The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged a pair of employees at Boston-based State Street Bank and Trust Company with misleading investors about their exposure to subprime investments.The SEC’s Division of Enforcement alleges that John P. Flannery and James D. Hopkins marketed State Street’s Limited Duration Bond Fund as an “enhanced cash” investment strategy that was an alternative to a money market fund for certain types of investors. By 2007, however, the fund was almost entirely invested in subprime residential mortgage-backed securities and derivatives. Yet despite this exposure to subprime securities, the fund continued to be described as less risky than a typical money market fund and the extent of its concentration in subprime investments was not disclosed to investors.The SEC charged State Street in a related case earlier this year. The firm agreed to settle the charges by repaying fund investors more than USD300 million.Flannery was a chief investment officer who no longer works at State Street. Hopkins was a product engineer at the time, and is currently State Street’s head of product engineering for North America.

BlackRock has recommended that regulators set stricter rules for clearing privately traded swaps than those that apply to the clearing of exchange traded futures, writes the Financial Times.The fund manager is concerned that rules being drafted might not be tough enough and could leave it too heavily exposed to the default of other investors. The point of contention is whether customer assets and margin payments towards cleared derivatives positions are held in pooled accounts or in segregated, accounts. BlackRock favours segregation.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } UBS has recruited Paul Raphael as head of the new emerging markets wealth management unit. He becomes a member of the wealth management executive board, and will report directly to Jürg Zeltner, CEO of UBS Wealth Management. For 25 years, Raphael served as director of emerging markets at Salomon Brothers, Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse. Most recently, he founded his own investment and finance consultancy. At UBS, his new position will put him in control of wealth management in Latin America, central and eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, as well as accounts in Switzerland for investors in emerging Asian countries.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } East Capital, the Swedish management firm specialised in emerging markets, has signed a distribution agreement with Allfunds, the fund distribution platform for Italy and Spain, Bluerating reports. Under the agreement, the sub-funds of East Capital (Lux) will be available on the Allfunds platform.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Edmond de Rothschild Investment Managers (Edrim) will release three new funds in Italy – Quadrim 8, Geo-Energies and Multigest Select Alpha – via the Italian firm Edmond de Rothschild Sim, Bluerating reports. Quadrim 8 is a quantitative management fund which invests in various asset classes and geographical regions. Geo Energies is specialised in the energy, metals, agriculture and utility sectors. Lastly, Multigest Select Alpha is a UCITS III-compliant fund of hedge funds with a multi-strategy profile.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The principal and director of Van Eck Associates Corporation, Derek van Eck, died suddenly in the night between Wednesday and Thursday, aged 46. He was the son of John van Eck, who founded the management firm in 1955. The portfolios which he managed (the Van Eck Global Hard Assets, Van Eck VIP Global Hard Assets and long/short Hard Assets funds) will be taken over by Shawn Reynolds and Charles Cameron, who were appointed co-managers of the portfolio. Reynolds is head of the energy investment team, and Cameron was director of trading.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } AllianceBernstein has recruited Massimo Della Vedova, who will aim to develop sales in Italy, Bluerating reports. He was previously at M&G, where he set up the management firm’s distribution network in southern Europe.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Strategists at HSBC have grouped together the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan under the acronym HIIC, for highly indebted industrialised countries, the Wall Street Journal reports. Since the beginning of this year, investors have withdrawn about USD36bn from HIIC equities funds, while they have poured USD45bn into emerging markets funds, EPFR Global reports. HIIC countries carry investment risks which are generally associated with backwaters, developed markets which essentially behave as emerging markets, while emerging markets are rapidly becoming more developed, says Richard Yetsenga of HSBC.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The only German open-ended real estate fund denominated in the US dollar, KanAm US-grundinvest (DE0006791817), will be liquidated by 31 March 2012, and USD250m will already be distributed to subscribers by the end of this year, due to the fact that in only seven months, 10 of the 17 properties in the portfolio have been sold. An eleventh property is in the sale process, and the other six properties will be taken over to be resold by the depository bank, M.M. Warburg, which will then distribute the proceeds of the sales to investors, the Munich-based management firm KanAm announced on 30 September. The fund was closed to redemptions on 30 October 2008, and closed to subscriptions on 19 October 2009. It is the first German real estate fund to close down entirely. A survey of subscribers in February revealed that the fund could expect redemption demands of USD200m, which would have been largely covered by asset sales. But in September, with the rise in the value of the US dollar, the survey projected redemptions of USD300m, for a fund with only USD540.3m in assets (as of 6 September). As a consequence, continuing to operate was no longer viable for the long term.

