices, while an increasing proportion of institutional assets are allocated to passive management.

The German Andreas Wenk, who until recently was region head EMEA at Pioneer Investments, is joining Itaú UK Asset Management Ltd as director of wholesale distribution for Europe, alongside Griff Williams, who will retain his position as head of institutional clients, Fonds Professionell reports.Wenk will be based in London, and will report to Rainer Schwarz, managing director and head of Itaú Asset Management for Europe and the Middle East.Itaú UK Asset Management is the European asset management affiliate of the Brazilian firm Itaú Unibanco, whose assets total USD159bn.

Old Mutual today announces that it will be combining its Wealth Management Continental Europe business (France and Italy) with the Skandia Retail Europe business unit (Germany, Austria, Poland and Switzerland). Hein Donders has been appointed CEO of the new business unit called «Wealth Management Europe», which will sit within Old Mutual Wealth Management, with immediate effect. Jonas Jonsson, currently CEO of Retail Europe, will work with Hein for several months to establish the new business unit, before assuming a new strategic role within Old Mutual.

Ignis Asset Management has registered the Absolute Return Government Bond Fund (see Newsmanagers of 2 March 2011) for sale in Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, France, Sweden, Finland, and Spain. The UCITS-compliant long/short absolute return fund, specialised in government bonds (LU0579398933), is a sub-fund of the Ignis Fund Sicav. It carries a front-end fee of 5%, management commission of 1%, and a commission of 10% on performance exceeding the Eonia.

On 26 January, about 90,000 shareholders in DEGI Europa (ISIN code: DE0009807800) will receive a third payment as part of the liquidation of the open-ended real estate fund, announced on 22 October 2010, Aberdeen Asset Management Deutschland has announced. The distribution this time will be EUR3 per share, which represents a total of EUR78.6m, or 8.5% of remaining assets of EUR921.9m as of 31 December.The fund had already paid out EUR9.70 per share on 24 January 2011, and EUR1.85 on 25 July 2011. The next distribution will take place in July 2012, and its amount will depend on the liquidity generated from sales of properties. The final liquidation of the fund is scheduled for 30 September 2013.

The German asset management firm Sauren Fonds Service (EUR2.1bn in assets under management) has announced that it has added a share class to its Sauren Global Defensiv fund of funds (EUR1.24bn), launched in February 2003, that pays 3% annually. The Global Defensiv is a sub-fund of the Luxembourg Sicav Sauren Fonds-Select. Subscriptions for the new 3F share class (ISIN LU0731594668) will be open from 9 to 28 February 2012. Front-end fees are 3%, and the management commission is 0.45%, while sales commission is 0.35%.Sauren will charge a 10% commission on performance exceeding the annual 3%.

The alternative management specialist boutique Hermes BPK Partners has launched a managed futures fund, Alpha Vault Managed Futures, whose assets under management already total USD275m, Hedge Week reports. The solution provides protection for institutional investors in periods of high market turbulence, via investments concentrated in mid-term CTA. Assets under management at Hermes BPK Partners, which is also a fund of hedge fund manager, total over USD2.3bn.

According to sources familiar with the matter, the Blackstone Group has received investment commitments totalling over USD6bn for its new real estate fund Blacksone Real Estate Partners VII, which will invest most of its portfolio in distressed assets, the Financial Times reports. Fundraising began last spring, and the closing will come later this year.The previous fund, Real Estate Patners CI, closed in 2008, raised USD10.9bn. Tony James, chairman of Blackstone, has said in the past that he expects REP VII to be at least as large as its predecessor.

Investors should give the priority to high-quality diversified investments which offer good returns, due to bleak growth outlooks for the global economy in 2012, Bill O’Neill, chief investment offiver at Merrill Lynch Wealth Management for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) claimed in a press conference on 24 January.“Emerging markets will play a preponderant role in global growth, which will total 3.6% this year. US growth will increase slightly to 2.1%, and the Chinese economy will have a smooth landing,” says O’Neill.“For selection of equities in 2012, we recommend positions on large caps with solid cash flow and rising dividends,” the strategist says. “We recommend prudence, but are not predicting a disaster this year. We still insist on the need to adopt a strategic framework to manage the ‘new normal,’ which is characterised by weaker growth and higher risks. In particular, investors need to anticipate periods of significant loss and volatility bubbles, and frequent changes in risk appetite and aversion.”“Our three favourite sectors are cyclical consumer goods, inelastic consumer goods, and tech.” These sectors are the most attractive in terms of the quality of corporate results and valuations, and are in phase with the macroeconomic environment. Merrill Lynch Wealth Management EMEA also favours the major themes of growth, including consumer spending in emerging markets and global infrastructure. “We are expecting Chinese monetary policy to loosen, and will then strengthen our exposure to emerging markets,” says O’Neill.Merrill Lynch Wealth Management EMEA also recommends underweight positions on Japanese and euro zone actors in 2012. Japanese growth will recover this year, but corporate results may prove disappointing. Euro zone equities are inexpensive and investor confidence is already at a low point, but O’Neill esimates that it is still too soon to invest in the region, due to the high level of risk.For bond markets, investors should prefer corporate bonds to government issues, particularly investment grade and high yield securities, particularly from US businesses. Valuations for high yield bonds have already integrated an acceptable default threshold. Investors should steer particularly clear of banking sector shares and debt from peripheral European countries. “Credit spreads are attractive, as they reflect a significant incrase in defaults, which we estimate will be unlikely to materialise. Government bonds from ‘core’ countries remain unattractive from any perspective, except if there is a prolonged global recession,” says O’Neill.

