The Swedish firm SEB has opened a hedge fund for private clients, which had previously been reserved for institutional investors, the SEB Dynamic Manager Alpha fund, Privata Affärer reports. The fund invests in other equity funds, but protects itself from market risk by selling the benchmark indices of the various funds. The product, launched in 2005, has not had a negative year of results so far.

Lyxor has lowered its total expense ratio (TER) in Italy for seven ETF funds from 22 October, Bluerating reports. The products concerned are the following: Lyxor ETF EURO STOXX 50, Lyxor ETF Japan, Lyxor ETF MSCI AC Asia-Pacific Ex Japan, Lyxor ETF MSCI Emerging Markets, Lyxor ETF MSCI EMU, Lyxor ETF MSCI Europe and Lyxor ETF MSCI USA.

In the second half of October, money market funds saw outflows of over USD40bn, of which USD28bn were in the week to 31 October, according to estimates by EPFR Global. But investors have remained on the tips of their toes due to several factors: mixed quarterly results, hurricane Sandy and the approaching US elections. As a result, bond funds have posted inflows of only USD5bn, modest in comparison to the inflows observed in previous weeks. European and emerging market bond funds continued to attract more than USD1bn in subscriptions each in the final days of October. Equity funds took inflows of USD2.8bn, with demand remaining strong for emerging market equities, as Chinese equity funds attracted USD600m.

About 32% of fund managers are planning to outsource back office functions in the next twelve months, a level double last year, according to a study which has recently been undertaken by the fund sector service provier Kneip of 130 companies worldwide. Last year, only 18% of managers cited such a possibility.Among the functions which are liable to be outsourced are functions related to UCITS and KIID regulations. About 17% of candidates for outsourcing say they are planning to use external providers to produce Key Investor Information Documents (KIID). 22% and 16%, respectively, say they would be outsourcing distribution and treatment of KIID documents.

Assets under management in the wealth management unit of RBS fell by GBP1.1bn in third quarter, the British group has announced at the publication of its quarterly results. Quarterly outflows, which totalled GBP1.5bn, were only partially offset by a positive market effect of GBP0.4bn. The banking group has also reported a net loss of GBP1.384bn, or EUR1.7bn, compared with a net profit of GBP1.226bn one year earlier.

Martin Gilbert, CEO of Aberdeen Asset Management, has called for a complete separation of retail and investment banking, and an introduction of risk-adjusted leverage in the sector, Financial News reports. The comments were made in a speech given Wednesday evening at the Imperial College Business School.

JP Morgan, BNP Paribas and State Street are the best-liked fund administrators in the UK, according to the ninth annual survey published by FundServices.net and GlobalCustody.net, and undertaken by R&M Surveys (“2012 Fund Accounting & Administrative Survey,”) covering fund managers based in the UK.Year on year, JP Morgan has taken the top spot from BNP Paribas, while State Street, which took sixth place last year, made significant gains. It is followed by Northern Trust and BNY Mellon, which hold onto their positions from last year.For BNP Paribas, the survey highlights the quality of personnel and its ability to provide key performance indicators and to respect its Service Level Agreements. The survey finds that reporting and performance measurement are among the points in need of improvement.

The Swiss private bank Sarasin has lost its head of private banking, Werner Rüegg, according to a report on the website finews confirmed by the bank. Rüegg, who joined the bank in September 2008 from Credit Suisse, reportedly decided to leave the bank to enter a new phase in his career. Some speculate that the departure could be related to difficulties encountered by the bank since the Brazilian firm Safra recently took control of Sarasin. Meanwhile, Eric Sarasin will serve as interim head of private banking for the Swiss market. Lukas Stückelberger will become head of the Basel unit.

The Swiss responsible investment foundation Ethos on 2 November announced the appointment of Christophe Hans as Corporate Communications Manager. Hans will also serve as secretary general of the Ethos Academy association, the foundation says in a statement. He will begin in January 2013.

From 1 November, six new Netherlands-registered funds from BNP Paribas Fund II N.V., BNP Paribas Fund III N.V., and BNP Paribas OBAM N.V. were admitted to trading on the NYSE Euronext Fund Service.They are:BNP EUR OBL FONDS P (NL0010261475) with fees of 0.57%, replicating the Ctitigroup WGBI EMU (RI),BNP GL PROP SEC FD P (NL0010261483) based on the FTSE EPRA NAREIT Global (NR) (Dutch tax rate), with fees of 0.87% BNP HIGH INC PR FD P (NL0010261491) based on the FTSE EPRA NAREIT Global Dividend + (hedged in EUR) (NR) BNP GL HIGH IN EQ P (NL0010261509) based on the S&P High Income Equity World (hedged in EUR) (NR) and the BNP AS PAC HI INC P (NL0010261517) based on the S&P High Income Equity Asia Pacific (hedged in EUR) (NR), all three of which also charge 0.87%,as well as the BNP OBAM P (NL0010261525) based on the MSCI World (RI), whose TER is 0.60%.Overall, the Euronext Funds Service now lists 192 funds.

