Investors appear to have come to terms with the likelihood of a Greek default on its debt, according to the most recent monthly survey by BofA Merrill Lynch of 286 firms representing USD739bn in assets under management, conducted between 7 and 13 October.More than nine out of ten respondents in the survey (92%) are convinced that Greece will not be able to avoid a default. Seven out of ten see that default happening by April 2012. Despite this impressive consensus, investors appear less concerned thatn a month ago about covereign debt risks, and less pessimistiv about global growth outlooks.The European sovereign debt crisis remains the major extreme risk in the minds of investors, but it concerns them less than the previous month, with 61% saying they are worried about it in October, compared with 68% in September.There has also been a stabilisation in growth outlooks, with fears of a global recession taking the back seat. The percentage of respondents who predict a global recession in the next twelve months has fallen to 25%, from 40% in September.“The survey shows that the investor consensus has integrated or hopes for an orderly default by Greece. But investors appear to be waiting for a green light both from Europe and emerging markets to engage their cash,” says Gary Baker, head of European equities strategy at BofA Merrill Lynch Research.Europe, which was plague-stricken last month, may not be a safe destination yet, but the negative sentiment about the region is slightly less marked. Only 7% of investors say that the euro zone is the region which they are planning to underweight most in the next twelve months, compared with 40% in September. Only 29% of allocators are underweight on euro zone equities, compared with 38% in September.Within Europe, however, investors say they are more concerned by the macroeconomic outlooks, with 37% of respondents in the regional survey predicting a recession in the next few months, compared with only 11% in September.

Dow Jones has released a European version of the emblematic Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) for the United States. Since the beginning of the year, the index provider has offered six European indices dedicated to dividends, and two European real estate indices. Dow Jones has also releases an Asian version of the DJIA. The indices are each composed of 30 top shares from the region. The European index includes five French, five German, nine British, four Swiss, two Spanish and two Swedish companies. The French firms are BNP Paribas, Vivendi, Vinci, Schneider Electric and Total.

A group of 285 investors representing more than USD20trn in assets under managemetn has called for urgent action on climate change issues. In a joint statement, the large investors say there is a need for immediate action to stimulate private sector investment in solutions to combat climate change, which is essential to ensure “the long-term sustainability and stability of the global economic system.”

The Italian asset management firm Azimut will launch a venture capital fund in partnership with the German specialist Earlybird Venture Capital. The product will invest in the Italian IT sector. Azimut will create a closed fund on its Luxembourg platform, which will be aimed at qualified investors. The product will be advised by a firm that will be 60% owned by the partners at Earlybird Italia, and 40% by Azimut Holding.

The board of directors at Dexia voted at a meeting on 20 October to begin the process of selling some operational entities of the group, including Dexia Asset Management and Dexia Investor Services.Dexia and the Belgian government finalised the sales agreement for Dexia Banque Belgique to the Belgian federal participation and investment company (SFPI), acting on behalf of the Belgian government, under the terms and conditions of the offer made to Dexia SA on 9 October.Dexia Banque Belgique’s 49% stake in Dexia Asset Management will be transferred to the Dexia group before the transaction is completed, pending the approval of the regulatory authorities. The sale thus includes all assets and liabilities, affiliates and participates of Dexia Banque Belgique as of the date of closing, except its participation in Dexia Asset Management.

Alain Zeitouni has joined Russell Investments in Paris in October as director of multi-strategy management, according to information obtained by Newsmanagers. He had previously been director of multi-management at Barclays Wealth Management in France, since June 2006.

Global wealth management earned pre-tax profits in third quarter of USD362m, compared with USD281m in second quarter 2010. The asset management unit, for its part, finished the quarter with pre-tax losses of USD117m, compared with profits of USD279m one year earlier. Total assets under management for clients in the Global Wealth Management unit as of the end of the quarter totalled USD1.6trn, of which USD465bn were in fee-based accounts, which posted net inflows of USD10.1bn. Assets under management or supervision in the Asset Management unit as of 30 September totalled USD268bn, up from USD266bn one year earlier. The quarter brought a net outflow of USD5.8bn, compared with a net inflow of USD2.9bn one year earlier.