Jusqu'à présent CIO actions allemandes chez DWS (Deutsche Bank), Henning Gebhardt a été nommé head of European equities en remplacement d’Udo Rosendahl, qui vient de prendre avec Christian Hille la tête du pôle multi classes d’actifs (lire notre article du 24 septembre).Selon nos informations, Henning Gebhardt conserve son rôle de patron des actions allemandes ainsi que la gestion en direct des fonds Aktien Strategie Deutschland (DE0009769869) et Select-Invest (DE0008476565).

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Henning Gebhardt, previously CIO for German equities at DWS (Deutsche Bank), has been appointed head of European equities, replacing Udo Rosendahl, who alongside Christian Hille has taken over as co-head of the multi-asset class unit (see Newsmanagers of 24 September). According to information obtained by Newsmanagers, Gebhardt will retain his role as head of German equities and direct management of the Aktien Strategie Deutschland (DE0009769869, EUR721.6m in assets) and Investa (DE0008474008, EUR2.59bn in assets) funds. It is not yet known whether he will also retain management of Select-Invest (DE0008476565, EUR266.3m).

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Since 2001, State Street Corporation has been providing fiduciary custodial services in the areas of private equity and hedge funds to Babson Capital (USD128.9bn in assets as of 30 June). As of 28 September, these will be extended to investment operations and IT services, the two firms have announced in a joint statement.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On 1 October, HSBC Trinkhaus & Burkhardt opens its first branch office in 20 years, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. The new office dedicated to high net worth clients which will be opened in Cologne will include seven senior advisors and three assistants. Six of the advisors, including the director of the office, Heinz-Jürgen Lievenbrück, previously worked at Sal. Oppenheim. Olaf Huth, a board member in charge of private banking, says that the former Sal. Oppenheim managers were not recruited in a targeted manner. He also says that assets under management or administration at the private banking unit represent about EUR22bn, and that inflows since the beginning of the year totalled EUR1.5bn.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On 29 September, the Scottish asset management firm Martin Currie launched the Luxembourg-registered funds Japan Absolute Alpha, European Absolute Alpha and Global Resources Absolute Alpha, all of them long/short products which comply with the UCITS III directive, and which will be offered to retail and institutional investors. The funds are UCITS-compliant versions of existing hedge funds, with shares in pounds Sterling, Euros and US dollars, and daily liquidity. Minimal subscription is set at USD10,000. Martin Currie says that its range of hedge funds as of 1 September had assets of USD1.3bn. Hedge funds from the firm adhere to Hedge Fund Standard Board norms. Only three other fund managers in the Investment Management Association (IMA) absolute return segment have adopted these norms to date.

The latest research from Lipper* suggests that institutional investors, such as fund selectors and wealth managers, could miss out on several years of good performance, if they continue to exclude new or newly-launched funds from their portfolio. No evidence was found that funds with long track records enjoy better performance or incur less risk than new funds. On the contrary, the empirical data suggest that newly- launched funds post higher average total returns and lower risk data, says Lipper. Furthermore, it suggests that fund managers enjoy slightly better performance during the first year of their tenures.* Ruling Out New Funds: Wrong Decision?

