Since the beginning of this year, the Paris office of BNY Mellon Asset Management has posted net subscriptions of USD650m, compared with USD500m in the corresponding period of 2012, Anne-Laure Frischlander, MD, has told Newsmanagers.Assets total nearly USD4bn, compared wth USD3bn one year ago. Inflows were more diversified than in the past. They were supported both by emerging market debt products from Standish and absolute return funds from Insight (market neutral, long/short equity, absolute return bonds, absolute return emerging market debt) and two Newton funds, the Global Real Return and the Asian equity fund.At the beginning of next year, BNY Mellon is planning to launch a UCITS-compliant version of its US all cap equity strategy.

Assets under management at Eaton Vance as of the end of October totalled USd280.7bn, up 41% compared with their level as of 31 October 2012 (USd199.5bn), and 4% compared with the end of July 2013 (USD268.8bn), according to statistics released by the company at the publication of its results for fourth quarter of the 2012-2013 fiscal year. Growth of more than 40% year on year reflects the acqusition of USD34.8bn in assets under management in December 2012, as part of the acquisition of Clifton Group Investment Management by its affiliate Parametric Portfolio Associates, with net inflows of USD24.6bn, and positive market effects of USD21.7bn. Compared with the end of July 2013, the increase in assets of 4% reflects net inflows of USD3.9bn, and market appreciation of USD8bn. Net results for the troup totalled USD72.13m for the quarter to the end of October, compared with USD74.44m one year previously.

Two investment companies based in Chicago have signed a partnership to develop their activities, largely through new products developed jointly. Nuveen Asset Management and Incapital aret therefore in the proces of setting up an investment trust unit, with the assistance of strategist Bob Doll, who left BlackRock last year, Investment News reports. The new vehicle is expected to debut in early 2014. Unit trusts, which are similar to mutual funds but which are closed funds, appear to be gaining popularity in North America recently. They had a total of USD72bn in 2012, compared with USD60bn one year previously, according to statistics from the US Investment Company Institute (ICI). Assets under management at Nuveen totalled USD118bn as of the end of September. Incapital is an investment boutique specialised in bonds and complex debt products.

In mid-2013, 60% of investors from continental Europe were exposed to emerging market debt for a cumulative total of only EUR24bn, a study carried out by Indefi Market Research on behalf of Aberdeen Asset Mangement of 161 investors in 10 countries, representing over EUR1trn in assets, has found.However, this percentage conceals different realities depending on the type of investor concerned. Thus, in the fund distributor segment, the penetration rate is extremely high: 90%. However, only 44% of institutional investors are exposed to emerging market debt. “This difference is due to the fact that the portfolios of end clients are subject to less strict constraints than institutional portfolios,” says Richard Bruyère of Indefi, who presented the study on Tuesday.At institutionals, the situation is also heterogeneous, according to the countries covered. Three quarters of German institutionals are invested in emerging market debt, while in France, the percentage is only 36%.The study shows, lastly, that investment sin emerging market debt proceeds largely via outsourcing to third parties (90%). “Outsourcing essentially leads to a search for global, actively-managed funds,” says Bruyère, who notes that the use of ETFs is rare in this asset class.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has fined SEI Investments (Europe) Limited (SEI), a provider of asset management and wealth management services, GBP900,200 for failings in relation to its protection of client money."Between November 2007 and October 2012, SEI failed on several occasions to perform its internal reconciliations, failed on several occasions to ensure that any shortfall or excess identified in its internal reconciliation of client money was paid into or withdrawn from the client bank account by close of business on the day of the internal reconciliation, and failed to appreciate that it was using a non-standard method of internal reconciliation. SEI therefore failed to ensure that it maintained its records and accounts in a way that ensured their accuracy,» according to the regulator.Had SEI become insolvent, these failings could have led to complications and delay in distribution and placed client money at risk. Whilst the FCA considers the failings to be serious, there was no actual loss of client money in this instance.

On 26 November, Deutsche Börse announced that it had admitted an ETF for trading on its Xetra electronic platform. It is invested in small caps from 24 industrialised countries and launched under the SPDR brand from State Street Global Advisors (SSgA). The SPDR MSCI World Small Cap UCITS ETF, an Irish-registered product, replicates the MSCI World Small Cap Index, which covers 4,000 securities. The XTF segment currently lists 1,031 ETFsCharacteristicsName: SPDR MSCI World Small Cap UCITS ETFISIN code: IE00BCBJG560Total expense ratio: 0.45%

Lars Hella, formerly of the consulting firm itechx, after working at Caceis and State Street Bank, has been appointed as director of depository banking activities at BNY Mellon in Germany (an operation which had EUR135bn in assets under administration as of the end of September). He was recruited on 1 July for the global securities operations unit.In his new role, Hella will report to Laura Ahto, operational head of investment services.