As of 30 September, investment funds from Banesto posted assets of EUR4.222bn, 9.9% less than one year earlier, Funds People reports. This decline is due to the fact that clients “preferred other types of savings,” including bank savings accounts, whose volume increased by 0.1% to EUR45.540bn. The ratio of investment funds/savings stands at 9.27%, which is one of the lowest ratios in the industry.Assets in pension funds have fallen 0.5% in one year, to EUR1.223bn.Overall. Banesto has seen an 83.2% fall in its net profits in the first nine months of the year, to EUR50.1m, after EUR804.7m in provisions to cover real estate risks. The EUR682.5m in capital gains have offset a large part of those provisions.

For third quarter 2012, Invesco Ltd has posted net profits of USD188.4m, compared with USD184.7m in April-June, and USD192.3m in the corresponding period of last year. Net profits in the first nine months of this year total USD518.4m, compared with USD527.4m in January-September 2011.Assets increased to USD683bn as of the end of September, from USD646.6bn at the end of June, and USD598.4bn one year previously. An increase of USD36.4bn in third quarter is USD11.7bn due to net subscriptions, compared with net outflows of USD8.3bn in April-June.

The sale by Société Générale of its asset management affiliate TCW to Carlyle, made official on 9 August, is moving ahead, Les Echos reports. The operation is expected to be completed in first quarter next year, but a lawsuit against TCW, filed in Los Angeles on 21 August before a Federal court by the institutional investor EIG Global Energy Partner, may delay the sale. EIG claims it has a right of veto which it acquired during the creation of a joint venture with TCW last year, and which specifies that any change of control concerning one of the co-shareholders in the joint venture cannot act without the agreement of the board of directors of the joint venture, on which EIG controls a majority of seats. A hearing is scheduled for this morning in Los Angeles.

Warrenn Buffett’s group Berkshire Hathaway has announced the acquisition of the mail-order toy distributor Oriental Trading from KKR and a group of investors. According to sources familiar with the matter cited by the Wall Street Journal, the sale is estimated to have cost about USD500m.Meanwhile, Berkshire Hathaway has reported a 72% increase in its net profits in third quarter 2012, to USD3.92bn, due to gains on investments and an improvement in the derivatives portfolio.Operating profits, the variable on which Buffett focuses, has contracted by 11% to USD3.4bn. This decline is due to base effects, as reinsurance activities in July-September 2011 underwent a major upward revision in their reserves.

More than 85% of alternative managers are unprepared for regulatory changes in Europe, according to a survey by PwC, FundWeb reports. The study funds that fund managers have not yet launched programmes to implement the AIFM directive. This is a genuine subject for concern, says PwC, in that the AIFM directive will come into effect in July 2013, in an environment in which investors are increasingly attentive to the alternative option, in light of chronically weak returns.

Generali Assecurazioni has become the largest asset management firm in Italy in terms of assets, with over EUR310bn, putting it ahead of Intesa Sanpaolo (EUR220bn), Milano Finanza reports. This is the result of a reorganization of the insurance group, which has resulted in the integration of funds managed in France and Germany.

Jean-Baptiste Coiffet is a specialist in organisational missions, integration and project management, and is responsible for Asset Management & Fund Securities at the consulting firm Equinox Consulting. With Newsmanagers, he discusses the services offered by his business to asset managers in order to help them to confront an environment in which operational efficiency is becoming a key challenge.

Hermes Fund Managers, managing nearly GBP25 billion of assets on behalf of its clients, has announced the launch of its Emerging Asia UCITS fund. The fund, which invests in Asia excluding Japan, has a focus on China, Korea, Taiwan and India. The fund is managed by Jonathan Pines, who has led the Emerging Asia strategy since its inception on 31 December 2009. The Hermes Emerging Asia strategy is a contrarian, value-biased, high conviction strategy with an emphasis on stock selection. It is benchmarked against the MSCI Asia ex-Japan Index. Since inception the strategy has returned an annualised 15%, beating its benchmark by an annualised 10%. The Emerging Asia UCITS Fund will be available to discretionary managers, multi-manager fund selectors and wealth managers in the UK. The fund is available at an annual management charge of 1%, with a minimum investment of GBP1,000.

Liontrust will be launching an Irish-domiciled offshore version of its Special Situations unit trust next month, Investment Week reports. The British equity fund is managed by Julian Fosh and Anthony Cross, and has attracted GBP550m. With the offshore version, Liontrust is aiming to meet demand on the part of foreign investors.

