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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

After opening an office in Hong Kong (see Newsmanagers of 2 November 2012), led by Michael Chang, Natixis Global Asset Management is expected to open another office in South Korea, Asian Investor reports. The office will be located in Seoul, and will open in December. It will be led by the Japanese Jung Tai-Hwan, who had previously served institutional clients from Japan.

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.

Syz & Co has overhauled its Oyster range of Luxembourg funds, Citywire reports. Several funds have been merged, closed or repositioned, according to a note obtained by the website. The changes will affect seven funds covering US equities, European equities, Latin American equities and emerging market equities.

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.

Selon nos informations, les Assurances du Crédit Mutuel (ACM) ont augmenté récemment leur exposition aux pays émergents. Ce développement, qui se fait au gré des opportunités et sur l’ensemble des zones, est toujours en cours, la partie émergente de l’assureur étant quasi-nulle fin 2011. « Dans le cadre de la gestion actif-passif et en fonction de la part d’actifs gérés en direct, ACM procède à des arbitrages sur l'émergent, à l’aide de trackers et avec l’appui d’une dizaine de gérants » détaille un proche du dossier. Qui ajoute que globalement, « l’allocation stratégique, constituée principalement d’obligataire, n’a pas connu de modification notable en 2012, si ce n’est un renforcement sur les obligations corporate sécurisées ». Précisons par ailleurs que Les Assurances du Crédit Mutuel, qui gèrent 70 milliards d’euros de placements, ont recours à de l’alternatif (hedge funds et private equity) pour une faible part, et n’identifient pas l’ISR comme une classe d’actifs en tant que telle. L'équipe financière est composée de trois gérants sur la poche obligataire, deux gérants et un analyste sur la poche actions, toutes deux gérées en direct, et deux gérants en charge de la diversification sur les pays émergents et les Etats-Unis.

Depuis décembre dernier le conseil de surveillance de l’entreprise PagesJaunes travaille sur la refonte du dispositif PEG (Plan d’Epargne Groupe) - PERCO (Plan d’Epargne Retraite Collectif). Les objectifs fixés sont de simplifier et rationnaliser le dispositif en le sécurisant. L’objectif principal est le maximiser le couple rendement/risque. Concrètement, il a été décidé d’intégrer deux fonds dans le PEG: Amundi protect 90 garanti à 90% et devrait faire mieux que le fonds Arcancia et Carmignac Investissement, fonds action monde plus spéculatif. Le nouveau dispositif construira une échelle de risque/rendement plus régulière. Le PERCO aura un objectif de sécurisation des actifs avec la mise en place du PERCO garanti : mieux sécuriser, diversifier, simplifier et communiquer.

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.

La dernière enquête de la BCE montre encore un resserrement des conditions au troisième trimestre malgré l'amélioration du financement des banques

Pierre-Henri Flamand, ancien cadre de Goldman Sachs, a annoncé la fermeture du fonds qu’il avait créé il y a deux ans seulement

Dans le contexte de l’accord-cadre de coopération signé l’an passé, le groupe coopératif bancaire canadien Desjardins et le Crédit Mutuel-CIC viennent de créer avec d’autres participants un fonds de 50 millions de dollars visant à investir au capital d’entreprises technologiques canadiennes. A terme, le fonds devrait être doté de 100 millions de dollars, selon la présidente de Desjardins, Monique Leroux.

L'Eurogroupe veut plus de garanties avant de statuer le 12 novembre. Le déficit 2013 est révisé en hausse

L'Eurogroupe veut plus de garanties avant de statuer le 12 novembre. Le déficit 2013 est révisé en hausse

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Pessimistes sur l’activité, les banques ont encore durci leurs conditions de prêt aux entreprises au troisième trimestre tandis que la demande s’affaisse.

Selon le journal, de nombreuses sociétés de l’Europe du Sud, notamment en Espagne, au Portugal, et en Italie, qui ont de plus en plus de mal à se financer et souffrent de la baisse de l’activité sur leurs marchés domestiques, sont entrées dans une phase de cession de leurs actifs en Amérique latine, pour envisager des introductions en Bourse de filiales locales ou des levées de fonds dans cette région. «Alors que l’économie va si bien là-bas, le crédit disponible a explosé en Amérique latine» estime Giancarlo Guenzi, directeur financier du groupe de péages autoroutier italien Atlantia SpA, cité par le journal.

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