T. Rowe Price vient de recruter Robert Higginbotham en qualité de responsable des services aux institutionnels à l’international, rapporte Investment Europe. Il aura en charge le développement de l’ensemble des services aux investisseurs institutionnels en dehors des Etats-Unis.Il sera basé à Londres et prendra ses fonctions en octobre. Il travaillait précédemment chez Fidelity Worldwide Investment où il exerçait les fonctions de chief executive pour l’Europe, le Moyen Orient et l’Afrique.

Lors de la présentation de ses résultats 2011, l’UMR (Union Mutualiste Retraite) a fait état d’une collecte de 208 millions d’euros et de 7,6 milliards d’euros d’actifs gérés, soit 11% de l'épargne retraite individuelle volontaire en France. Par ailleurs, le rendement net comptable des complémentaires retraite mutualiste par points, individuelle et collective Corem et Corem Co sur l’exercice 2011 a été respectivement de 0,49% et de 5,76 %.

L’Agefi rapporte que BNP Paribas a mis sur pied un plan à cinq ans destiné à développer ses services de gestion de fortune aux Etats-Unis. Le groupe a rapproché ses activités de trust, de courtage et de banque privée au sein de sa filiale Bank of the West. La nouvelle succursale gère environ 10 milliards de dollars d’actifs, dont plus des deux tiers sur des comptes de courtage, précise le quotidien.

Le conseil d’administration de DekaBank a donné son feu vert à l’élargissement des activités de l’établissement. Déjà gestionnaire central des caisses d’épargne allemandes, Deka proposera aussi des certificats aux clients particuliers de ces caisses, l’objectif final étant de faire de Deka le prestataire central des caisses d’épargne en matière de valeurs mobilières, a annoncé Oliver Behrens, président du directoire par intérim. Deka utilisera aussi dans ce nouveau domaine les compétences de la LandesBank Berlin.Parallèlement, Deka a confirmé les rumeurs selon lesquelles l’état-major de Deka Investments, la filiale spécialiste de la gestion active de fonds offerts au public et de fonds institutionnels, va être remaniée. Viktor Moftakhar deviendra co-directeur général le 1er octobre, aux côtés de Thomas Neiße, tandis que Frank Hagenstein, directeur de la gestion obligataire, sera nommé CIO et coiffera ainsi également les gestions actions et multi classes d’actifs.

Michele Faissola, qui dirige le pôle gestions d’actifs et de fortune (AWM) de la Deutsche Bank, a indiqué mercredi que la filiale DWS veut augmenter 15-20 % le nombre de ses fonds les mieux notés. D’autre part, le programme d’économies annoncé la veille par la banque (stratégie unique, informatique et distribution mutualisées) doit générer une baisse des coûts de 700 millions d’euros pour AWM, rapporte Die Welt.La croissance viendra principalement du développement de la clientèle très haut de gamme (les clients avec une épargne financière de plus de 70 millions d’euros), notamment en Asie, et des ETF. La filiale db x-trackers, détachée de la banque d’investissement et logée désormais dans le pôle AWM, ne se cantonnera plus à l’Europe, où elle gère 35 milliards d’euros, mais commercialisera ses produits dans le monde entier, le marché américain devant contribuer significativement à un gonflement de 50 % en volume sous trois ans.

August has been a third consecutive month of gains for hedge funds, which were supported by equity hedging and event-driven strategies. The HFRI hedge fund index gained 0.8% in July, and has gained a further 3.5% since the beginning of this year. Equity hedging strategies gained 1.2%, while event-driven gained 1.1%, and relative value strategies, 0.9%. However, macro strategies lost 0.16% overall, with declines of 0.9% for the diversified/CTA index, but a gain of 1% for discretionary macro strategies. The fund of fund index also maintained its positive orientation in August, with gains of 0.64%.

