The head of the British Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Martin Wheatley, on 10 December announced that the British asset management sector would have to bring itself up to the level of others. “At a time when other markts are putting their own activities in order, as is already the case in Singapore, Hong Kong, the United States, Australia, it is increasingly important for us to do that same thing nationally,” Wheatley says. With this in mind, 2014 will be “an important period of consolidation,” says Wheatley. This period may be less exciting than the past few years, but just as important, Wheatley insists. This will involve a cultural transition to a more mature period, “in which the interests of investors are at the centre of the models of activity for companies on international markets.” It will then mean overseeing the technical adaptations to new regulatory rules, including EMIR and the MiFID directive, so that markets remain deep and liquid.
The former head of private banking at Banque Havilland, Nick Parker, has founded a wealth management firm, RiverPeak Wealth, Money Marketing reports. Before joining Banque Havilland, Parker was managing director of ultra-high net worth British clients at Citi Private Bank. According to Parker, “there is no doubt that there is a niche in the market for a wealth manager with the style of a private banker, meaning a manager who is not content to offer outdated products but can provide high-level strategic services which are generally reserved only for ultra-high net worth clients.
In order to make its ETFs more easily accessible to British pension funds, State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) has integrated eight of its products into a managed pension fund vehicle with the legal status of limited liability insurance company, Funds Europe reports.The formula provides a way to avoid the obstacle represented by the fact that ETFs are ordinarily considered equities, which requires pension funds to open an account with a broker in order to buy and sell them, and also to have a direct account with a custodian who holds them.
Desmond Lee has left his position as head of research at Manulife Asia Wealth Management, Citywire can reveal. He is reportedly joining a firm based in Singapore specialised in institutional mandates. Lee’s position will be taken over by Ajauy Saratchandran, head of asset management services for Asia.
The US financial sector watchdog, Finra, has fined Oppenheimer & Co USD675,000 for charging excessive fees for transactions on municipal bonds and for failing to set up an appropriate surveillance system. Finra has also required the investment firm to pay back over USD246,000 plus interest to affected clients. In addition, the head of transactions on municipal onds, David Sirianni, has been fined USD100,000, and has been suspended for a period of 60 days.
AllianceBernstein is offering a fund dedicated to consumer spending on emerging markets, which will be primariliy aimed at companies which are expected to participate in a fast-growing consumer market, Citywire reports. The AllianceBernstein Emerging fund will be a fund domiciled in Luxembourg, managed by Tassos Stassopoulos, who currently co-manages several other funds, including the Alliancebernstein Global Growth and US Thematic Research funds. The fund will use an original approach for research and portfolio construction, with three parameters: top-down, bottom-up, and one which sets it apart from the others, a component called “grassroots” which involves observation of the behaviour of emerging market consumers.
In the first ten months of the year, German open-ended equity funds have seen net redemptions of EUR6.70bn (including EUR2.35bn in October), compared with USD6.63bn in the corresponding period of last year, according to statistics from the German BVI association of asset management firms. In total, German asset management firms attracted a net total of EUR61.32bn in January-October, compared with EUR66.9bn in the first ten months of last year, according to statistics from the German BVI association of asset management firms. Overall, German asset management firms attracted a net EUR61.32n in January-October, compared with EUR66.9bn in the first ten months of 2012, with net inflows of EUR16.39bn, compared with EUR14.99bn for open-ended funds, and EUR53.63bn, compared with EUR50.08bn, for institutional funds (Spezialfonds). Mandates other than investment funds have seen a net outflows of EUR8.7bn, compared with net inflows of EUR1.83bn in January-October last year.
Susanne Müssauer, head of Austrian institutional clients and a specialist in sustainable management since 2004 at Banque Sarasin, is joining the Viennese private bank Gutmann, where she will be responsible for setting up a specific line of “sustainable investment” products, to allow clients to have products which meet their environmental, social and governance (ESG) expectations.
