Pimco slowed its acquisitions of MBS last month, and increased its allocation to government bonds, after 11 months of reducing its exposure to them, the Wall Street Journal reports. The Total Return Fund from the management firm (USD132.267bn) reduced its allocation to MBS to 62% last month, from 81% in November, while allocation to US debt was raised to 9%.

The Swiss federal financial market surveillance authority (FINMA) has published a circular (*), which the Swiss Fund Association (SFA) calls a ?minimal standard for minimal standards? in wealth management. The document describes Finma ?guidelines? for minimal standards at professional organisations in terms of rules of conduct, particularly in areas such as obligations of loyalty to clients, due diligence, and information, as well as in relation to pay scales for wealth managers. It also calls for the establishment of a control process for rules of conduct at professional organisations.The publication is necessary since in Switzerland, wealth managers have several professional organisations, which have different approaches in terms of self-regulation. With this circular, FINMA has established a basis which may be recognised by the various governing bodies as minimal standards, so that a common minimal level may be assured.* http://www.finma.ch/f/regulierung/Documents/finma-rs-2009-01-f.pdf

According to Barclays Global Investors (BGI), assets in its 632 European ETF funds at the end of December totalled USD142.82bn, which represents an increase of 11.2% for the year 2008 as a whole. According to Lipper Feri, ETFs registered net inflows in January-October of USD61.6bn, while all other categories of mutual funds showed net outflows, totalling USD505.7bn. BGI counted 219 newly launched funds last year. Daily trading volumes totalled USD2.03bn last year, which represents an increase of 21.6% over 2007 levels.

Les Echos reports that EU draft legislation relating to rating agencies unveiled in mid-November may give rise to heated debate in the European Parliament. In the preliminary statements submitted yesterday, the reporter on the bill, Jean-Paul Gauzès, welcomes Brussels’ initiative, but argues that the procedure the Commission proposes for registration and supervision of rating agencies by national regulatory authorities would be ?complicated.? He suggests that ?responsibility for registration and supervision should be entrusted to a single European body,? and calls for the CESR to be ?the turning-point in a regulatory deployment.?

Swiss private banks cannot fight alone against the transparency demands from the US tax authorities (IRS), and they are seeking the support of banks in other countries, the Börsen-Zeitung reports. In addition, many Swiss private bankers are planning to withdraw completely from activities serving US clients.

Fidelity Investments has become the first management firm to launch a tool on its brokerage platform which allows its 12 million retail clients access to analysis of the performance of ten financial research providers, the Wall Street Journal reports. Among the ten firms rated are Ned Davis Research, Zacks Investment Research and Standard & Poor’s. The most recent studies from the establishments will be included for no charge on the Fidelity site, with a history of their buy and sell recommendations.

After a rise of 1.5 points in November, the monthly BSI index of client advisor morale in Germany calculated by TNA Infratest (based on responses from 350 client advisors at bank, savings banks, and co-operative banks), fell back 1 point in December, to 89.7, Robeco Deutschland reports.Only 25% of respondents estimated that their sales of open-ended fund shares would increase in the next six months, compared with 29% in November. This is the lowest level observed since the beginning of the data series in May 2003. For equities funds, the proportion of optimists about sales in the next six months fell 4 points, to 32%. For hedge funds, Robeco has observed an unusual situation: none of the client advisors responding to the survey considered the current level of sales positive. However, there was a very slight improvement in outlooks for the next six months: only one of the respondents expects sales to increase - compared with 0 in November.

At the end of December, assets in Austrian investment funds represented EUR126.04bn, which amounted to a contraction of EUR37.7bn or 23% compared with their level one year previously.According to the VÖIG association of management firms, EUR2.9bn of this decline in assets is due to dividend payments, while EUR15.3bn is due to net redemptions, and EUR19.6bn to losses on the markets. In December, however, assets increased by EUR345.4m, thanks to EUR1.4bn in net subscriptions.In total, VÖIG recorded the launch od 223 funds in 2008, of which 106 were retail funds. The 24 management firms on its roster operated 2,300 securities funds, of which 1,168 were retail funds, 433 funds aimed at ?large investors,? and 699 institutional funds.The five real estate fund management firms had assets at the end of December of EUR1,713.88m, EUR112.8m less than twelve months previously. At the end of September, assets were still up by EUR120.3m, but net redemptions of EUR250.8m in fourth quarter led to the contraction in assets observed for the year.