Michele Faissola, head of the asset and wealth management (AWM) unit at Deutsche Bank, on Wednesday announced that its affiliate DWS is seeking to increase the number of its funds which receive top ratings by 15-20%. A cost savings programme announced by the bank on Tuesday (single strategy, shared IT and distribution) is expected to generate cost reductions of EUR700m for AWM, Die Welt reports.Growth will come primarily through development of the ultra-high net worth client segment (clients with financial savings of over EUR70m), particularly in Asia, and ETFs. Its affiliate db x-trackers, which has been detached from the investment bank and is now part of the AWM unit, will no longer be limited to Europe, where it has EUR35bn in assets under management, but will release its products worldwide. The US market will significantly contribute to a 50% increase in volume in three years.

The board of directors at DekaBank on Wednesday has approved an extension of the firm’s operations. Deka, which is already the central asset management firm for the German savings banks, will now also offer certificates to retail clients of these banks, with the ultimate objective of making Deka the central asset management firm for the savings banks in the whole securities spectrum, says Oliver Behrens, interim chairman of the board. Deka will also rely on the expertise of the Landesbank Berlin in this area.Meanwhile, Deka has confirmed rumours that the management at Deka Investments, the active open-ended fund and institutional fud asset management specialist affiliate, will be reshuffled. Viktor Moftakhar will become co-CEO on 1 October, alongside Thomas Neiße, while Frank Hagenstein, head of fixed income management, will be appointed CIO, and will also be responsible for equity and multi-asset class management.

The data provider S&P Capital IQ on 12 September announced that it has signed an agreement with Dun & Bradstreet, to considerably extend its range of financial data on non-public companies in Europe and North America. In particular, it is extending coverage of key markets such as Germany, the Scandinavian countries, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Market actors will be offered standardized, traceable information worldwide, as complements to credit analyst, risk management and merger and acquisition activities. “This is a significant step forward for the market. S&P Capital IQ will offer an extended range of quality information on non-public businesses, which is often difficult to obtain. The new data will be subjected to our cutting-edge validation and reprocessing process,” explains Silvina Aldeco-Martinez, head of Development for Europe at S&P Capital IQ. The new data will be included in flagship solutions from S&P Capital IQ, including desktop platforms and data feeds.

The hedge fund industry redeemed USD7.4 billion (0.4% of assets) in July, building on outflows of USD4.2 billion in June, according to BarclayHedge and TrimTabs. Based on data from 3,119 funds, the TrimTabs/BarclayHedge Hedge Fund Flow Report estimated that industry assets were USD1.87 trillion in July, down 23.2% from their June 2008 peak of USD2.4 trillion.The industry experienced outflows in seven of the 12 months from August 2011 to July 2012, losing a net USD29.3 billion. From August 2010 to July 2011, the industry gained USD96.2 billion with inflows in 10 out of 12 months.

Skandia’s activities in the Old Mutual group will be merged into a new entity known as Old Mutual Wealth, according to a statement from Skandia published on 12 September.Skandia UK, Skandia International and Skandia’s activities in Europe, excepting Scandinavian countries, will addopt the Old Mutual Wealth brand name in 24 months, which will prevent any confusion with Skandia Liv, which has acquired the Scandinavian activities of Old Mutual which formed a part of Skandia.The new entity Old Mutual Wealth (formerly Old Mutual Wealth Management) will be managed by Paul Feeney as CEO, with the assistance of two heads, Peter Mann for the Britih market, and Steven Levin for international markets.The current legal strucrure Skandia Link, based in Spain, will be merged with the new Luxembourg entity Skandia Lifa SA on 1 October 2012. As a result, Skandia France which is an arm of hte Spanish entity, becomes an arm of the Luxembourg entity. The organisation and the current functioning of Skandia in France will remain unchanged.

In the first seven months of the year, German open-ended security funds have posted net inflows of EUR5.58bn. However, several asset management firms have seen net redemptions, including the Deka group (EUR3.14bn) and Deutsche Bank (EUR4.52bn). However, Allianz (with Pimco) has managed to attract EUR13.08bn, and Union Investment has posted net inflows of EUR2.11bn, the German BVI association of asset management firms reports.ETF promoters are not doing well either, with the exception of ETFlab (Deka), which has attracted EUR325m in seven months. BlackRock, with its iShares ETFs, has seen net outflows of EUR927m, while net redemptions totalled EUR797m for ComStage (Commerzbank). db x-trackers (Deutsche Bank) has posted redemptions of EUR1.73bn.