AR reports that Direxion Funds (Rafferty Asset Management) is planning to launch at least three new strategies resembling hedge funds, but in a mutual fund format, in 2012. The new funds will invest in managed futures, real estate equities and long/short strategies.

Lyxor AM has laid out a quality charter for its ETF products. The charter includes guidelines concerning the quality of asset management, index tracking, transparency, counterparty risk, and trading rules for primary and secondary markets.The charter goes beyond some of the requirements of the European UCITS directive, Lyxor AM states. Firstly, as Alain Dubois, chairman of the asset management firm, recently explained to Newsmanagers (see Newsmaangers of 17 October 2011), in terms of transparency, Lyxor releases key information such as assets in the fund, counterparty risk levels and the characteristics of counterparties for derivative operations, on a daily basis.The firm has also set an objective of zero daily counterparty risk for all of its ETFs, which is well below the maximum of 10% allowed under the UCITS directive. Secondly, tracking error, with an objective of less than 100 basis points (1%) at all times, is published for each ETF. All of these financial securities are held in separate accounts for the funds concerned.

Hedge funds have seen net redemptions of USD20.98bn in September, according to the most recent statistics from Eurekahedge. Due to the fact that they have lost 2.89% in the month, hedge funds saw a USD37bn fall in their total assets, to USD1.76trn, their lowest level since March 2011.

Greg Bennett has joined Argonaut Capital, Investmemt Week reports. He will work in the investment team that manages the Argonaut European Alpha, European Absolute Return, European Income and Enhanced Income funds, and joins the firm from Marlborough.

Markus Gerhardt, who has been head of high net worth clients at BHF-Bank, has joined the German affiliate of Schroders as institutional client executive, as of 1 October. Gerhardt joins the institutional distribution team at Schroder Investment Management GmbH, led by Carlos Böhles, and will focus on business clients and pension funds. Schroders Germany, which has made several recruitments in the past few months (see Newsmanagers of 5 and 8 July and 1 August), now has a sales team of 60 people in Germany, led by Achim Küssner.

BaFin, the German financial services watchdog, on 19 October issued a license for the launch and administration of real estate funds to Universal-Investment, which had applied for the license to create an operation in the institutional fund segment.Bernd Vorbeck, chairman of the executive board at Universal, says that the first mandates have already been received, and that talks are underway with several institutional investors and asset management firms. The new real estate platform represents a logical extension of the fund accounting and administration (Master-KAG) range aimed at institutionals; it also allows asset management firms to locate a neutral platform for real estate fund projects for their clients.At the same time as the license for real estate funds, Universal-Investment has also been granted permission to launch and manage hedge funds, infrastructure funds, employee savings funds, and funds with a European passport.

Ilona Wachter, who had been managing director and head of Germany at Muzinich and Aviva Investors, has joined max.xs as institutional sales director. She will report to Oliver Roll, managing director of the Frankfurt-based independent (B2B) distribution specialist max.xs, which has also announced that it is still seeking one recruitment for senior institutional sales.This year, max.xs has taken on three major clients: Kleinwort Bension Investors Dublin, Rothschild & Cie Gestion and Wölbern Invest.

State Street Corporation has announced that it has been selected by the Netherlands pension fund Stichting Pensioenfonds SABIC Innovative Plastics to provide investment services on EUR700m in assets. State Street will offer securities custody, accounting, monthly performance measurement and overlay strategy services for currency risk hedging.

On 15 November, Axxion SA will launch two Luxembourg-registered ETF funds, Ad-Vanemics ETF Dachfonds -V (LU0665449400) and Ad-Vanemics ETF Dachfonds-S (LU0665450838).The funds may invest in securities, money markets and equity, bond and diversified funds, and in certificates and options, but will invest primarily in ETFs.The Ad-Vanemics ETF Dachfonds-V will carry a front-end fee of 5% and a management commission of 0.50%, as well as a distribution commission of 0.4%. There will also be an advising commission of 0.50%.The S version of the fund will charge no front-end fee, and management and advising commissions will also be 0.50%. The distribution commission will be 0.60%.In both cases, Axxion will charge a 15% commission on performance exceeding the Euribor 3-month by more than 300 basis points.

