Source has recruited Mark Vallon as head of sales to institutional clients and private banks in Switzerland and Liechtenstein, Finews reports. Vallon had previously been sales director at BNP Paribas Investment Partners in Zurich.
Jean-Christophe Pernollet will join the private bank Edmond de Rothschild Holding on 3 September, Finews reports. He will be the new chief financial officer (CFO). Pernollet had previously served in the same position at EFG International.
In the year to 31 March 2012, Japanese pension funds entrusted JPY79trn (USD99bn) to asset management firms under mandates, Asian Investor reports, citing statistics from the Japan Securities Investment Advisers Association (JSIAA). This is a decline of 4.54% year on year. BlackRock Japan, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank and Mizuho Trust & Banking lead the field, representing more than 44% of total market share for mandates between them. Overall, 110 asset management firms manage 5,186 mandates in Japan. Asian Investor notes that foreign asset management firms represent 14 of the 25 largest asset managers, including BlackRock, which leads with JPY13.8trn, State Street (5th with JPY4.1trn), JP Morgan Asset Management (10th, with JPY1.5trn), Goldman Sachs Asset Managemnt (11th, JPY1.5trn) and Pimco (14th place, JPY1.4trn).
The French firm Natixis Asset Mangaement has received a sales license for Spain from the CNMV for its credit fund Sélection Obli Juin 2016, managed by a team led by Philippe Berthelot, Funds People reports.
The British firm db ETC index Plc (Deutsche Bank group) has added a new German-registered ETC replicating the db Commodity Momentum EUR Index to trading on the Xetra electronic platform from Deutsche Börse. The index covers the short-term momentum of various commodities in a basket composed from sub-indices of the S&P GSCI index. Like all ETCs from db ETC, the new product has a physical gold collateral.The ETC is the 274th on the specialist Deutsche Börse segment, where monthly trading volumes total about EUR700m.CharacteristicsName: db Commodity Momentum Euro Hedged ETCISIN code: DE000A1N4341TER: 0.45%
In Chicago on Tuesday night, Peregrine Financial Group entered liquidation under chapter 7 of the United States bankruptcy code, amidst a scandal in which regulators are seeking USD215m in client money which has gone missing from the coffers of the business, the Wall Street Journal reports. Earlier, the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) had filed a lawsuit in the Chicago courts against Peregrine Financial and its founder, Russell Wasendorf Sr., for fraud, customer fund violations, and false statements.
Carlos Servera will be leaving Lombard Odier to join the development team at Banque Privée Edmond de Rothschild España, where he will report to CEO Antonio Salgado, Funds People reports. He will be a senior private banker, and will aim to recruit a retail client development team, which will come as an addition to the three people already working in this area in the Madrid office.
Dimensional Fund Advisors has recruited Chen Peng for the newly-created position of CEO for the Asia ex Japan region. He joined the quantitative asset management firm from Morningstar, where he had been president of the global investment management division. Offices will be opened in Hong Kong and Singapore to strengthen the presence of Dimensional Fund Advisors in the region.
According to the website FundWeb, Investec Structured Products has recruited three more members for its sales team: Bruce Kirclady, Bobby Owen and Alex Hale. Kircaldy had previously worked at London & Capital as a sales manager. He will work alongside Colin Brockman. For their part, Owen and Hale will assist the regional teams of intermediaries at Investec responsible for sales, led by Gary Dale. Owen and Hale join the firm from Axa Investment Managers and Aviva Investors, respectively.
Brian Clay, head of sales for intermediary wholesale and sub-advisory business at Janus Capital, joins Pioneer Investments in London as head of UK wholesale business. He reports to Hanratty, head of distribution of Pioneer for the UK and Ireland, Fundweb reports.
Ashcourt Rowan has appointed Chris Williams and Christopher Jeffreys as chief executives for its financial planning and asset management branches, respectively, Money Marketing reports.
Jupiter AM will be merging its multi-asset and fixed income teams, the firm’s website has announced. The asset management firm will place the unit under the leadership of Miles Geldard, who has more than 18 years of experience in management of fixed income and multi-asset strategies. Geldard joined Jupiter in 2010 as manager of the Jupiter Global Convertibles Sicav Strategic Total Return Sicav and the Strategic Reserve Unit Trust. However, John Hamilton, head of fixed income, will be leaving the business where he has spent 21 years, and where, among other duties, he has managed GBP234m in asset in the Corporate Bond Fund since 1998.