In January-July, German funds and mandates posted net inflows almost three times higher than in the first seven months of 2011, at EUR44.36bn, compared with EUR15.17bn. Of this total, institutional funds (Spezialfonds) attracted EUR36.44bn, while open-ended funds attracted EUR7.99bn (of which EUR2.41bn were for real estate funds), and mandates underwent net outflows of EUR70.5m.As of 31 July, assets totalled EUR1.926trn, of which EUR925bn were in Spezialfonds, EUR701bn in open-ended funds (including EUR82.9bn in real estate funds), and EUR300bn in mandates.The German BVI association of asset management firms states that 57% of assets in institutional funds are managed by external managers, compared with 37% at the end of 2005.

BBVA Asset Management has registered the bond fund BBVA Bonos Internacional Flexible, which will be managed by BBVA Bancomer Gestión, in Spain. This is the first time that the Spanish asset management firm has outsourced the management of a fund to its Mexican affiliate, Funds People says.The portfolio will be invested directly in equities, or in shares in mutual funds which will in turn invest 80% in global debt and 20% in Latin American bonds. This allocation in particular will be managed by Bancomer Gestión (EUR28.7bn in assets, 73 funds), including Bancomer’s Renta Fija Latam fund, which is already registered for sale in Luxembourg.The new product will charge a direct management commission of 1%, and a commission of 15% over the benchmark index. Minimal subscription is EUR600. Indirect commissions are 2% for management and 17% on outperformance.

On 7 September, the CNMV registered a new guaranteed bond fund from Bankinter, the Bankinter Renta Fija Ambar Garantizado which promises a redemption at maturity (23 May 2016) of 115.45% of the initial net asset value as of 9 October 2012. That corresponds to an effective annual return of 4.05% over less than four years. The portfolio will be primarily composed of Spanish government debt, acquired a few weeks ago.CharacteristicsName: Bankinter Renta Fija Ambar GarantizadoISIN code: ES0130356001Front-end fee: 5% from 9 October, or assets of EUR30mManagement commission: 0.3% until 9 October0.9% after 9 OctoberPenalty for early withdrawal: 3%

Bond funds enjoyed inflows of EUR21.7bn in July, the largest one month total in more than ten years, according to Lipper. This takes net sales for the asset class in 2012 over the EUR100bn mark (EUR107bn).Underpinning the broad move into bonds was renewed appetite for high yield and emerging market funds. The former saw record-breaking inflows of EUR7.1bn, while inflows for the latter reached EUR3.5bn (of which local currency funds accounted for EUR1.1bn). The emerging market theme was also reflected on the equity side, with global emerging markets easily the most popular equity sector (EUR550m) this month.While equity funds suffered redemptions for the fourth consecutive month, this total did improve in July, albeit to -EUR4.2bn. As a result long-term fund sales (ie excluding money market funds) reached a 4-month high of EUR14.9bn in Europe. Significant volumes moving out of money market funds (-EUR12.5bn) again looked to have helped long-term funds and suggest the most concerted move out of this asset class since the first half of 2010.The best-selling groups this month were PIMCO (EUR3.2bn), AXA (EUR2bn), BlackRock (EUR1.2bn), Pictet (EUR960m) and Carmignac (EUR910m).

