Assets under management at the British firm Standard Life Investments as of 30 September totalled GBP179.6bn, compared with GBP167.7bn as of the end of December 2012, according to figures released on 30 October. Only external assets under management increased by 13%, or GBP11.2bn, to GBP94.7bn.This development is related both to inflows and to market effects. Inflows over nine months totalled GBP8.3bn, compared with GBP3.2n in the first nine months of the previous year.In third quarter alone, net inflows totalled GBP1.2bn, of which GBP1bn were to multi-asset class solutions (including the GARS range).It should also be noted that assets under administration at the Standard Life group have increased 9% to GBP237.6bn.

The independent asset management firm Alken, based in London, has decided to strengthen its position on the French market. Alken has recruited Marie Fournier to the position of head of press communications in France, and to monitor clients outside Paris. Before joining Alken on 15 October, Fournier worked in particular at BNP Paribas Investment Parters, Oddo Banque Privée and as head of distribution at at third-party marketer (TPM).Isabel Ortega, head of the distribution team, will continue to oversee French-speaking clients based in Paris, Geneva, Luxembourg, Belgium and Spain.

Psigma Investment Management has completed its acquisition of the private clients of AXA Framlington housed at AXA Framlington Portfolio Management. The assets under management of Psigma, an affiliate of Punter Southall Group, now total over GBP2bn. The operation was announecd in July this year (Newsmanagers of 15 July 2013).The entire team at AXA Framlington Portfolio Management (3 portfolio managers and 5 assistants for support functions) are joining Psigma.The sale is related to a strategic reorganization decided last year by AXA Framlington, which would like to grow in the retail and institutional client segments.

Investec Asset Management has recruited Beonca Yip to the newly-created position of head of advisor distribution for the Asia ex Japan region. Yip previously worked at Eastspring Investment. Investec AM is planning to scale up its resources in distribution, and in 2014 is planning to open a distribution activity in Singapore aimed at independent financial advisers. Yip will also be responsible for the Taiwan office, which has 20 people on its team.

Since 21 October, Gwee Siew Ping, who had been regional head of compliance and risk, Asia Pacific, at Schroder Investment Management, has become chief risk officer at Eastspring Investments, the asset management affiliate of Prudential Corporation Asia. Gwee will be based in Singapore and will report directly to Guy Strapp, the CEO, and replaces Lakshman Kumar, who will be retiring this year from the position of head of risk, compliance & governance, a position he has held since 2001.In her new role, Gwee will be responsible for all compliance, risk and governance issues for all activities of Eastspring Investments.

Assets under management at the bank Vontobel totalled CHF160.4bn as of the end of September 2013, virtually unchanged compared with the end of June (CHF160.2bn), according to figures released on 30 October by the private bank.The Asset Management segment has posted a “constant” gross margin of 52 basis points, as well as “potential for gain which remains solid.” Net inflows have fallen, in line with the predictions of the bank, which did not provide figures.Measures engaged to increase the profitability of Private Banking are bearing fruit, both in terms of cost and returns, the bank also states. The bank now plans to concentrate on clearly-defined client segments. The growth of profits in this segment observed in first half has continued. Vontobel has continued to develop its activities with US private clients. Vontobel Swiss Wealth Advisors (VSWA), the entity founded in 2010, has in the past few weeks opened offices in Dallas and Geneva.A reshuffle of cross-border activities has led to costs of about CHF8bn, related largely to the abandonment of Private Banking activities in Austria, Italy and Dubai in second half. The renorganization of Private Banking sites is now complete, Vontobel states.

Credit Suisse on 30 October announced the introduction of its real estate fund Real Estate Fund Green Property (REF Green Property) on the SIX Swiss Exchange from 31 October. The financial market surveillance authority (Finma) has granted approval for the operation, announced on 28 May this year.The listing opens the open-ended real estate fund, and also makes it available to non-qualified investors, the bank says in a statement.

The State Street Investor Confidence Index released by State Street Global Exchange fell to 95.7 in October, down 5.6 points from September’s revised reading of 101.3.The decline was driven by sentiment in North America, which fell substantially by 17.8 points, pushing the North American ICI well into pessimistic territory at 86.5.By contrast, confidence improved substantially among European institutional investors, reflected in a 10.2 point increase in the European ICI to 111.9. Asian investors stayed their course, and as a result the Asian ICI saw only a modest change, rising 0.9 points to finish at 96.2.“The fiscal showdown in the US clearly took the wind from the sails of institutional investors, pushing the Global ICI into negative territory for the first time since May of this year,” commented Paul O’Connell, who contributed to the development of the index. “Notwithstanding the 11th hour resolution of the immediate crisis, investors are aware that the long-term fiscal policy of the US remains to be negotiated, and that the impact of such negotiations on growth and confidence is yet to be seen.”“The fact that the North American ICI posted a record fall in the same month that the European ICI posted its largest gain in almost three years tells you all you need to know about how policy perceptions are changing between the two areas,” added Michael Metcalfe, head of cross strategy research at State Street Global Markets. “With European confidence at its highest level since July 2007, investors hope that the worst of the Eurozone crisis is past. The US crisis of confidence, in contrast, may just be the beginning, unless policy uncertainty is reduced.”