Fitch Ratings has lowered its CDO Asset Manager rating for Société Générale Asset Management Alternative Investments (SGAM AI) from CAM2+ to CAM2.The downgrade largely reflects the negative impact which the credit crisis has had on SGAM AI’s activities, and changes in its management personnel, the ratings agency states. It also takes into account possible instabilities which may result from the repositioning and restructuring of SGAM AI when it merges with Lyxor, Fitch Ratings adds.

In fourth quarter, net profits for asset management activities at JP Morgan Chase fell 52% to USD272m, while revenues fell 31% to USD1.66bn. Revenues for the private bank fell 3% to USD630m, due to declining markets and performance commissions, while wealth management was down 4% to USD330m, and institutional management was down 57% to USD327m due to contractions in revenues from performance commissions and to falling markets. Retail revenues contracted 59% to USD365m due to falling markets and redemptions. Bear Stearns Brokerage contributed USD106m to revenues.The pre-tax profit margin was down to 25% from 35%.JP Morgan states that its assets under administration and management at the end of December represented USD1.5trn, or USD76bn or 5% less than at the end of 2007. Assets under management, at USD1.1trn, were also down 5% or USD60bn; of this total, money market products marked an increase of 53% to USD213bn, while the Bear Stearns acquisition brought in USD15bn. This has partly compensated for a decrease in assets under management due to falling markets and net redemptions from products in categories other than money markets.Net subscriptions, however, totalled USD61bn in fourth quarter, and USD151bn for 2008 as a whole.

Andreas Hilka, who joined Credit Suisse in January 2008, was appointed to the board of directors at Credit Suisse Asset Management KAG in Frankfurt on 1 January, replacing Stefan Keitel, who has become global CIO for Multi Asset Class Solutions (MACS) in Zurich. Hilka will retain his positions as head of MACS Germany, head insurance & pensions solutions EMEA, and director of the asset allocation advisory group in the MACS CIO-office.Before being recruited by Credit Suisse, Hilka served in several financial positions at the former Hoechst group; he was also a board member for the Continental pension fund.

As part of its redeployment (see Newsmanagers of 7 January), IT Asset Management is planning to launch a convertible bond fund by the end of the month in Luxembourg, for which a license has also been applied for in France. The product will be managed by Geneviève Werner, who joined IT Asset Management as deputy CEO at the end of 2008 (she was previously CEO and director of management at Financière Centuria), and by Bertrand Billé, bond manager, who also joins the firm from Financière Centuria.The product will have daily net asset value reporting, and will carry a front-end fee of a maximum of 2%, while management and administration fees will total 0.80% for the institutional asset class and 1.50% for the ?classic? share class.

Acropole Asset Management, a specialist in convertible bonds, will be launching two funds with fixed maturity dates focused on credit. The management firm had previously made mixed convertible bonds its specialty. But after ?a terrible year in 2008? fo convertible bonds, and due to ?an exception situation on fixed income markets,? according to the executives of Acropole, the firm has decided to extend its product offerings. To achieve this, the firm will strengthen its partnership with Cheyne Capital, an alternative mangement firm based in London, which is one of the major shareholders in Acropole, with a 33% stake. The British firm, which manages USD2bn in investment grade credit, out of a total of USD7bn in assets, has a team of 30 staff in credit.The new product range, which is still in the licensing process, will include Acropole 2012, a fund which matures on 30 June 2012, with a performance target of 8-10%. It will invest in convertible and corporate bonds of the investment grade category, primarily in Europe. The fund will be registered in Luxembourg and advised by Cheyne, and will be launched on about 5 February.The second product, Acropole Convertibles Optimum, will mature on 31 January 2012, with slightly higher performance objectives of 12-14%. It will be 100% invested in European and international convertible bonds. The fund will be registered in France, and will be launched in late January.The two products, which will each start out with EUR30m in assets, will offer a period of preferred subscriptions, They join a large number of funds with set maturity dates now being launched by management firms such as CCR-UBS, La Française des Placements, UFF, and others.