According to statistics from Lipper, European funds have posted net redemptions in May totalling EUR3.6bn. May was the first month of net outflows this year, meaning that net subscriptions in January-May totalled EUR108.8bn.Net subscriptions of EUR8.2bn for money market funds helped to conceal the distress for long-term funds, which, without the support of money markets, would have seen outflows of EUR11.8bn. Net inflows to bond funds fell to their lowest level since the beginning of the year, at EUR6.6bn, while equity funds saw outflows of EUR13.1bn.By group, BlackRock has the best results, with net subscriptions of EUR1.8bn in May. However, not counting ETFs, the best inflows were to Allianz/Pimco, with EUR1.6bn.The top three for sales of mutual funds in May were the Pimco GIS Global Investment Grade Credit with EUR830m, AllianceBernstein American Income Portfolio (EUR750m) and Allianz US High Yield fund, with EUR740m.Lipper also notes that subscriptions to absolute return funds in May were at their lowest levels since the beginning of the year, at EUR350m. However, net inflows to this category in the first five months of 2012 totalled EUR5.6bn.
After inflows of USD3.1bn in May, European ETPs attracted USD2.16bn in June, bringing net subscriptions since the beginning of the year to USD7.43bn, on assets of USD305.5bn as of the end of June, according to the BlackRock Investment Institute, while SPDR, from State Street Global Investors (SSgA), estimates assets at USD250bn in its ETFs as of the end of May (USD297bn for ETPs, according to BlackRock).Of USD7.43bn in net inflows, USD5.8bn went to iShares (BlackRock) in first half. Second place for net subscriptions goes to Source, with USD1.7bn.Among the top ten players, four have seen net redemptions in January-June: firstly, db x-trackers (Deutsche Bank), with outflows of USD1.3bn, followed by ComStage (Commerzbank), with redemptions of USD0.9bn, Lyxor Asset Management (Société Générale) with USD0.8bn, and Credit Suisse Asset Management with USD0.1bn.
According to exclusive reports in Handelsblatt, tax inspectors have conducted searches of the homes of German clients of Credit Suisse, who are suspected of tax evasion involving the use of “Bermuda products». The operation is said to involve about 7,000 clients, and the fraud is thought to run to billions of euros.The new information obtained by the tax authorities reportedly resulted in a near-100% success rate for inspectors. The average tax evasion discovered is estimated at EUR500,000, but the sums in question may in some cases be more than EUR12m.The information is thought to have been leaked from the inside at Credit Suisse, but it is not yet known who the German tax authority’s informer was, and if he or she was paid for the information.
The asset management affiliate of Aviva, Aviva Investors, has announced that on 11 July it will be closing the tactical asset allocation fund Absolute TAA (GBP192m), launched in 2006, and the Absolute TAA 5 (EUR14.5m), launched in 2007, due to their excessively low net asset value levels, Investment Europe reports. The funds are managed by Adrian Jarvia and Hassan Johaadien, respectively. The two will remain at the business with other responsibilities.
Richard Titherington, CIO for emerging market equities at JPMorgan Asset Managemnt, has been put in charge of managing the new Global Emerging Markets Income Fund, whose performance objective is 4% per year, Fundweb reports. Titherington will be able to rely on both the resources of the emerging market equities team and the emerging market bond team, led by the Frenchman Pierre-Yves Bareau, as the portfolio may contain up to 20% emerging market debt.
L’organisation non-gouvernementale Transparency International qui a opéré un classement de 105 multinationales en matière de transparence dans la lutte anticorruption attribue aux 24 entreprises du secteur financier un score moyen de 4,2 sur 10, rapporte L’Agefi. HSBC et Allianz parviennent à figurer dans les dix premiers tandis que les banques chinoises China Construction Bank, BoCom et Bank of China sont les championnes de l’opacité, talonnées par l’américain Berkshire Hathaway. La seule banque française couverte par l'étude, BNP Paribas, se classe en 40e position.
Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners (EdRIP) annonce le premier closing et le lancement du 4ème fonds d’investissement de sa gamme BioDiscovery dédiée au financement des sciences de la vie en France et en Europe. Il a atteint son objectif de levée de 125 millions d’euros pour le premier closing dans les délais fixés, et confirme son objectif de levée totale de 200 millions d’euros pour la fin de l’année.