The Norwegian Government Pension Fund - global (GPFG), one of the largest sovereign funds in the world, has profited from a rebound on the global stock markets in third quarter, and has continued to reduce its exposure to a crisis-hit Europe, the Norwegian central bank, responsible for its management, announced on 2 November.In the past quarter, the fund, which invests in international equities and bonds, has posted returns of 4.7%, which brings its assets to NOK3.723trn, or about EUR507.1bn.Returns on investments in equities totalled 6.5%, and as much as 9% on the European continent, where the Norwegian fund is a top investor. Returns on bond assets total only 2.2%, however. At the end of third quarter, the fund was 60.3% invested in equities, 39.4% in bonds, and 0.3% in real estate.The real estate portfolio has earned returns of 2.7%. After transactions with Generali in third quarter, the fund has invested in the United Kingdom aince the end of the quarter with British Land, and in Germany with AXA France.In the quarter under review, the fund has continued its announced rebalancing, reducing its proportion of investments in Europe, particularly of government bonds from southern European countries, to increase its presence in North America and particularly Asia.The fund has reduced its investment in French and Spanish government debt. It has also increased its investments in US and Japanese government bonds, and has increased its assets in government bonds denominated in emerging currencies in markets such as South Korea, Mexico, and Russia, it says.Accross equities and bonds combined, the Norwegisn fund, supplied by the country’s enormous oil revenues, now holds 47.8% of its investments in Europe, 37.8% in America, and 14.4% in Asia-Pacific. Eventually, in order to reflect the geographical distribution of the real economy, the objective is to increase this market share to 41%, 40% and 19%, respectively.

Les entreprises américaines ont accéléré leurs recrutements en octobre et l’amélioration de la conjoncture a incité un nombre accru de chômeurs à reprendre leur recherche d’emploi, faisant remonter le taux de chômage d’un dixième de point à 7,9%. Deux signes encourageants pour la reprise économique à quatre jours du scrutin présidentiel. Le département du Travail a recensé 171.000 créations de postes non-agricoles le mois dernier et il a revu à la hausse les chiffres des deux mois précédents, de 84.000 au total, dans son rapport mensuel sur l’emploi publié vendredi. L’augmentation des recrutements a dépassé les pronostics les plus optimistes: la plus haute des estimations recueillies ne donnait que 168.000 créations pour octobre.

L’Agence France Trésor a annoncé l’adjudication, le lundi 5 novembre, d’un montant global compris entre 5,6 et 6,8 milliards d’euros de bons du Trésor (BTF). Cette opération portera sur des montants compris entre 3,4 et 3,8 milliards d’euros de bons à 12 semaines qui arriveront à échéance le 31 janvier 2013, entre 1,2 et 1,6 milliard d’euros de bons à 23 semaines, à échéance du 18 avril 2013, et entre 1 et 1,4 milliard d’euros de bons à 49 semaines, à échéance du 17 octobre 2013.

Le Government Pension Fund Global, qui gère les revenus pétroliers de la Norvège, a dégagé une performance de 4,7% au troisième trimestre grâce au rebond des marchés actions. Il avait perdu 2,2% au deuxième trimestre. Le fonds souverain norvégien gère l'équivalent de 660 milliards de dollars, investis à 60,3% en actions, 39,4 % en obligations et 0,3% en immobilier. Son portefeuille d’emprunts d’Etat français a diminué de 17%, le fonds cherchant à rééquilibrer son portefeuille hors de la zone euro.

Les résultats de l’enquête mensuelle ADP publiés hier montrent que le secteur privé américain a créé 158.000 emplois au mois d’octobre, la plus forte progression observée depuis février. Ce chiffre, nettement supérieur aux attentes, a été élaboré selon la nouvelle méthode de calcul adoptée afin de s’aligner davantage sur les chiffres officiels de l’emploi.

Le Canada va appeler l’ensemble des pays concernés à respecter le calendrier initial de mise en application des règles de solvabilité bancaire dites de Bâle 3 lors de la réunion des ministres des Finances et banquiers centraux du G20 ce week-end, a déclaré jeudi un haut fonctionnaire canadien. Le Canada considère la crise de la dette dans la zone euro comme le principal risque à court terme pour son économie.

Le président de la Fed de Boston qui compte parmi les 19 membres du Comité de politique monétaire de la Réserve fédérale, a indiqué cette nuit que la banque centrale devrait poursuivre sa politique de rachats d’actifs au moins jusqu’à ce que le taux de chômage soit redescendu sous la barre des 7,25%, et maintenir ses taux proches de zéro tant qu’il reste supérieur à 6,5%.

D’après le département du Travail, la productivité, qui mesure la production horaire par salarié, a progressé de 1,9% en rythme annuel au troisième trimestre. Il s’agit d’une première estimation. Au deuxième trimestre, la productivité avait augmenté de 2,2%. Le coût unitaire du travail a diminué de 0,1%, au lieu de la hausse de 1,0% attendue par les analystes.

La justice a donné raison hier aux administrateurs britanniques de MF Global qui cherchent à valoriser des titres de dette souveraine réclamés par l’administrateur de la partie américaine. Ce dernier, James Giddens, estime que la filiale basée à Londres doit quelque 287 millions de livres pour solder des accords de rachat internes sur de la dette portugaise, espagnole et irlandaise. KPMG, l’administrateur britannique, estime qu’il ne doit que 60 millions de dollars environ.

L’autorité de l’île est contrainte de multiplier les interventions sur le marché des changes, qui engendrent une hausse de l'immobilier et des actions

Le respect des critères de Maastricht a un coût exorbitant pour certains pays membres, qui pourraient d’eux-mêmes préférer la sortie