BNY Mellon has announced the appointment of Ian Stewart as head of Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) Client Management, a role previously held by Hani Kablawi, who has been appointed head of EMEA Asset Servicing for BNY Mellon. Reporting to Jim Palermo, vice chairman and CEO of Global Client Management, Stewart continues in his role as head of North America Client Management.

With Pimco Deutschland GmbH, which was entered on the commercial register on 7 December 2011, the US firm Pimco (Allianz Global Investors group) has created a German-registered affiliate, based in Munich, with assets of about EUR200bn, led by Craig Dawson and Andrew Bosomworth.The new asset management firm has been licensed by BaFin to sell products aimed exclusively at professional investors.As of the end of November, the Irish-domiciled Pimco Europe managed EUR42.74bn in Germany in open-ended funds.

From 1 January, Marcel Schnyder, head of multi-asset class products, has been apopinted as chief investment officer (CIO) at LGT Capital Management. He joined the firm in 2005. Rolf Jutos, head of investment management, retains responsibility for sustainable development initiatives at LGT CM, and in addition to these duties, will set up a corporate investment operation and coordinate strategic projects groupwide.

In a context of ongoing euro zone crisis in early 2012, the European economy is facing a slight recession, and it is not yet known whether it will worsen or lessen. “We have entered a world full of uncertainty and unknown factors, but we have also entered a world full of opportunities,” said Valentijn van Nieuwenhuijzen, economist in chief and strategist on the asset allocation team at ING IM, at an investment committee meeting on 24 January. In this unstable environment, in which limited growth and muted returns are the norm, the worst case is not a certainty. “The cost of a collapse of the euro would be so monumental that European political leaders have a will to avoid such a scenario,” the ING IM strategist says. Since 2008, the environment has completely transformed, and for a long time. “The first thing for an investor to do is to accept the new environment and to move over to a passive vision of investment. To finds returns in all market conditions, investors now need to adopt a dynamic tactical approach, take risks, if there are strong convictions, but also to expect unexpected shocks and manage the risk pudget over the whole portfolio,” he explains. With this in mind, ING IM currently has a marked preference for high yield and emerging market debt. Michel Ho, investment specialist in the credit team at ING IM, says “the credit cycle is continuing to improve, with a minority of firms losing money and default rates expected to remain at a low level in 2012.” The signs are pointing to weak economic growth, or even a slight recessino, which would net necessarily have an impact on this asset class. At least in an unexpected collapse of the euro zone, high yield would post double-digit growth this year, says Ho. The other major opportunity at the moment is in emerging market debt, where investments have increased impressively. This is a rapidly-growing asset class, which already accounts for over USD10trn, which is not closely monitored by analysts, and which offers significant diversification, with excellent fundamentals and improving quality, and which, as a result of what has come before, offers far higher returns that bonds on developed markets. Rob Drijkoningen, co-director of the emerging market debt team at ING IM, recommends an overweight position on government bonds in hard currencies which will continue to resist these headwinds. He is neutral on corporate debt due to the potential impact of emerging markeet growth and European crisis, but remains underweight on emerging market currencies, with a potential reduction in this position of global growth is better than expected and if extreme risks are reduced in Europe.

Valiant bank has lost several executives from its Bern offices in the past few months in investment advising, Agefi Switzerland reports. Four directors and a client adviser in this segment, who had joined the Private Banking department, have left to join competitors. The style of management of the head of private banking and board member Martin Gafner is said to be the cause.

The institutional asset management firm specialised in convertible bonds, Fisch Asset Managemnt, on 24 January announced a net inflow of CHF900m for 2011. Assets under management have increased by about 20%, to a record level fo CHF5.2bn, despite a strong appreciation in the franc against the euro and US dollar in particular.The firm ,which mostly serves institutional clients in German-speaking countries, now has 49 employees, following the recruitment of several convertibles specialists. Fisch AM also states that it has improved its client reporting.

