According to sources with knowledge of the case, civil proceedings filed by the SEC against R. Allen Stanford will now be joined by criminal charges made by the FBI in Fredericksburg, Virginia, the Wall Street Journal reports. The objective is to establish whether Stanford set up a massive Ponzi-type pyramid scheme similar to that of Bernard Madoff.

In 2008, Morningstar earned consolidated operating profits up 18.6% to USD139.1m, on revenues up 15.5% to USD502.5m. Net profits totalled USD92.5m, or USD1.88 per share, compared with USD73.9m and USD1.53 per share in 2007.Joe Mansueto, chairman and CEO, estimates that the past year was good overall, but that the increase in revenues slowed significantly in fourth quarter. He also emphasizes that 13% of revenues were from commissions based on assets, while the strong downturn on the markets had a negative impact on inflows.

The law firm Cremades & Calvo Sotelo, which has already coordinated proceedings against Santander by several parties over the Madoff affair, on Thursday announced that subscribers to the real estate fund Santander Banif Inmobiliario are planning to file a suit against Santander, Handelsblatt reports. They accuse the bank of orchestrating and aggravating a liquidity shortage in the fund.

La Tribune reports that a government plan to support the banks is under preparation in Dubai, and the prospect of the program was enough to breathe new life into the stock markets (which gained 5.38% on Thursday and are up 8% for the week). ?If we want banks to continue lending to the real estate sector, the government will need to come to their aid,? said sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, in charge of economic evaluation, La Tribune reports.

On Wall Street, bankers will have to go without bonuses and agree to work for one dollar per year, but this wave of austerity had not affected the heads of the major mutual fund management firms, the Wall Street Journal reports. Their pay has been cut, but by much less. On average, equities funds in the United States lost 39% last year, but the pay scales of directors of management firms are tied to profits for the business, not the performance of funds. In addition, management firms have generally not received financial assistance from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), which comes with an obligation to limit management pay scales. At State Street, which has claimed aid from TARP, however, the CEO, Ronald E. Logue, will be paid only USD1m in 2008, down from USD20.7m in 2007. But non-cash benefits (car, bodyguard, etc), which were worth USD35,000 in 2007, will certainly be increased.

The Financial Times reports that, in the wake of an investigation by the tax authorities of UBS, which is accused of abetting tax evasion by its US clients, UBS has agreed to a settlement. It will pay the US authorities a fine of USD780m. Banking confidentiality will no longer apply to some clients.

Santander announced on Thursday that 70% of its retail clients affected by the Madoff scandal, those who had invested in the Optimal Strategy US Equity fund, have accepted a settlement offered to them by the Spanish bank, while 7% to 9% have refused the offer and preferred to continue with their class action lawsuit against the bank, Cinco Días reports.

The Financial Times reports that the London Stock Exchange (LSE) has joined the consortium led by the British broker ICAP, alongside ten investment banks including Société Générale and Morgan Stanley. The consortium will launch a bid to acquire the London-based clearing-house LCH.Clearnet.

Les Echos reports that the major actors on the credit derivatives market yesterday agreed to ?use a centralised chamber of compensation, based in the European Union, for eligible European credit default swaps (CDS) by the end of July.? The EU government in Brussels has been demanding since October 2008 that the profession organise such a centralised organisation itself for these financial instruments, which are supposed to provide coverage against the risk of default by debt issuers.

Asoka Wöhrmann, who will become head of FI management at DWS, replacing Heinz Fesser, has told the Financial Times Deutschland that the Deutsche Bank management firm is planning to reduce the number of bond funds on offer from 70 to 30, and to ?drastically? reduce the number of money market funds on offer. The bond range will be composed of funds with more clearly readable risk profiles. For money market funds, there will be two sub-groups with different risk levels, which will invest in assets with different maturities.

DWS has announced that in 2008, approximately 77% of its assets came from Germany, compared with 71% the previous year, while the proportion of assets in Europe ex-Germany is down by corresponding proportions, to 23%. The Deutsche Bank group’s fund manager also states that the proportion of assets intermediated by the bank’s own network has increased by one percentage point to 49%, while assets intermediated by IFAs (and brokerage networks or major distributors) increased 4% in one year, to 21% of assets under management.

Sal. Oppenheim announced on Thursday that it will be transferring possession of its stakes in publicly traded companies to an independent holding company, whose financing will be entirely provided by about 40 family shareholders, who have all recently subscribed to a EUR200m capital increase at the bank.The holding company will control a 28.6% stake in Arcandor, a 20% stake in IVG Immobilien, and a 20% stake in Continental, held on behalf of the Schaeffler family and the new affiliate Sal. Oppenheim Private Equity Partners. The operation will allow the private bank to concentrate on its wealth management and investment banking professions.