After five years of financial crisis, most investors in the United States and more generally worldwide are hesitating to take risks, and are maintaining significant allocations to investments with low returns, according to the first global BlackRock study of investor sentiment (“Global Investor Pulse Survey”).Despite the gains which have propelled some stock markets to all-time highs, most investors are not prepared to take risks to improve the performance of their portfolios, a survey of 17,567 investors, including 4,000 US investors, in all categories, finds, including the most high net worth investors, who are in no hurry to reduce their cash allocations either.In the United States, investors in all categories are holding 48% of their investable assets in cash, with 18% in equities and 7% in bonds. The highest allocations to equities are in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

BlackRock has let the deadline which had been set for it by BaFin pass without responding to indicate the financial resources it would be prepared to make available if BHF-Bank were faced with a crisis. As a result, the US asset management firm is pulling out of the consortium led by Kleinwort Benson Group Ltd (KBG), an affiliate of RHJ International (RHJI), to acquire the German private bank from Deutsche Bank for EUR354m, of which EUR322m would be in cash and 9% in shares in RHJ International, KBG says in a statement released on 30 October. BlackRock was supposed to contribute to the deal for a total of EUR50m.As a result, the terms of the KBG capital increase have been modified, and RHJI will retain a 65% stake instead of 60%, while the remaining 35% will be distributed between the three remaining partners, Fosun Group, AQTON SE (a portfolio firm belonging to Stefan Quandt) and various companies of Timothy C. Collins.Deutsche Bank has been seeking to sell BHF-Bank, which had been part of the Sal. Oppenheim group, for three years. Initially, Deutsche Bank had been expecting to make about EUR500m on it.

With the launch of four short and ultra-short duration bond ETFs, registered in Ireland and based on optimised physical replication, iShares on 30 October responded to demand from European investors seeking to reduce the risk of rising interest rates on developed markets, while putting their liquidity to work.This is particularly true of the iShares Euro Ultrashort Bond UCITS and iShares $ Ultrashort Bond UCITS, which are the first passive ETFs of this type in Europe, and which will replicate Markit iBoxx Liquid Ultrashort indices launched recently. The funds will invest largely in fixed or variable rate investment-grade corporate bonds, denominated in euros and US dollars, respectively, with the maturity of the fixed rate type bonds set between zero and one year, and that for variable rate bonds between zero and three years.For their part, the ETF iShares $ Short Duration Corporate Bond UCITS and iShares $ Short Duration High Yield Corporate Bond UCITS will invest respectively in corporate bonds denominated in investment grade collars and bonds with a speculative rating. In order to be eligible for the fund, bonds needs to have a maturity of less than or equal to five years, with the average duration for the funds coming to between two and three years.CharacteristicsName: iShares $ Short Duration Corporate Bond UCITS ETFTicker: SDIGISIN code: IE00BCRY5Y77Dutation of the index: 2.49 yearsPerformance of the index: 1.76%Total expense ratio: 0.20%Name: iShares $ Short Duration High Yield Corporate Bond UCITS ETFTicker: SDHYISIN code: IE00BCRY6003Duration of the index: 2.07 yearsPerformance of the index: 5.01%Total expense ratio: 0.45%Name: iShares Euro Ultrashort Bond UCITS ETF Ticker: ERNEISIN code: IE00BCRY6557Duration of the index: 0.30 yearsPerformance of the index: 0.69%Total expense ratio: 0.20%Name: iShares $ Ultrashort Bond UCITS ETFTicker: ERNDISIN code: IE00BCRY6227Duration of the index: 0.33 yearsPerformance of the index: 0.72%Total expense ratio: 0.20%

Guggenheim Investments, which includes the management and advising activities of Guggenheim Partners, has recruited Joseph Burschinger as senior managing director, who will serve in the newly-created position of chief risk officer.Burschinger previously worked at TCW in Los Angeles, most recently as executive vice president and chief risk officer.In his new role, Burschinger will concentrate on the management of portfolio risks in order to better manage investment objectives. He will also work with portfolio managers to help them better identify, evaluate, monitor and manage all types of risk.