S&P Dow Jones Indices on 12 September announced the launch of a new family of equity indices within the S&P GIVI range. The new product is the S&P GIVI Global Growth Markets tilt Index, which combines growth and value characteristics with a macro-economic factor. It is composed of the base S&P GIVI index and S&P GIVI Weighted indices, which provide lower volatility.Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM), for its part, has launched a range of UCITS-compliant funds based on the GIVI concept, which replicates the performance of the various GIVI sub-indices.The three products registered for sale in Germany are:- Goldman Sachs GIVI Growth & Emerging Markets Equity Portfolio- Goldman Sachs GIVI Europe Equity Portfolio- Goldman Sachs GIVI Global Equity – Growth Markets Tilt Portfolio

The European Commission on 12 September laid out its proposals to create a a single supervisory mechanism (SSM) for banks in the euro area. As a part of the new single mechanism, the European Central Bank will be ultimately responsible for specific surveillance activities concerning financial stability of all euro zone banks. The national supervisory authorities will continue to play an important role in ongoing surveillance of banks, as well as developing and applying ECB decisions. The Commission has also proposed that the European banking authority (EBA) should create a Single Supervisory Handbook to preserve the integrity of the single market and to ensure coherent bank surveillance in the 27 EU countries. The Commission calls on the Council and European Parliament to adopt the proposed regulations by the end of 2012, together with the other three components of an integrated «banking union» – the single rulebook in the form of capital requirements, harmonized deposit protection schemes, and a single European recovery and resolution framework.

The European asset management association (EFAMA) claims that a consultation launched in July this year on the proposed UCITS VI directive, which will treat eligibility of asset classes for UCITS fund status, may endanger the UCITS brand, Citywire reports.“We are very closely studying the question of eligibility of our assets. We estimate that UCITS funds are attractive insofar as funds which carry the UCITS label follow the same rules, and this characteristic should me maintained,” the president of EFAMA, Claude Kremer, said at a press conference in London.Comments by the professional association, which claims that the consultation may result in a reduction or increase in UCITS-branded funds, also responds to concerns on the part of some foreign investors, such as the Hong Kong asset managers’ association, which had expressed a desire to see UCITS funds become more transparent and less complex.

db x-trackers (Deutsche Bank) on 12 September listed three new Luxembourg-registered ETFs on the XTF segment of the Xetra electronic platform (Deutsche Börse). All three are products which replicate MTS indices of Italian bonds denominated in euros.With these three additions, the number of ETFs listed in Frankfurt now comes to 1,003, down from 1,004 on 22 August.CharacteristicsName: db x-trackers II MTS Ex-Bank of Italy BTP ETFISIN code: LU0613540185Benchmark index: MTS Italy BTP - Ex-Bank of Italy IndexTER: 0.20%Name: db x-trackers II MTS Ex-Bank of Italy BOT ETFISIN code: LU0613540268Benchmark index: MTS Italy BOT – Ex-Bank of Italy IndexTER: 0.15%Name: db x-trackers II MTS Ex-Bank of Italy Aggregate ETFISIN code: LU0613540698Benchmark index: MTS Italy Aggregate - Ex-Bank of Italy IndexTER: 0.20%

From 1 October, commissions on the money market fund Metzler Geldmarkt (EUR226m) will be reduced, the Börsen-Zeitung reports. Depository banking commission is reduced to 0.025% from 0.05%, and the management commission to 0.05%, from 0.10%.

The Swiss asset management firm Stoxx Limited on 12 September announced the launch of Stoxx Global Maximum Dividend 40, STOXX Asia?Pacific Maximum Dividend 40, STOXX North America Maximum Dividend 40 and STOXX Japan Maximum Dividend 40 indices in its Maximum Dividend Strategy range. The indices may be used as a basis for actively-managed funds, ETFs, or other investable products. The new indices replicate a hypothetical portfolio which aims to optimise dividend yields from the STOXX Global 1800, STOXX AsiaPacific 600, STOXX North America 600 and STOXX Japan 600 indices, by selecting 40 businesses from these indices which have paid the highest dividends historically. To be eligible, shares must belong to Maximum Dividend indices, pay a dividend in the upcoming quarter, have a listed free-float of at least EUR1bn, and an average trading volume of at least EUR4m per day in the three months preceding selection.The composition of the index will be updated on a quarterly basis, following the last trading days in January, April, July and October.