Roberto Cavalli, CEO, has announced that the private equity investor Clessidra may very soon take up a stake in the Florentine fashion label bearing his name, of 15-20%, Börsen-Zeitung reports.

Following reports in the press that clients at Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch (LODH) lost money in the Madoff fraud, the bank has issued a statement, claiming that it never recommended funds managed by Bernard Madoff’s company, nor feeder funds that supplied it. These vehicles were not on the list of recommended hedge funds managed by third parties, and the bank’s funds of hedge funds ?do not contain funds with ties to the Madoff universe? either.The bank states that its list of external funds of hedge funds includes 20 products, of which three were partially exposed to Madoff funds, for 15% (Lafayette Regular Growth), 7.6% (DGC Pendulum) and 3% (Gems Low Volatility), respectively. ?The impact of this indirect exposure on the portfolios concerned is marginal (largely below 1%).? The performance track records of these funds of funds are such that LODH is maintaining its recommendations, particularly for the Gems Low Volatility.Lastly, some accounts without management mandates, or managed by third parties, deposited at LODH, may contain shares in funds exposed to the Madoff universe. ?The responsibility of the bank is in no way involved, since these are accounts not managed by the group,? the statement concludes.

Andrew Cuomo, attorney general of the state of New York, has issued subpoenas to three funds managed by Ezra Merkin, former chairman of GMAC, the Fiancial Times reports. The move is related to new investigations in the Madoff fraud case. The funds are Gabriel Capital, Ariel Fund, and Ascot Partners, which had invested with Madoff.

La Tribune reports that ?the Parisian law firm Lartigue-Tournois & Associés today served subpoenas on at least three French banks, including BNP Paribas, on behalf of twelve clients who had invested in the Luxembourg Sicav Luxalpha.?The plaintiffs are seeking to be recognised as shareholders in the Sicav, in order to be able to pursue UBS, the newspaper explains.

The Credit Suisse/Tremont index ultimately posted losses in December of 0.03%, compared with 4.15% in November, bringing total losses for the year as a whole to 19.07%. Futures funds and dedicated short bias posted positive performance, however, of 18.33% and 14.87%, respectively. All other strategies posted losses in 2008, including equity market neutral (40.32%) and convertible arbitrage (31.59%). The emerging markets segment posted a loss of 30.41%.The Dow Jones World Index, meanwhile, has lost 42.85%.

Sonja Kohn, president of Bank Medici in Austria, which may have lost more than USD3bn due to Bernard Madoff, has declared that she was a victim of the fraud like all the others, the Financial Times reports. In a letter obtained by Bloomberg, and later confirmed by the bank, Kohn claims she did not know that Madoff had orchestrated a vast fraud. She adds that Madoff was not a personal friend.

After a total of 0.9% in 2007 and 4% in 2008, the rate of default on speculative bonds may climb this year above its all-time peak of 12% in 1991, Moody’s Investors Service is now predicting. The current economic environment is far weaker and more perilous than in previous credit cycles in 1990-1991 and 2001-2002.The ratings agency counted 86 defaults in North America and 12 in Europe in 2008, compared with 15 and 3 in the previous year. On the leveraged loan markets, 33 issuers rated by Moody’s defaulted last year, compared with only 2 in 2007.

Volker Kurr, who in mid-August 2008 left the board of directors at cominvest (Commerzbank), at the beginning of 2009 began in a new position as head of institutional & wholesale clients for Germany at UBS Global Asset Management, Börsen-Zeitung reports.

Sal. Oppenheim Private Equity Partners, born of the recent merger of CAM Private Equity, VCM Capital Management, and the alternative investment division of the Sal. Oppenheim group, has announced that at the beginning of this year it recruited Jan, Count of Bassewitz, as client relationship manager serving pension funds and retirement planning institutions, largely in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. He will thus serve in the same functions as at CAM Private Equity, where he was a partner.Sal. Oppenheim Private Equity Partners has also recruited Sabine Rummel as sales manager. She spent six years as economic and industry analyst at the European Private Equity und Venture Capital Association (EVCA), and will serve non-German speaking clients.