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } France and Germany are negotiating mutual concessions to remove obstacles to the AIFM directive and the Stability Pact, Agefi reports, citing European sources carried by Reuters. The French government is prepared to accept a tighter European budgetary framework if Germany will support a French proposal which would eliminate a clause from the AIFM directive which would allow for pan-European licenses to be issued to funds from countries outside the EU.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Zurich Financial Services on 30 September announced the appointment of Bernard Joei as head of alternative investments, a newly-created position. Joei, 54, will also direct Zurich Alternative Asset Management LLC, once David Wasserman retires later this year. He will also be in charge of international real estate strategy. Joei was previously CIO at Horizon 21, the firm founded by Rainer-Marc Frey, which last year closed down three funds of hedge funds.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Swiss private bank Julius Baer will announce the appointment of Jacqueline Koo (ex LGT Investment Management) to the position of head of portfolio management for the North Asian region, Asian Investor reports. She will be in charge of a new team, which will also include Erika Mok, who will be in charge of multi-asset portfolios for clients in the region.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC), one of the Singapore sovereign funds, remains positive on emerging markets, particularly in the Asian region, Asian Investor reports. The fund’s chief officer, Ng Kok-Song, has decided to increase the exposure of the portfolio to these markets. He explains that the move is the result of limited economic growth in developed countries, which are expected to stagnate at 2.4% this year, compared with 8% for emerging Asia.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Funds People reports that March Gestión has been granted a license by the CNMV to provide services in the European Economic Area, which will allow it to manage funds in Luxembourg without having a branch there, according to CEO José Luis Jiménez. The next step is to register a Sicav in Luxembourg, which will house the Vini Catena wine fund and the Terranova Sicav, the investment vehicle for the March family. To allow external clients to invest, March Gestión is joining the Allfunds Bank platform, where its funds will be available from next week.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Javier Mazzaredo, global head of sales at Santander Asset Management, says asset management in Spain has seen spectacular outflows of 55-60% of its inflows in the past two years. The sector is in decline, and will not bounce back before 2013, he said at the second national collective investment conference, organized by APD, Deloitte and Inverco. The Santander AM manager expressed a hope that in 2013 and 2014, funds would benefit from EUR30bn in subscriptions, which may appear exaggerated, but could well happen if the money currently invested in saving deposits and real estate returned to investment, Cinco Días reports. Paloma Piqueras, CEO of BBVA Asset Management, says that aside from guaranteed funds and structured funds, demand is also likely to increase for ETFs and niche products. Asunción Ortega, chairwoman of Invercaixa, explains that although the firm she leads has seen an increase of 15% to its assets since the beginning of the year at a time when the sector has lost 10%, this is due both to the strong network it relies on and the fact that La Caixa has not launched a campaign to promote savings deposits.

L'ardoise pourrait atteindre 50 milliards d'euros. Les porteurs de dette subordonnée paieront leur part

L'ardoise pourrait atteindre 50 milliards d'euros. Les porteurs de dette subordonnée paieront leur part

La Deutsche Börse a annoncé le 29 septembre avoir admis à la négociation sur le segment XTF de sa plate-forme électronique les dix ETF de droit luxembourgeois que Lyxor a fait coter depuis lundi sur le London Stock Exchange (lire notre dépêche du 28 septembre). Cela porte à 717 le nombre d’ETF traités sur XTF.Les fonds nouvellement admis à la négociation, tous avec un TFE de 0,45 %, sont :Lyxor ETF MSCI World Consumer Discretionary (TR LU0533032008)Lyxor ETF MSCI World Consumer Staples (TR LU0533032263)Lyxor ETF MSCI World Energy (TR LU0533032420)Lyxor ETF MSCI World Financials (TR LU0533032859)Lyxor ETF MSCI World Health Care (TR LU0533033238)Lyxor ETF MSCI World Industrials (TR LU0533033402)Lyxor ETF MSCI World Information Technology (TR LU0533033667)Lyxor ETF MSCI World Materials (TR LU0533033824)Lyxor ETF MSCI World Telecommunication Services (TR LU0533034129)et Lyxor ETF MSCI World Utilities (TR LU0533034558)

La société de gestion alternative Man Group envisage de lancer un fonds de fonds long/short sur les actions européennes, selon Citywire.Le fonds newcits puisera dans un univers de quelque 300 fonds long/short européens pour construire un portefeuille de 8 à 12 fonds. Le nouveau véhicule sera géré par Robin Lowe, responsable actions du groupe qui estime que, malgré des perspectives incertaines pour les marchés européens, il existe encore des opportunités, tout particulièrement pour un gérant long/short, en raison notamment de la progression des activités de fusions/acquisitions, d’entreprises présentant des bilans solides et de valorisations modérées.