State Street Corporation has appointed Asser Makarem as vice president and head of sales for its Global Services activity in the Middle East and North Africa. Makarem will be based in Doha, Qatar, and will report to Rod Ringrow, senior vice president in charge of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Before joining State Street, Makarem was head of sales at HSBC Bank Middle East, and worked to develop the bank’s client base by strengthening its relationships with institutional investors in the region.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has launched a civil investigation to determine whether the hedge fund management firm SAC Capital Advisors LP (USD14bn in assets) made inappropriate use of information from an expert network to make a large-scale investment in shares in Cougar Biotechnology ahead of the announcement of the firm’s acquisition by Johnson & Johnson on 21 May.So far, the SEC has not accused SAC Capital of wrongdoing.The Wall Street Journal reports that since June, SAC Capital has been under investigation for similar moves ahead of the acquisition of MedImmune for USD15bn in 2007.

L’opérateur boursier allemand, qui prépare sa fusion avec Nyse Euronext, a vu son bénéfice opérationnel (Ebit) croître de 35% sur un an au troisième trimestre, à 330 millions d’euros, tandis que son chiffre d’affaires s’est apprécié de 20% à 605 millions d’euros. Deutsche Börse a comptabilisé un gain de 94 millions d’euros sur la période lié à l’acquisition d’Eurex.

«L’Union européenne est la seule qui remplisse toutes les conditions de relations économiques très étroites, ainsi que la garantie de sécurité du droit et du bon fonctionnement de l’Etat», juge Nicolas Pictet, président de l’Association des Banquiers privés suisses. Il ajoute que «le coût pour les banques deviendrait disproportionné» si ces accords dépassaient ce cadre. La Suisse a signé des accords en août avec l’Allemagne et le Royaume-Uni.

Le gestionnaire d’actifs alternatif va racheter 85% du capital de Telecable, un fournisseur espagnol de solutions pour entreprises dans le domaine de la télévision, la téléphonie et le haut débit. Les fonds proviendront de Carlyle Europe Partners III (CEP III), un fonds de 5,3 milliards d’euros constitué en 2006.

L'économie américaine a poursuivi sa croissance sur un rythme lent en septembre, mais ses perspectives semblent s’assombrir, estime la Réserve fédérale dans son «Livre beige» publié hier. Le document relève que «l’activité économique dans son ensemble a continué à progresser en septembre, même si beaucoup de districts ont décrit le rythme de croissance comme «modeste» ou «faible» et les contacts ont généralement constaté un affaiblissement des perspectives». Plusieurs districts ont constaté que bon nombre de détaillants hésitent à constituer des stocks malgré l’approche de la saison des fêtes, ce qui illustre une baisse de la confiance des ménages. Le président de la Fed de Boston, Eric Rosengren, a estimé hier lors d’un entretien accordé à CNBC que «sans aucun doute, si l’économie venait à être plus faible que la plupart des gens le prévoient, cela serait certainement une raison valable pour mettre en œuvre une politique monétaire supplémentaire».

L’indice d’inflation sous-jacent («core»), qui exclut l’alimentation et l'énergie, a augmenté de 0,1% en septembre (consensus: +0,2%) aux Etats-Unis après une hausse de 0,2% en août, à la faveur d’une stagnation du prix des véhicules neufs et d’une hausse modeste des loyers. Sur douze mois, l’indice «core» a progressé de 2,0% (consensus: 2,1%), comme en août.

La dénonciation d'une banque serait à l'origine de l'enquête. Les professionnels restent sceptiques

2011 n’est pas 2008. Comparée aux autres classes d’actifs, la volatilité de l'Euro Stoxx 50 est assez chère

La CFTC a approuvé mardi les nouvelles règles. Mais le recueil des informations nécessaires prendra au moins plusieurs mois

L'enlisement de la crise de la zone euro a motivé la reprise des achats d'actifs. Le programme pourrait être revu à la hausse début 2012

Le projet de réforme de la directive, présenté aujourd'hui, est censé limiter les exemptions aux règles de transparence

Les activités de Saggel Property Management et Keops, ainsi que de Colliers UFG PM vont être réunies dans une holding détenue à 75 % par Nexity

L’idée de permettre au FESF d’accorder des « garanties sur les premières pertes » en cas de défaut semblait cette nuit la plus avancée