Pierre Pinel, head of institutional management at Paribas Asset Management in Switzerland, was on 1 September appointed as chief investment officer for balaned mandates and asset allocation funds at Mirabaud’s asset management division. He will also hold the positition of head strategist for private management.Pinel replaces Edouard Crespin-Billet, who is going independent in Geneva.

UBS has decided to discontinue sales of 12 ETN products based on S&P 500 Futures indices, which will mature on 6 September 2014. Lack of interest in the products led the Swiss bank to take the decision, Finews reports.

Après son départ d’OFI AM au printemps dernier, Thierry Callault si l’on se réfère aux indications apportées sur le réseau social professionnel Linked-in, occupe désormais la fonction de chairman au sein de la société Tewenty First Capital. xxxxxxxxx

Société Générale Securities Services Italy (SGSS S.p.A.) on 12 September announced that it has been awarded a mandate by Mantex Sicav as a local transfer agent to provide settlement agency and mutual fund relationship management services for investors in Italy. SGSS Italy has been selected by Mantex Sicav “for its recognized international expertise as a transfer agent, its ability to provide services adapted to the specific needs of its clients, and a large network of placement agents.” Mantex Sicav is an open-ended collective investment fund registered in Luxembourg. The self-managed umbrella fund is on the official list of collective investment organisms, and was founded at the initiative of Nextam Partners S.G.R. S.p.A., an Italian independent asset management firm.

The financial ratings agency Fitch Rating on 12 September announced that it has confirmed its Asset Manager rating of M2 for Sycomore Asset Management. The rating reflects the discipline of a proven stock-picking process, the solidity of the risk management framework, and the effectiveness of the operational platform, which is adapted to the types of assets traded. The rating also takes into account the development of the firm in the past several years in terms of human resources, development of activities and associated support functions (risks and controls). The primary challenge for Sycomore remains continuation of its international development and the development of its product range of genuinely diversifying assets, in order to generate further assets and further reduce its exposure to euro zone equity markets.

Henderson Global Investors will develop a bond team in the United States, to create a global high yield fund, Citywire Global reports. The objective is to release the fund by the end of the year.

L’Agefi reports that BNP Paribas has set up a five-year pan to develop wealth management services in the United States. The group is uniting its trust, brokerage and private banking activities at its unit Bank of the West. The new subsidiary manages about USD10bn in assets, more than two thirds of which is in brokerage accounts, the newspaper reports.

In a recent study for institutional investors (”Volatility Management”), Russell Investments presents a portfolio of strategies to reduce multiple risk, which may represent a useful complement to diversification and sensitivity reduction strategies. According to the study, this combination of strategies may offer a cumulative reduction in volatility of 30% to 40%. This result may have been achieved over the past past two decades without reducing profits, the study finds. Russell explains that these results are the product of a readjustment of the equity allocation in an institutional portfolio, in order to be able to manage volatility rather than tracking error. “Investment specialists have developed an unhealthy obsession with tracking error, even though managing tracking error is not the same as managing risk,” says Michael Thomas, chief investment officer in the Americas Institutional unit at Russell Investments. Thomas claims that the use of tracking error in a falling market can clearly not be considered “effective risk management.” The study lays out three strategies to be attractive to institutionals. The fisrt, “defensive equity,” selects shares which have lower-than-average risk characteristics. Contrary to the intuitions of most investors, these securities historically have earned better returns than the market overall. In the ten years from 9 July 2002 to 9 July 2012, the Russell Global Defensive index outperformed the Russell Global Dynamic index over several periods: one year (16.1% compared with 8.1%), three years (12.2% compared with 6.7%), five years (2.4% compared with -3.1%), and ten years (9.2% compared with 7.9%). Russell then points to risk reduction strategies based on options, which tend to exploit systematic imbalances between supply and demand for some types of protection against declines. Lastly, the third strategy, asset allocation which is adjusted according to volatility, adapts exposure to equities depending on risks related to falling or rising markets. “All of these risk management strategies aim to reduce volatility, but they do so with an effort to exploit various market effects. As a result, their return curves are not exactly correlated, and in combination, they do a good job of reducing volatility,” says Thomas.