Economic profits (profits by IFRS accounting standards before taxes, plus the results of revaluation of financial instruments) for Deka, the central asset management firm for the German savings banks, increased to EUR448.1m in the first nine months of the year, compard with EUR444.9m for the corresponding period of last year. In first half, it was up 3.2% year on eyar, to EUR323.8m.Total assets as of 30 September, for their part, came to EUR168.1bn, compared with EUR177bn as of the end of June, and EUR162.6bn as of 31 December 2012.Deka has posted net subscriptions of EUR4.774bn in the first three quarters of the year, compared with net outflows of EUR2bn in January-September 2012. However, it must be remembered that Deka had in January-June already declared net inflows of EUR4.768bn (see Newsmanagers of 29 August).In January-September 2013, net subscriptions totalled EUR4.4bn from institutional clients (compared with EUR0.6bn for the corresponding period of last year), while retail generated EUR400m.The asset manager also states that outflows have largely been stopped from open-ended equity funds, after net redemptions of EUR2.5bn in January-September 2012. Net inflows to real estate funds remained stable at EUR1.4bn, of which EUR1.2bn (unchanged) were for open-ended products.Net inflows to securities funds totalled EUR3.3bn, compaed with net outflows of the same amount in the first three months of 2012. The best score was in retail, for the Deka-Vermögenskonzept wealth management solution, which attracted a net EUR725m, and Deka-BasisAnlage, which collected EUR778m.

In a market notification on 26 November, the German pharmaceuticals distributor Celesio has announced that the US hedge fund Elliott Capital Advisors has increased its stake in its capital to 25.16% as of 19 November.

According to reports in Fundweb the private equity investor Permira is rumoured to be in final talks with Deutsche Bank to acquire Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management, the former Tilney, from it. Permira has recently acquired Bestinvest from 3i.

State Street Global Advisors (SSgA), the asset management division of State Street Corporation, has announced the appointment of Susan Raynes to the newly-created position of global head of consultant relations. The appointment comes as part of larger plans to develop relationships at SSgA with clients and consultants through more targeted solutions and higher added value.Raynes will be based in Boston, and will be repsonsible for strengthening ties at SSgA with consultants worldwide, under the direction of Kristi Mitchem, head of the instututional client group for North America at SSgA.Raynes had previously served as head of SSgA for the United Kingdom, the Middle East and Africa. In this position, she will be replaced by Helen Copinger-Symes (see Newsmanagers of 10/28/2013).

AXA Investment Managers (AXA IM) has hired John Porter as global head of bond management. He replaces Theodora Zemek, who has decided to leave the business, a statement says.Porter, based in London, becomes a member of the board of directors at AXA IM, and will report to Andrea Rossi, CEO of AXA IM.Before joining AXA IM, Porter had worked at Barclays since 1998 as managing director and global head of portfolio and liquidity management.Zemek, for her part, joined AXA IM in 2007, after leaving her position as head of fixed income at New Star.

At a presentation by the European asset management association (EFAMA) in Paris, chairman Christian Dargnat, with the assistance of Peter de Proft, deputy CEO, laid out the priority action principles for the coming months. Two of them are familiar: the ambition to speak with a strong and united voice on behalf of all actors in the industry, particularly when confonted with regulator(s) and a need to convince all actors that asset managers represent the interests of their clients and are not acting for their own account. The other two priorities follow from the first. EFAMA hopes to achieve a perception of like asset management firms at last as long-term investors in Europe, which will include the promotion of an appropriate vehicle, ELTIF (European Long Term Investment Fund), which may not necessarily match up with the liquidity requirements of Ucits Funds, and OCERP (Officially Certified European Retirement Product), the cross-border, truly portable pension fund.A fourth point is that EFAMA hopes to demonstrate that asset management firms bring real added value within the European economy: capital is needed in order to feed economic growth, in order to channel savings, and to place them optimally.Dargnat does not conceal the fact that the asset management sector is facing three major threats. Firstly, “to reman politically correct, we are about to reach overregulation,” the EFAMA chairman says.Next, EFAMA is calling for equal treatment for all products, either from asset management firms, banks, or insurers (level playing field), with the PRIPS directive.The third concern is related to the increasing fragmentation of the market in sales.Concerning the financial transaction tax (FTT), Dargnat claims that, if it were applied as it is in only 11 countries of the Union, it would generate a capital and brain drain while bringing little in for the states, as the tax base would contract.

According to a survey carried out by Fonds Nieuws of 60 asset management firms which sell funds in the Netherlands, 69% of asset managers estimate that when the ban on commissions comes into effect at the beginning of 2013, between 70% and 100% of their range will be compliant with the new regulations, which greatly resemble UK’s RDR.Meanwhile, 76% of asset managers surveyed say that at the beginning of 2015, when the transitional period is completed, all of their funds on sale in the Netherlands will be without commissions.

As of 30 September, assets under management by Dutch hedge funds totalled EUR21.5bn, which represents a 2.9%, or EUR0.6bn, decline compared with the end of June, the Netherlands central bank (DNB) reports. This is due to an average loss of 3.4% in third quarter, compared with April-June.However, the number of hedge funds increased in September by 7, to 97 products.