Virginie Maisonneuve, head of global & international equities at Schroder Investment Management, has been recruited as managing director, global head of equities & portfolio manager at Pimco, which she will officially join in January 2014. She will continue to be based in London, a statement from the US asset management firm owned by the Allianz group states.In her new role, she will be responsible for the active management of equity portfolios and will contribute to the design as well as the deployment of new equity and asset allocation strategies.Maisonneuve will take over the role of Marc Seidner , who has been appointed as interim head of global equities, following the resignation of Neel Kashkari (see Newsmanagers of 8 February).At Schroders, Maisonneuve will be replaced by her deputy, Simon Webber, who becomes lead portfolio manager for global and international equities. Peter Harrison, global head of equities, becomes director of the team.

In third quarter 2013, the asset management line at BNP Paribas (part of the Investment Solutions unit) has posted net redemptions of EUR5.6bn, the bank has announced as part of its financial results. These outflows, which affected bond funds in particular, remain lower than those posted in second quarter 2013 (-EUR15.4bn), and in third quarter 2012 (-EUR7.6bn).As at 30 September, assets under management in asset management totalled EUR368bn, down 1.4% compared with EUR408bn one year previously, but up 0.5% compared with their levels as of the end of June 2013.The BNP Paribas group also notes that “the adaptation of the business portfolio as part of the Asset Management business development plan had a negative impact to the tune of 3.7 billion euros.”Assets under management totalled 874 billion euros as at 30 September 2013, down by 1.4% compared to 30 September 2012 but stable compared to the level as at 30 June 2013, after outflows of EUR3.2bn. Investment Solutions’ revenues, which totalled 1,543 million euros, were up 5.0% compared to the third quarter 2012. In the first nine months of 2013, revenues from Investment Solutions are up 2.2% compared with the first nine months of 2012.

As of the end of September, assets under management by T. Rowe Price totalled USD647.2bn, compared with USD614bn three months earlier (see Newsmanagers of 26 July). The increase of USD33.2bn in one quarter is attributable to a positive market effect of USD40.6bn, minus net redemptions of USD7.4bn.Compared with the end of 2012, assets increased by USD70.4bn, with a positive market effect of USD82.5bn, and net outflows of USD12.1bn.Of the total as of 30 September, USD403.8bn correspond to mutual funds distributed in the United States, and USD243.4bn to other portfolios.Net profits at T. Rowe Price in third quarter were up to USD270.3m, from USD247.8m in second quarter and USD247.3m in July-September 2012. In the first nine months of this year, net profits totalled USD760m, compared with USD647.8m in the corresponding period of last year.

In July-September, Ameriprise Financial, the parent company among others of Columbia Management in the United States and Threadneedle in the United Kingdom, has announced record net profits of USD381m, compared with USD321m in second quarter, and USD335m in first quarter, which compares to USD174m in the corresponding period of 2012.Pre-tax profits in the asset management unit for third quarter are up year on year by 15%, to USD178m, on assets of USD479.32bn, up 4% comapred with the end of September 2012. Compared with the end of June, assets were up by USD19.96bn, or 4.34%.At Columbia, assets as of the end of September totalled USd345bn, compared with USD335.2bn three months earlier, and USD339.94bn one year previously, while at Threadneedle, it totalled USd137.38bn, compared with USD126.98bn as of 30 June, and USD123.7bn twelve months earlier.Ameriprise, Columbia and Threadneedle in July-September saw net outflows of USD4.33bn, USD4.23bn and USD83m, respectively. Since the beginning of the year, net redemptions have totalled USD12.18bn for the group, USD11.81bn for Columbia, and USD2.34bn for Threadneedle.

In the quarter to the end of September, Legg Mason has declared a net pofit of USD86.3m, compared with USD47.8m in April-June, and USD80.8m in the corresponding period of last year, meaning that profits in the six months to the end of September have risen to USD134.1m, compared with USD71.3m in April-September 2012.As of 30 September, assets totalled USD656bn, which represents an increase of 2% compared with USD644.5bn as of 30 June, and a 1% lead on the levels reached twelve months earlier (USD650.7bn).The firm states that an increase in assets of USD11.5bn in reality was due to USD14.2bn in positive market and currency effects, while flows have resulted in net outflows of USD1.4bn, in addition to which are dispositions of USD1.3bn.

Funds People reports that the independent boutique EDM Gestión (EUR1.55bn) has recruited Teresa Watkins as manager-analyst. She had worked at Comgest since 2003.