L’encours de prêts aux entreprises a diminué de 0,4% sur un an à fin mai, selon les statistiques de la Banque d’Italie, alors qu’il affichait encore une hausse de 1,3% en glissement annuel le mois précédent. Le signe d’une aggravation du credit crunch dans la Botte. Le crédit aux ménages reste en hausse de 1,4%, contre 1,8% en avril et 5,2% il y a un an. Bonne nouvelle pour les banques, les dépôts continuent à progresser, de 2,1% en mai contre 1,8% en avril.
La production industrielle de la France a baissé de 1,9% en mai, soit plus que prévu par les économistes, après une hausse de 1,4% en avril, selon des données publiées mardi par l’Insee. La production de l’industrie manufacturière a baissé de 1% après une baisse de 0,9% un mois plus tôt. Au cours des trois derniers mois, la production a diminué dans l’industrie manufacturière (-0,2%) et dans l’ensemble de l’industrie (-0,1%).
Muzinich & Co. enregistre près de 2.5 milliards de dollars de collecte nette au 1er semestre, portant le montant de ses encours globaux à 17 milliards fin juin 2012. Les actifs totaux de Muzinich s’établissent à 17 milliards de dollars au 30 juin 2012 dont 50% dans le cadre du Ucits irlandais, les encours pour la zone francophone se portant à 2.5 milliards.
Le chômage va se maintenir à un niveau élevé dans les pays développés au moins jusqu'à la fin 2013, écrit mardi l’OCDE. Le taux de chômage dans les 34 pays de l’OCDE devrait encore être de 7,7% à la fin de l’année, proche de son niveau du mois de mai (7,9%), laissant 48 millions de personnes sans emploi.
L’activité manufacturière britannique a crû de 1,2% en mai, après un repli de 0,8% en avril, a annoncé l’Office national des statistiques (ONS). Les économistes l’attendaient inchangée.La production industrielle, qui comprend la production énergétique et minière, ressort en hausse de 1% après un déclin de 0,4% en avril (consensus -0,2%). Le déficit commercial britannique s’est par ailleurs réduit plus que prévu en mai, à la faveur d’une hausse d’un bond de 8,9% des exportations.
Les professionnels de la gestion montent au créneau pour défendre l’épargne retraite. Alors que le gouvernement a décidé d’augmenter de 8% à 20% le forfait social, l’AFG (Association française de la gestion financière) plaide pour que les dispositifs d’épargne retraite (Perco..) ne soient pas visés par ce relèvement. «Si l’on veut pousser les épargnants vers l’épargne longue, il faut que le forfait social soit modulé», a expliqué Paul-Henri de La Porte du Theil, le président de l’AFG lors d’une conférence de presse.
Le Fonds européen de stabilité financière a lancé mardi matin son émission obligataire à 5 ans, pour laquelle le Crédit Agricole, Morgan Stanley et UniCredit ont été mandatés. Les titres seront placés à une marge de 50 points de base au-dessus des swaps, contre une fourchette initiale de 50-52 pb. Le livre d’ordres, déjà fermé, a atteint environ 6 milliards d’euros.
Le pays, premier producteur mondial de cuivre, a révisé hier en baisse de 0,3 point à 4,7% sa prévision de croissance économique pour 2012. Le gouvernement table désormais sur un prix moyen du cuivre de 3,55 dollars, contre 3,70 dollars précédemment.
Le crédit à la consommation a connu en mai sa plus forte croissance en cinq mois, signe positif pour une économie qui peine à créer de l’emploi. Il a augmenté de 17,12 milliards de dollars, a fait savoir la Réserve fédérale. Le consensus Reuters donnait 8,5 milliards. Le crédit renouvelable, qui inclut les cartes de crédit, a augmenté de 8,01 milliards, une hausse sans précédent depuis novembre 2007.
La contraction de l'économie grecque pourrait atteindre 6,9% cette année au lieu des 5% prévus jusqu'à présent. Cette prévision de la Fondation pour la recherche économique et industrielle (IOBE) pourrait donner de nouveaux arguments au gouvernement grec pour tenter d’obtenir un assouplissement du programme d’ajustement.
De manière à apporter une meilleure clarté sur ses prévisions économiques et la trajectoire probable de sa politique, le président de la Fed de Philadelphie a évoqué la possibilité de publier un rapport trimestriel de politique monétaire. Charles Plosser siège dans un comité spécial créé par Ben Bernanke pour réfléchir aux moyens d’améliorer la communication de la Fed.