At a time when assets under management in all Austrian funds as of the end of October were up by EUR3.4bn, or 2.3% in ten months, to EUR147.8bn, assets at Raiffeisen Capital Management (RCM) were down by 1.8%, or 6.4%, to EUR26.7bn, which represents a market share of 18.1% on the national market.This reduction is primarily due to a loss of institutional mandates, as assets have fallen to EUR1.8bn, or 10.2%, or EUR15.4bn. Assets in open-ended funds were down by EUR0.1bn, or 0.7%, to EUR11.3bn.
New research from global analytics firm Cerulli Associates indicates that
"We saw a flurry of new CEFs early this year," comments Dan Roberts, analyst at Cerulli. "CEF managers indicated the next 12 months present an excellent opportunity for the industry to raise assets."
In the new Products and Strategies 2013: The Changing Landscape of Product Development and Delivery report, Cerulli focuses on asset managers' product strategy and development across different asset classes (e.g., fixed income, alternatives) and vehicles (e.g., collective trust funds (CTFs), exchange-traded funds (
After a restricted RFP issued in March, France’s Etablissement de retraite additionnelle de la fonction publique (ERAFP, EUR15bn) has awarded active mandates to manage US equity funds to Natixis AM and Robeco Institutional Asset Management. Financial management will be outsourced to Loomis, Sayles & Company and Robeco Boston Partners, while a third standby mandate has been awarded to Morgan Stanley IM.The portfolios will primarily be invesfted in US equities, with a long-term investment outlook and an objective of outperformance compared with the MSCI USA Index. It will use conviction-based management without a tracking error limit.
Newcomers to the hedge fund sector need to raise at least USD300m in assets if they want to survive in a post-crisis environment which is characterised by rising regulatory costs and falling commissions, according to a survey carried out by Citi of 124 hedge funds with USD465bn in assets. Before the crisis broke out, a hedge fund could plan to launch with only a few tens of millions. But since then, management commissions have sometimes fallen as low as 1.58%, compared with the traditional 2% still charged by the large actors in the sector. Regulatory costs have also increased steeply due to new rules install on both sides of the Atlantic, such as the Dodd-Frank law or the AIFM directive.
Japanese investors are flocking to bonds issued outside Japan, in the hopes of taking advantage of the weak Japanese yen, the Wall Street Journal reports. Asset managers have purchased JPY2.6trn (or USD25bn) more in foreign bonds than they have sold, according to statistics from the minister of finance. This is the fifth consecutive month that Japanese investors have been net buyers of foreign bonds. Since 30 June, they have purchased JPY9.1trn in bonds.
Sovereign funds, led by the Norwegian fund, are taking advantage of a regain in IPOS in Hong Kong to increase their exposure to China, the Financial Times observed. The Norwegian fund is proving one of the foremost investors in Chinese businesses this year, despite commercial frictions between Oslo and Beijing. At the end of September, the oil fund had 2.1% of its equity porfolio of USD480bn invested in China, compared with 1.7% one year earlier.
With the Stoxx Europe 600 EM Exposted Index, Stoxx Ltd on 10 December launched an index covering companies of the Stoxx Europe 600 which earn a substantial part of their revenues in emerging countries, which allows them to be exposed to growth market via liquid securities.The new index is intended to be used as a benchmark for actively-managed funds, and as a basis for replication for ETFs or other investable products.The Stoxx Europe 600 EM Exposed Index is calculated on price, in net and gross. It is available in euros and US dollars. Its composition will be revised each year in September.
The Italian private bank Banca Ifgest is opening an affiliate in Genoa, Bluerating reports. The new team, led by Massimo Losti, will be composed of five experienced private bankgers. This brings the number of affiliates of the bank to nine, including three in Florence, one in Prato, one in Santa Croce, one in Milan, one in Rome, and one in Turin.