Assets under management in Swiss investment funds as of the end of December 2011 totalled about CHF621bn, up by slightly over CHF4bn compared with the end of November, according to statistics from the Swiss Funds Association.Net inflows in December totalled CHF923.2m. The “other funds” category, which includes commodities funds, funds of hedge funds and private equity funds, attracted slightly over CHF1bn. Equity funds posted net inflows of CHF244m, while bond and money market funds saw redemptions totalled CHF76.3m and CHF81.4m, respectively. Asset diversification funds finished the month with net outflows of CHF174.2m.

BNY Mellon a annoncé avoir nommé Ian Stewart au poste de directeur de la gestion de la clientèle pour la région EMEA (Europe, Moyen-Orient et Afrique). Il replace Hani Kablawi, qui occupe désormais la fonction de head of EMEA Asset Servicing de BNY Mellon. En plus de ses nouvelles fonctions, Ian Stewart conserve les responsabilités de son ancien poste de responsable de la relation de clientèle pour la région Amérique du Nord.

Le réseau mondial d’UBS, qu’il s’agisse des lignes de métier gestion de fortune, banque suisse, gestion d’actifs mondiale et banque d’investissement, sera désormais approvisonné en données environnementales, sociales et de gouvernance (ESG) fournies par RepRisk qui seront également intégrées dans la base de données conformité du groupe bancaire, en particulier pour ce qui concerne les entreprises «controversées».Cela permettra d’améliorer la gestion du risque et le contrôle des nouveaux clients et investissements ainsi que la due diligence sur les transactions. En effet, l’UBS s’est engagée à ne pas fournir de services financiers et à ne pas recourir à des fournisseur dont les activités commerciales principales ou les recettes qui en sont tirées pourraient comporter des risques liés à des thématiques environnementales et sociales.

Désormais, Ignis Asset Management a fait enregistrer le Absolute Return Government Bond Fund (lire Newsmanagers du 2 mars 2011) au Luxembourg, en Allemagne, en Autriche, en France, en Suède, en Finlande et en Espagne.Ce fonds coordonné long/short de performance absolue, spécialiste des obligations d’Etat est un compartiment d’Ignis Fund Sicav.Caractéristiques : Code isin : LU0579398933Droit d’entrée :5 % Commission de gestion : 1 % Commission de surperformance : 10 % par rapport à l’Eonia.

Swiss Life Asset Management France vient de lancer un fonds obligataire court terme à échéance décembre 2013. Dédié aux investisseurs institutionnels, Swiss Life Funds (F) Opportunité Crédit 2013 sera investi dans du «crédit de qualité, diversifié et insensible au risque de taux», selon la société de gestion. Le portefeuille comportera ainsi des émissions d’entreprises privées libellées en euro. La notation crédit devra être à l’achat au minimum «investment grade». Le portefeuille exclut les entreprises financières et les entreprises dont la maison mère est située dans un des pays périphériques de la zone euro (Portugal, Irlande, Italie, Grèce et Espagne). La maturité maximum des titres est décembre 2013. Le fonds est couvert activement contre le risque de taux.CaractéristiquesCode Isin : FR0011136126 (Part capitalisation)Frais de fonctionnement et de gestion : 0.25% TTC p.a.Commission de rachat acquise à l’OPCVM : 0.50% (néant si les demandes de rachat sont présentées avec un préavis supérieur à 15 jours).Objectif de gestion : l’objectif de gestion est de réaliser sur un horizon de placement déterminé : décembre 2013, une performance nette annualisée supérieure à l’Eonia capitalisé.Indicateur de référence : l’indicateur de référence est l’EONIA capitalisé – (Euro Overnight Index Average).

Daniel Mudd, CEO du gestionnaire alternatif Fortress Investment Group, a démissionné mardi de son poste et quitté le conseil d’administration de la société, un peu plus d’un mois après que la SEC ait entamé contre lui des poursuites au civil pour fraude aux valeurs mobilières, rapporte The Wall Street Journal.Il a été mis en cause pour son rôle du temps où il était CEO de Fannie Mae (poste dont il avait été limogé en septembre 2008) et aurait alors manqué de rendre publics de manière correcte les risques que cet organisme hypothécaire soutenu par l’Etat prenait sur le marché des crédits subprime.Fortress (43,6 milliards de dollars d’encours fin septembre) précise que Randal Nardone, l’un des co-fondateurs, continuera d’assurer l’intérim des fonctions de CEO, ce qu’il fait depuis que Daniel Mudd s’est mis en congé en décembre.

Selon un proche du dossier, The Blackstone Group aurait obtenu des engagements d’investissement sur plus de 6 milliards de dollars pour son nouveau fonds immobilier Blackstone Real Estate Partners VII, qui va investir en grande partie dans des actifs en détresse, rapporte le Financial Times. La levée des fonds a commencé au printemps dernier et le «closing» intervenir cette année.Le précédent fonds, le Real Estate Partners VI, clôturé en 2008, avait levé 10,9 milliards de dollars. Et Tony James, le président de Blackstone, a indiqué par le passé qu’il s’attend que le REP VII soit au moins aussi important que son prédécesseur.