The private bank Reichmuth & Co on Thursday expressed regrets that the Swiss financial markets surveillance authority (Finma) refused its application to create a side pocket containing about one quarter of assets in the Matterhorn fund of hedge funds, which has undergone losses of about 8.5% of its assets due to its Madoff investments (see Newsmanagers of 15 December 2008). The fund will now be liquidated, and about 50% of assets will be redeemed to investors in April. The remainder will be paid on a quarterly basis, and Reichmuth predicts that redemptions will be completed by the end of 2010 at the latest. Until then, as the fund generated performance of 7.4% per year from its launch in 1997 until the end of 2008, compared with 4.2% for the HFRI fund of funds index, Reichmuth has decided to launch another product in the near future using the same strategy.

The Scope agency on Thursday published its 2008 annual report on 31 open-ended real estate funds in Germany. 15 of these funds had their ratings improved, while twelve received a downgrade, three remained unchanged, and one, the Degi German Business, received a rating (of AA+), while it had no rating in 2007. Only the WestInvest ImmoValue received a AAA rating, but it is a product reserved to institutional investor clients of the savings banks. Scope awarded only one D rating, to the Euro ImmoProfil fund from iii-investments, which received a B rating in 2007.

The private equity fund Sator will acquire a majority stake in Banca Profilo by subscribing to a EUR110m capital increase at 20 cents per share. The deal marks the return of Matteo Arpe, CEO and largest shareholder in Sator, to the foreground, the Wall Street Journal notes. Arpe was CEO of Capitalia before its acquisition by UniCredit in 2007, the newspaper notes.

Citigroup is replacing Nick Roe, who has been European and global head of prime finance since March 2008, and who becomes global head of prime finance, with Mark Harrison, COO of Cheyne Capital, as European head of prime finance. Hedge Week reports that Harrison, who founded Carlyle Blue Wave after leaving Deutsche Bank, where he was international head of prime brokerage and securities lending, will be in charge of securities lending and prime brokerage for Europe at Citi, and will be based in London, like Roe.

VDOS Stochastics reports that 291 Spanish guaranteed funds with total assets of EUR22.09bn (+17%) will mature in 2009, Funds People reports.Of this total, 176 are equities funds, while 115 are bond funds, with respective assets under management of EUR9.6bn and EUR12.49bn.VDOS states that only two of the guaranteed funds maturing this year have over EUR1bn in assets, the BBVA Extra Tesoreria (EUR3.5bn) and the BBVA Extra 5 Garantizado (EUR1.9bn).

Investment News reports that, according to an internal memo at Citigroup, John Longley is leaving his job as CEO of Citi Private Bank for the US and Canada to pursue other interests. He will be replaced in the interim by Mark Connolly and Richard Ditzio as co-CEOs; they will report to Ned Kelly, global banking head. Connolly was head of wealth management activities for the US bank (which also includes Citi Fiduciary Services), while Ditzio was head of high net worth private clients.

Funds People has noted that the Valórica Global, the best Spanish hedge fund, with performance of 11.78% in 2008, was also one of the funds which suffered the heaviest redemptions. Its assets were reduced to EUR70m at the end of December, compared with EUR90m at the end of July. Also hard-hit was the BBVA & Partners Retorno Absoluto, which has fallen to EUR30m from EUR50m at the end of July, while it showed gains of 4.9% for last year as a whole.In total, assets in Spanish hedge funds and funds of hedge funds as of 31 December totalled about EUR1bn, compared with EUR1.6bn at the end of July.

Renta 4 has notified the CNMV that as of 31 December, its Pictet fund of hedge funds, the Mosaic Iberia, received redemption demands in a single day amounting to more than 20% of its assets, Funds People reports. At the end of November, assets totalled EUR1.75m.

Malgré un résultat #réjouissant# pour janvier et de bonnes perspectives d'être bénéficiaire pour le T1 de 2009, la Commerzbank ne prévoit pas de redevenir bénéficiaire sur un exercice entier avant au plus tôt 2010, a indiqué le directeur financier Eric Strutz. La Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung rapporte que la banque va devoir augmenter ses provisions de 10-20 % à cause de l’impact de la récession sur son portefeuille de crédits. En revanche, elle devrait rencontrer moins de problèmes à l'échelon de son négoce en compte propre et de son résultat financier. Mais il lui faut gérer tout à la fois l’absorption de la Dresdner Bank et l’assainissement de la Eurohypo.

Irving Picard, le syndic de faillite chargé de localiser les actifs de Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, a adressé des citations (subpoenas) à neuf sociétés pour leur demander de communiquer tout document sur les services ou les produits qu’ils auraient pu fournir à la structure de Bernard Madoff. Selon The Wall Street Journal, il y a parmi les firmes concernées des cabinets d’avocats et d’experts comptables ainsi qu’un? salon de coiffure.

Bankinter a bouclé avec succès mercredi une émission d’obligations garanties par l’Etat espagnol portant sur 1,5 milliard d’euros. Elle a été sursouscrite trois fois, précise Cinco Días. Ces titres à échéance 2012 sont assortis d’un coupon de 3 % et d’un spread de 76 points de base sur les midswaps. Le consortium bancaire était composé de Calyon, Deutsche Bank, Barclays et du Santander.