In its report on third quarter published on 30 October, Moody’s has announced that assets in money market funds domiciled in the United States increased by 4.3%, to a total of USD667bn as of 30 September, compared with USD640bn as of the end of June. These funds increased their exposure to Swedish banks by 27% (USD47bn compared with USD37bn), and to French banks by 16% (USD50bn comapred with USD43bn).Exposure of European money market funds to financial institutions remained stable at EUR28.1bn, but allocation to French banks rose 14% to EUR9.4bn, while the allocation to Swedish banks was down 20%, to EUR5bn.

With more than USD4trn in outstanding debt, including non-Euroclear issues, the local currency non-sovereign market is larger than the local currency sovereign market : Bank of America Merrill Lynch thus has developed a new range of four indices designed to track the performance of local currency non-sovereign emerging markets fixed rate debt, according to a press release dated October, 30th.The new series includes four flagship indices: • the BofA Merrill Lynch Broad Local Emerging Markets Non-sovereign Index (ticker LCCB), the broadest measure of the local currency emerging markets non-sovereign debt markets. LCCB constituents are cap-weighted with no caps on country or issuer exposures,• the BofA Merrill Lynch Diversified Broad Local Emerging Markets Non-sovereign Index (LCCD), a more liquid, diversified version of LCCB. There are larger minimum bond sizes in addition to caps on country and issuer exposures, • the BofA Merrill Lynch Local Emerging Markets Non-sovereign Index (LOCM), the same as LCCB but excludes Sukuks. LOCM constituents are cap-weighted with no caps on country or issuer exposures, and• the BofA Merrill Lynch Diversified Local Emerging Markets Non-sovereign Index (LOCL), a more liquid, diversified version of LOCM. There are larger minimum bond sizes in addition to caps on country and issuer exposures.All four indices focus solely on securities that settle on Euroclear. .Les quatre indices couvrent uniquement des valeurs qui peuvent être compensées sur Euroclear.

As the largest holder of bonds from the Brazilian oil firm OGX, which spiralled towards bankruptcy filing, Pimco is facing big problems in Brazil, the Financial Times reports. The asset management firm has amassed more than 17% of the USD3.6bn of bonds issued , owned by Eika Batista, since 2011.

As of 30 September 2013, the global net assets in collective investment organisms and specialised investment funds totalled EUR2.539200trn, compared with EUR2.498839trjn as of 31 August 2013, an increase of 1.62% month on month. Considered over the past 12 months, the volume of net assets is up by 9.71%, according to statistics released by the financial sector surveillance commission (CSSF). Compared with the end of December, assets are up by EUR115.01bn, or 4.8%.The Luxembourg OPC industry in the month of September has posted a positive variation totalling EUR40.36bn. This increase represents the balance of positive net issues, totalling EUR7.53bn (+0.30%), and the favourable evolution of the financial markets, totalling EUR32.83bn (+1.32%).

Le Comité de politique monétaire veut obtenir plus de preuves du caractère durable de la reprise avant d'ajuster le rythme de ses achats

Investec Asset Management a recruté Beonca Yip au poste nouvellement créé de «head of advisor distribution» pour la région Asie hors Japon. L’intéressée travaillait jusqu'à présent chez Eastspring Investment. Investec AM compte renforcer sa force de frappe dans la distribution et prévoit en 2014 l’ouverture à Singapour d’une activité de distribution à destination des conseillers indépendants.

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Le dernier communiqué du FOMC ne laisse apparaître que quelques changements mineurs, repoussant la perspective d’un ajustement des achats obligataires.

Un accord a été trouvé entre les partis qui devraient former une coalition. Pour autant, le projet, très contesté, n'est pas près d'aboutir

En soi, la «forward guidance» de la BCE est atypique. Décrétant que «les taux d’intérêt directeurs resteront à leurs niveaux actuels ou à des niveaux plus bas sur une période prolongée», cette clarification du discours ne suit pas les exemples de la Fed et de la Banque d’Angleterre, qui ont lié leurs décisions futures à l’évolution quantifiée de variables macroéconomiques. Elle ne reprend pas les expériences des banques centrales de Norvège, de Suède et de Nouvelle-Zélande qui publient des projections pluriannuelles de taux directeurs à partir d’un scénario central.

Selon les informations du quotidien, le fonds souverain d’Abu Dhabi va verser près de 750 millions d’euros pour acquérir les actifs des Docks lyonnais, une foncière appartenant à UBS. Le portefeuille comprend notamment un immeuble de bureaux boulevard Haussmann à Paris qui abrite Bpifrance. D’autres actifs sont situés à Nanterre, Antony ou encore Lyon.

L’autorité britannique des marchés voit rouge sur les commissions de courtage payées par les asset managers aux banques et aux courtiers en rémunération de leur recherche. Pointant du doigt des abus malgré la réforme de 2006, la FCA consultera sur de nouvelles règles en novembre.