Au 30 juin, Aviva Investors affichait environ 5,2 milliards d’euros (4,5 milliards de livres) d’actifs ISR contre 2 milliards d’euros voici un an (lire notre article du 15 octobre 2009). L'équipe dédiée que dirige Peter Michaelis intègre 13 analystes et gérants, auxquels il faut ajouter six spécialistes du gouvernement d’entreprise (à Londres) spécialistes de l’exercice des droits de vote, puisque le gestionnaire britannique est convaincu non seulement que l’ISR, avec de bons gérants, peut produire de la surperformance, mais que les détenteurs de capitaux doivent utiliser leur pouvoir de propriétaires pour faire évoluer les entreprises dans le bon sens et «améliorer le capitalisme».Lors d’une présentation à Paris, Peter Michaelis a souligné d’une part qu’Aviva Investors a toujours privilégié une approche combinant thématiques multiples et engagement. Et que l’ISR n’est pas un style cantonné aux actions, mais s’applique à toutes les classes d’actifs, ce qui se traduit par une large gamme de produits, dont 16 fonds ouverts.Pour sélectionner les valeurs en fonction de critères extra-financiers, Aviva Investors applique une matrice de durabilité et se focalise ensuite sur les meilleures entreprises pour leur appliquer la grille de lecture traditionnelle. Actuellement, environ 75 % des actifs gérés en ISR couvrent quatre thèmes principaux : le changement climatique/efficacité énergétique (par exemple SMA et Iberdrola Renovables), la qualité de vie (Teva et Fresenius Medical Care), la consommation durable (Itron, Umicore) et la gouvernance (Bureau Veritas, Inditex).En matière «d’engagement» au sens anglais du terme, Aviva Investors vote directement ou indirectement dans toutes les assemblées générales des sociétés en portefeuille, et assure un suivi qui a permis de déterminer que 50 % des firmes auxquelles des suggestions ont été faites présentent des signes d’amélioration en responsabilité sociale, environnementale et de gouvernance dans l’année qui suit les recommandations émises par le gestionnaire.D’autre part, Aviva Investors lancera en novembre, avec un collectif de grands investisseurs pesant 3.000 milliards de dollars, une initiative d’engagement collaboratif visant à demander aux Bourses d’exiger l’intégration du reporting développement durables dans les conditions de cotation (lire notre article du 14 septembre), a rappelé Jean-François Boulier, président du directoire d’Aviva Investors France (AIF) et directeur général Europe d’Aviva Investors.Ce dernier a par ailleurs annoncé qu’AIF va à son tour adhérer aux Principes de l’investissement responsable des Nations-Unies (UN-PRI), tout comme Aviva Investors l’a déjà fait depuis quelque temps déjà.AIF gère «financièrement» des fonds obligataires ISR, avec l’aide extra-financière de Londres, alors que l'équipe britannique se garde pour l’instant les fonds actions. La gestion obligataire ISR se concentre uniquement sur la dette d’entreprises.Récemment, AIF a relancé sous forme ISR l’Aviva ISR Court Terme (635,3 millions d’euros fin août). Le gestionnaire français a aussi lancé le fonds ID AFER qui sera commercialisé début 2011. C’est un fonds diversifié avec 40 % d’actions et 60 % d’obligations.

Paul Brain, leader fixed income chez le britannique Newton, gérera le fonds obligataire BNY Mellon Global Dynamic Bond Fund sur le modèle du fonds de droit britannique Newton Global Dynamic Bond Fund. Newton (67 milliards de dollars d’encours) est une filiale de BNY Mellon. Le nouveau produit sera un compartiment de l’irlandais BNY Mellon Global Funds plc.L'équipe de gestion investira en obligations d’Etat, en dette souveraine émergente et en obligations d’entreprises, mais pourra utiliser des dérivés pour produire une duration négative sur les titres d’Etat durant les périodes de hausse des rendements obligataires. L’essentiel de la protection du capital et des gains potentiels proviendra de l’allocation entre les différents types de marchés obligataires.

Le gestionnaire américain a lancé en Irlande le fonds coordonné Short Term Duration High Yield qui est disponible à compter du 30 septembre. Il s’agit d’un produit à duration courte destiné aux investisseurs crédit les plus conservateurs qui vise une performance brute moyenne annuelle supérieure de 300 points de base à la dette publique américaine de duration semblable, avec une faible volatilité. L'équipe de gestion investit en obligations à haut rendement d’entreprises principalement notées B ou BB avec une échéance résiduelle de 2 ans.La commission de gestion annuelle est de 0,8 % (1,1 % pour la classe R).

En Suisse, Robeco et sa filiale SAM Sustainable Asset Management vont optimiser leur structure organisationnelle et juridique. Les deux sociétés Robeco (Switzerland) et SAM fusionneront dans le courant du dernier trimestre 2010 et SAM (11,2 milliards d’euros d’encours) distribuera les produits de Robeco parallèlement à sa gamme de fonds de développement durable. Les personnels de Robeco Suisse seront transférés à la nouvelle entité.L'équipe commerciale commune sera placée sous la responsabilité de Michael Baldinger, membre du comité exécutif de SAM.

Ancien député européen et general manager and director du family office Schlumberger Primat de 1991 à 2008, Ian Dalziel a rejoint le britannique Threadneedle comme head of global private wealth and foundations. Il sera basé à Genève, compte tenu de l’importance de cette place financière.Avec ce recrutement, Threadneedle lance une nouvelle offensive commerciale en direction des fondations et des family offices pour les conseiller dans leur planification stratégique et leur allocation d’actifs.