US-based Vanguard has reopened access to the High-Yield Corporate Fund (USD16.1bn), managed by Wellington Management Company, which was closed in May 2012, to all investors, as well as the Intermediate-Term Tax-Exempt Fund (USD33.7bn), closed in February 2013. In both cases, Vanguard pre-emptively suspended subscriptions to prevent a steep rise in assets from disadvantaging existing shareholders.However, the Valley Forge, Pennsylvania-based asset management firm has announced the immediate closure of subscriptions to the Capital Opportunity Fund (managed by Primecap Management Company) for most new accounts. The fund, with USD11.4bn, was previously closed in 2004, and then reopened for a restricted group of investors in 2007, and to all subscribers in April 2013. Since that date, assets have increased by more than USD2bn.
Gabelli Funds has changed the name of The Gabelli Value Fund to The Gabelli Value 25 Fund. The name change highlights the fund’s overweighting of its core 25 equity positions and underscores the upcoming 25th anniversary of the fund’s inception.The fund, managed by Christopher J. Marangi and Mario J. Gabelli, was launched in 1989 to invest in a concentrated portfolio of equity securities believed to have favorable prospects.
Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management (DeAWM) has selected BNY Mellon Asset Servicing as custodian, administrator and transfer agent for its db x-trackers Harvest CSI 300 China A-Shares Fund (ticker: ASHR), launched on the US market more than a month ago (see Newsmanagers of 7 November). The product is the first ETF physically investing in Chinese A-class shares, with a renminbi qualified foreign institutional investor (RQFII) license.
Le déficit des paiements courants en France s’est contracté à 2,1 milliards d’euros en octobre, contre 3,6 milliards, chiffre révisé en baisse, en septembre, a indiqué ce matin la Banque de France. Cette évolution reflète principalement le recul du déficit des échanges de biens à 5 milliards en octobre contre 5,7 milliards un mois plus tôt, ainsi que la hausse de l’excédent du compte des services, à 3,3 milliards contre 2,6 milliards.
Le Président du conseil italien a annoncé une série de réformes institutionnelles et économiques (révision de la loi électorale, baisse de la fiscalité…) visant à tirer la troisième économie de la zone euro hors de la récession, en se fixant notamment comme objectif un produit intérieur brut (PIB) en hausse de 1% en 2014 et de 2% en 2015.
Selon des sources indirectes citées dans le rapport mensuel de l’Organisation des pays exportateurs de pétrole (Opep), la production du cartel a reculé à 29,63 millions de barils par jour (bpj) en novembre, se rapprochant ainsi de la prévision de demande en 2014. L’Opep prévoit que la demande pour sa production atteindra en moyenne 29,57 millions de bpj l’année prochaine, un chiffre inchangé par rapport à sa précédente estimation.
L’Etablissement de retraite additionnelle de la fonction publique (Erafp) vient d’attribuer 2 mandats actifs et 1 mandat stand-by de gestion de portefeuille d’actions américaines. Les mandats actifs ont été attribués à Natixis AM et Robeco Institutional Asset Management. La gestion financière sera respectivement déléguée à Loomis Sayles et Robeco Boston Partners. Le mandat stand-by a été attribué à Morgan Stanley IM. «A titre indicatif, les montants investis à un horizon de trois ans pourraient être de l’ordre de 300 millions d’euros», indique l’Erafp.
L'économie italienne a stagné au troisième trimestre après deux années de contraction, selon l’estimation définitive de l’institut national de statistiques publiée hier. L’Istat a relevé, de -0,1% à inchangé, son estimation de variation du produit intérieur brut (PIB) pour la période juillet-septembre. En variation annuelle, le PIB italien a baissé de 1,8%, alors que la première estimation était à -1,9%.
Les négociateurs démocrates et républicains du Congrès américain ont annoncé hier soir être parvenus à un accord sur le budget qui permettrait d'éviter une réédition de la paralysie des administrations fédérales déclenchée en octobre. La sénatrice démocrate Patty Murray et le représentant républicain Paul Ryan, les négociateurs des deux camps, devaient tenir dans la nuit une conférence de presse dévoilant les détails de leur compromis.
Quatre ans après le Dodd-Frank Act, l’emblématique règle Volcker censée protéger les déposants américains contre la spéculation financière a été adoptée par les régulateurs hier. Combattue par l’industrie financière, elle ne devrait cependant pas être appliquée avant l’été 2015.