Les tableaux ci-contre présentent les meilleures et plus mauvaises performances des fonds sur le marché des fonds actions américaines et le marché des fonds actions françaises au cours du mois de décembre 2008. Ces performances sont mises en perspective par le calcul de la volatilité et du ratio de Sharpe des fonds sur trois ans d’historique ainsi que du rendement depuis un an.

Après la baisse de 50 pb d'hier, à 2%, le taux du refi pourrait tomber à un plancher de 1,5%

Le graphique ci-contre représente l’erreur de suivi (ou tracking error) moyenne et la surperformance moyenne annualisée de l’univers des fonds actions françaises sur un historique de quatre ans. L’erreur de suivi moyenne mesure l’écart type de la performance relative des fonds, c’est-à-dire la volatilité sur un an de l'écart entre la moyenne des performances hebdomadaires des fonds et la performance de l’indice de référence. Plus la tracking error d’un fonds est faible, plus le fonds à un profil proche de son indice de référence.

Après la baisse de 50 pb d'hier, à 2%, le taux du refi pourrait tomber à un plancher de 1,5%

Dans le sillage de la plupart des places financières, perturbées par les piètres ventes de détail aux USA, Tokyo a cédé 5% le jeudi 15 janvier avec un nikkei en recul de 428,32 points à 8.010,13 points.

Selon Standard & Poor’s, les emissions de sukuks ont plongé l’an dernier de plus de 56 % à 14,9 milliards de dollars. Cette diminution est imputable aux turbulences sur les marchés financiers, au tarissement des liquidités, à l'élargissement des spreads de crédit et à l’attitude attentiste des investisseurs. La taille moyenne des émissions a également diminué fortement, compte tenu de la moindre appétence des investisseurs. Enfin, le dollar américain a perdu son rôle de monnaie de prédilection pour les sukuks, seuls 10 % des émissions s’effectuant dans cette devise.

Les hedge funds ont subi des rachats nets de 150 milliards de dollars en décembre, bien que certains d"entre eux aient décidé de suspendre les remboursements, rapporte le Financial Times. Cela représente 10 % des actifs du secteur et porte le total des sorties nettes sur 2008 à 200 milliards de dollars.

Pour 2009, Jefferies Putnam Lovell, filiale de banque d’investissement de Jefferies & Company, s’attend à des fusions-acquisitions de grande taille dans la gestion d’actifs, alors qu’elles ont été rares en 2008. Cela s’explique par la vente forcée des divisions d’investissement par les banques commerciales les assureurs, par la concentration dans le monde de la gestion alternative et par la multiplication des achat opportunistes par des acteurs financiers qui seront sortis relativement indemnes de la crise financière et du crédit. Les acheteurs les plus actifs des dix dernières années, les banques commerciales et d’investissement, de même que les assureurs, deviennent vendeurs de leurs divisions de gestion d’actifs, ou recherchent des partenaires stratégiques pour elles.1,99 billion de dollars l’an dernier Par le nombre de transactions, 2008 a été la deuxième année la plus active dans la gestion d’actifs mondial, avec 217 opérations contre 242 en 2007. Les encours concernés ont été équivalents à ceux de 2007, soit 1,99 billion de dollars (le record avait été constaté pour 2006 avec 2,65 billions). Toutefois, sur la base du montant déclaré des transactions, l’activité a spectaculairement plongé, à 16,1 milliards de dollars contre 52,1 milliards en 2007. De plus 2008, a été seulement la cinquième année selon ce critère. Seuls trois «deals» ont dépassé une valeur d’un milliard de dollars, contre quinze en 2007. Selon Kevin Pakenham, managing director de Jefferies Putnam Lovell à Londres, la banques européennes sont enfin confrontées à leur succès en tant que distributeurs et à leur échec en tant que producteurs de services de gestion des investissements. Dès lors pour 2009, nous devrions assister en Europe à une poursuite de l'émergence d’un secteur indépendant fort, selon le modèle qui s’est bien installé aux Etats-Unis, précise le manager.