Yam Invest annonce la nomination de Pierre Colin au poste de directeur général et membre du directoire du groupe. Avant de rejoindre l’entreprise d’investissement, il occupait la fonction de président de Bank of America Merrill Lynch pour la France.A travers ses trois filiales Time Investors , Helse et Yareal International, Yam Invest s’est spécialisé sur des investissements sur les sociétés européennes de taille moyenne, notamment dans les domaines de la santé et l’immobilier. Les fonds propres dont dispose la société sont supérieurs à 350 millions d’euros, précise un communiqué.

A Paris, JP Morgan Asset Management a terminé une année 2011 sur une note très positive du point de vue des encours, avec environ 6 milliards de dollars.Comme pour beaucoup d’autres maisons, le retail a souffert d’une décollecte pendant que la clientèle institutionnelle continuait de souscrire en net.La surprise est venue en fait de la clientèle d’entreprises, qui a apporté pour 2,5 milliards de dollars d’argent frais aux fonds monétaires. Certes, il s’agit de produits faiblement margés, mais cela ouvre des portes aux commerciaux qui peuvent en profiter pour fidéliser de nouveaux clients.

Le CEO de Raymond James, Paul Reilly, a confirmé que Richard K. Riess, executive vice president de la gestion d’actif du groupe, CEO d’Eagle Asset Management et président du directoire du board of trustees de la gamme de fonds Eagle, prendra sa retraite au 31 décembre 2012. Richard K. Riess, qui a passé plus de 35 ans au sein de la société, continuera à travailler sur certains projets aux cotés de Paul Reilly, précise un communiqué. Raymond James confirme être actuellement à la recherche d’un remplaçant pour Richard K. Riess.

L’allemand Deka Immobilien a acheté à Friends Provident Life Assurance, pour 28 millions d’euros, l’immeuble de bureaux Edinburgh One (5.100 mètres carrés). Cet actif, situé à Edimbourg et entièrement loué à Scottish Widows, sera affecté à un fonds immobilier institutionnel.

Avec Pimco Deutschland GmbH, inscrite au registre du commerce le 7 décembre 2011, l’américain Pimco (groupe Allianz Global Investors), vient de se doter à Munich d’une filiale de droit allemand dont l’encours se situe aux alentours de 200 milliards d’euros et qui est dirigée par Craig Dawson et Andrew Bosomworth.La nouvelle société de gestion a reçu l’agrément de la BaFin pour la commercialisation de produits exclusivement destinés aux investisseurs professionnels.Fin novembre, l’irlandais Pimco Europe gérait pour sa part en Allemagne 42,74 milliards d’euros dans des fonds offerts au public.

Le 26 janvier, les quelque 90.000 porteurs de parts du fonds DEGI Europa (*) percevront un troisième versement dans le cadre de la liquidation de ce fonds immobilier offert au public décidée le 22 octobre 2010, a annoncé Aberdeen Asset Management Deutschland. La distribution sera cette fois de 3 euros par part, ce qui représente au total 78,6 millions d’euros ou 8,5 % de l’encours restant de 921,9 millions d’euros au 31 décembre.Le fonds avait déjà distribué 9,70 euros par part le 24 janvier 2011 puis sur 1,85 euro le 25 juillet 2011. La prochaine répartition doit avoir lieu en juillet 2012, et son montant sera fonction des liquidités générées par la cession des actifs. La liquidation définitive du fonds est programmée pour le 30 septembre 2013.(*) Code isin : DE0009807800

Le 20 janvier, la CNMV a enregistré un nouveau fonds obligataire à échéance 30 avril 2014 créé par InverCaixa le 10 janvier, le Foncaixa Objetivo Abril 2014, qui comporte deux classes de parts avec des objectifs de performance de 2,5 % annuels (classe Estandar) et de 2,75 % (classe Extra) entre 29 mars 2012 et l'échéance.Le portefeuille sera investi jusqu'à échéance dans des obligations d’Etat et des obligations garanties par des Etats de l’UE. Il pourra comporter au maximum 20 % d’obligations privées.InverCaixa a prévu huit fenêtres de liquidité intermédiaires durant lesquelles les investisseurs pourront souscrire ou se faire rembourser des parts sans acquitter une commission de 4 %.CaractéristiquesDénomination : Foncaixa Objectivo Abril 2014 EST et Foncaix Objectivo Abril 2014 EXTCodes Isin : ES0137777001 et ES0137777019Commission de gestion : 0,775 % (EST) et 0,55 % (EXT)Souscription minimale initiale : 600 euros.