Des épargnants paniqués se précipitaient mercredi pour retirer leur argent des banques à Antigua et au Venezuela liées à Sir Allen Stanford, le milliardaire texan accusé de fraude massive par la Securities and Exchange Commission, rapporte le Financial Times. Le FBI mène aussi une enquête sur Stanford Financial Group, ajoute le quotidien.

Les dirigeants du secteur de la gestion d’actifs aux Etats-Unis ont certes vu leurs rémunérations baisser, mais ne connaissent pas la cure d’austérité imposée aux autres pans de la finance, constate le Wall Street Journal. En 2008, les fonds actions US ont perdu 39 % en moyenne. Mais la plupart des rémunérations des dirigeants dans l’asset management sont liées à la rentabilité de la société, et non pas uniquement à la performance des fonds, commente le WSJ. De plus, le secteur de la gestion a peu fait appel au TARP.

«UBS résout la question des investigations concernant ses activités transfrontalières aux Etats-Unis en signant un Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) avec le Département américain de la justice (U.S. Department of Justice, DOJ) et un Consent Order avec la Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)», a annoncé la banque helvétique dans la nuit de mercredi à jeudi. Concrètement, cela signifie qu’en échange d’un arrêt ou d’une suspension des procédures engagées, UBS va payer au total USD 780 millions, dont 380 millions représentant la restitution des profits liés au maintien d"activités transfrontalières aux Etats-Unis et 400 millions représentant l’impôt anticipé fédéral (US federal backup withholding tax) devant être retenu par UBS, ainsi que des pénalités et intérêts, et la restitution des impôts non payés en relation avec certaines relations de comptes impliquant des structures offshore frauduleuses, fictives, écrans ou autres conformément au DPA. Comme annoncé en juillet, par ailleurs, UBS cessera d"offrir des activités transfrontalières aux Etats-Unis par le biais de ses entités non enregistrées auprès de la SEC.Il est aussi précisé qu’UBS «mettra en place et maintiendra un système efficace de contrôles internes relatif au respect de ses obligations prévues par son Qualified Intermediary Agreement (QIA) avec le Internal Revenue Service (IRS) ainsi qu"une nouvelle structure de gouvernance Legal and Compliance visant à renforcer les contrôles indépendants relatifs aux aspects juridiques et à la compliance.» D’autre part, &"61472;conformément à une ordonnance émise par l"Autorité fédérale de surveillance des marchés financiers (FINMA), des informations seront transférés au DOJ concernant des comptes de certains clients américains selon le DPA qui, sur la base de preuves à disposition d’UBS, pourraient avoir commis des fraudes fiscales et activités semblables au sens de la convention sur la double imposition entre la Suisse et les Etats-Unis.

Patron de NYSE Regulations Inc depuis cinq ans, ancien de la SEC et ancien dirigeant de la National Association of Securities Dealers, Richerd Ketchum serait pressenti selon The Wall Street Journal pour devenir CEO de la Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (Finra) en remplacement de Mary Shapiro, qui vient d'être nommée chairman de la Securities and Exchange Commission.

Selon l’Agefi, " l'écart entre le taux directeur refi fixé à 2% et l’Eonia, le taux rémunérant les dépôts interbancaires du jour, a atteint un record de 81,4 pb le 4 février». Selon UniCredit, rapporte le quotidien numérique, le taux de dépôt est en passe de devenir le nouveau taux de référence interbancaire, ce qui fait craindre que la BCE perde le contrôle du cadre opérationnel de sa politique monétaire, " la séparation longtemps clamée entre la politique monétaire et la gestion de la liquidité» devenant impossible à atteindre au vu de ces dislocations.

Les propositions d’amendements publiées le mois dernier par la Banque des règlements internationaux (BRI) sont peu favorables aux financements structurés, estime l’agence de notation Fitch. Les dernières propositions relatives aux expositions sur les titrisations de titrisations constituent, selon Peter Winning, director au sein de l'équipe financements structurés de Fitch, #'une invitation claire pour les banques à ne pas fournir de facilités de crédit aux conduits ABCP#.Par ailleurs, Fitch souligne que l’obligation pour les banques de ne plus se reposer uniquement sur la notation externe et de réaliser en interne leur propre évaluation du risque pourrait être très pénalisante. Si un établissement se soustrait à cette obligation, son exposition à une titrisation pourrait être considérée comme n’ayant pas fait l’objet d’une notation et donc soumise à une pondération à 100%. La consultation de la BRI se termine le 17 avril.

Selon le rapport sur les «Assemblées générales des sociétés cotées» de Proxinvest, cité par les Echos, on constate un «net recul de la participation des actionnaires» aux assemblées générales. En 2008, ils étaient 4,5 % de moins qu’en 2007 pour les sociétés de l’indice SBF 250. Le rapport pointe également la baisse du taux de contestation des actionnaires, passé de 5,1 % à 4,1 % pour le SBF 250 et de 6,6 % à 4,8 % pour le CAC 40.