Après une absence longue de 12 ans, la Grèce retrouve aujourd’hui l’indice actions MSCI Marchés Emergents. Le pays avait intégré l’univers des pays développés en 2001, juste après son entrée dans la zone euro. Pourtant, les investisseurs restent sceptiques quant à la pérennité de la hausse de 27% des actions grecques depuis le début de l’année, qui cotent à 16,5 fois leurs résultats anticipés sur les douze prochains mois. La part de la Grèce dans l’indice MSCI Marchés Emergents est en outre très faible, à seulement 0,3%.

La croissance du PIB britannique a été confirmée à 0,8% en deuxième estimation pour le troisième trimestre, et à 1,5% sur un an. La décomposition de la statistique montre une forte contribution de la consommation et de la variation des stocks (0,9 point), alors que le commerce extérieur a eu une contribution négative.

Denis Morin, directeur de cabinet de la ministre des Affaires sociales, est nommé directeur du Budget, a annoncé mercredi la porte-parole du gouvernement, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem. Il remplacera Julien Dubertret, nommé quand Nicolas Sarkozy était président.

Le gouvernement espagnol approuvera vendredi un décret permettant aux banques de convertir de 25 à 30 milliards d’euros d’actifs d’impôt différé en crédits d’impôt, a déclaré mardi le ministre de l’Economie Luis de Guindos. Ces crédits d’impôt, garantis par l’Etat, compteront comme fonds propres suivant les normes de Bâle 3, à la différence des actifs d’impôt différé.

Parmi les cinq candidats à la reprise de Société Générale Private Banking Asia, DBS et ABN Amro ont remis une offre finale selon Bloomberg, ainsi que Credit Suisse, ajoute Reuters. Aucun des trois repreneurs potentiels n’a fait de commentaires mais la banque singapourienne DBS n’a pas caché son fort appétit pour des opérations de croissance externe sur son marché régional, tandis qu’ABN Amro, groupe néerlandais nationalisé, a déclaré en mars vouloir étendre ses activités internationales, y compris en banque privée. Les propositions des finalistes valoriseraient l’enseigne de la Société Générale (13 milliards de dollars d’encours) entre 300 et 400 millions de dollars (221 à 295 millions d’euros), dans le bas de la fourchette de 300 à 600 millions évoquée précédemment. UBS et Royal Bank of Scotland figuraient aussi parmi les prétendants mais leurs intentions ne sont pas connues, rappelle Reuters.

Les prix des maisons individuelles aux Etats-Unis ont poursuivi leur remontée en septembre, avec une progression sur un an qui a été la plus forte depuis février 2006. L’indice S&P/Case Shiller publié mardi et qui mesure les prix de l’immobilier dans les 20 plus grande métropoles américaines a augmenté de 1,0% sur un mois en données corrigées des variations saisonnières, après une hausse de 0,9% en août, dépassant le consensus qui était de +0,8%.

Le parlement portugais a adopté mardi le projet de budget 2014, le dernier élaboré sous la contrainte du plan d’aide de l’Union européenne et du FMI, qui prévoit de ramener le déficit de 5,5% cette année à 4% du PIB l’an prochain. Mais l’opposition s’apprête à contester des éléments clés du texte devant la Cour constitutionnelle, qui pourrait remettre en cause certaines mesures d’austérité comme elle l’a déjà fait ces derniers mois.

Annoncé en avril 2012, sous mandat Sarkozy, le fonds de soutien à l’industrie ferroviaire française est sur les rails. «Croissance rail» est géré par Bpifrance et doté de 40 millions d’euros destinés à être investis dans une dizaine de PME. 14 millions d’euros ont été apportés par Alstom, 10 millions par Bpifrance, 7 millions par la SNCF, 6 millions par Bombardier et 3 millions par la RATP. Le chiffre d’affaires de l’industrie ferroviaire est estimé à 4,1 milliards d’euros en France, ce qui la place au 3e rang mondial.

Le président de l’Assemblée nationale, Claude Bartolone, a nommé Thierry Philipponnat, secrétaire général de Finance Watch, au collège de l’Autorité des marchés financiers. Ancien responsable d’Amnesty International et ancien trader, il intègre un collège de seize membres pour un mandat de cinq ans (renouvelable une fois).

Les députés ont adopté mardi en nouvelle lecture, par 291 voix contre 243, le projet de loi réformant les retraites. Le Sénat procédera vers la mi-décembre à la nouvelle lecture de ce projet de loi et devrait, en toute logique, le rejeter comme ce fut le cas en première lecture. L’Assemblée, qui constitutionnellement a le dernier mot, devrait procéder le 18 décembre à la lecture définitive de cette réforme.

Les deux banques émettent une titrisation en dollar adossée directement à des prêts accordés pour de l'import-export

Le lobby européen souhaite aussi une pause dans l'adoption de nouvelles règles mais soutient le projet de fonds d'investissement à long terme

L'OCDE souligne que la réforme votée hier en France ne comblera qu’un tiers du déficit estimé pour l’ensemble du système d'ici à 2020

Trois des neuf membres de l'autorité nippone ont jugé irréaliste l'objectif réitéré par son gouverneur d'atteindre une inflation de 2% d'ici 2015

Le gouverneur de l'institution est très favorable à cet outil. Londres envisage de l'imposer plus tôt que prévu par le Comité de Bâle