La croissance du secteur manufacturier aux Etats-Unis a été plus marquée que prévu en mars, selon l’indice des directeurs d’achats publié lundi par l’Institute for Supply Management (ISM). L’indice manufacturier s’est établi à 53,4 contre 52,4 en février et 54,1 en janvier, alors que les économistes interrogés par Reuters l’anticipaient en hausse plus modeste, à 53,0.

L'économie de la Grèce se contractera de 5% cette année et un actif sur cinq sera au chômage, ce qui compliquera les efforts d’Athènes pour réduire son déficit budgétaire, prédit l’institut d'études économiques le plus réputé du pays dans son bilan trimestriel publié lundi. D’après ce rapport, le taux de chômage devrait quant à lui s’envoler à 20%, alors qu’il avait déjà touché un niveau record en 2011, à 17,3%.

La Banque centrale européenne a déclaré lundi n’avoir procédé à aucun rachat d’obligations d’Etat de la zone euro la semaine dernière, laissant en sommeil son «programme pour les marchés de titres» pour la sixième fois en sept semaines, malgré le regain d’inquiétude suscité par l’Espagne et l’Italie.

L’assureur américain, qui subit la pression de John Paulson en vue d’une scission, va racheter pour 2,43 milliards de dollars de dette et de warrants auprès de l’allemand Allianz. Il prévoit ensuite d’émettre de la dette senior et des obligations junior subordonnées dans le cadre d’une stratégie visant à améliorer sa flexibilité financière.

La Bundesbank a assuré qu’elle continuait d’accepter des obligations souveraines de la zone euro en contrepartie de ses opérations de prêt, démentant des informations de presse selon lesquelles elle aurait arrêté de racheter la dette des pays bénéficiant d’un plan de soutien de l’Union européenne et du Fonds monétaire international.

Le taux de chômage s’est établi à 10,8% de la population active en février, à un plus haut de près de 15 ans contre 10,7% en janvier, selon les données publiées par Eurostat. Les économistes interrogés par Reuters s’attendaient en moyenne à un taux de 10,8%. Globalement, il y avait plus de 17 milions de chômeurs au sein de la zone euro en février, selon Eurostat.

Le taux de chômage corrigé des variables saisonnières s’est élevé à 9,3% en février en Italie, contre 9,1% en janvier, soit son niveau le plus haut depuis la mise en place de cette statistique en 2004. Ce taux, publié lundi par l’Istat, est conforme au consensus.

L’activité dans le secteur manufacturier britannique a progressé à son rythme le plus rapide depuis dix mois en mars grâce au dynamisme des nouvelles commandes, laissant espérer que le pays puisse échapper à la récession au premier trimestre. L’indice des directeurs d’achats (CIPS/Markit) s’est inscrit à 52,1 contre un chiffre révisé en hausse à 51,5 le mois précédent. Les économistes interrogés par Reuters s’attendaient en moyenne à un recul à 50,7 en mars de l’indice PMI manufacturier.

La contraction du secteur manufacturier au sein de la zone euro s’est accélérée en mars confortant les craintes de récession au sein du bloc. L’indice des directeurs d’achats (PMI) Markit a reculé à 47,7 contre 49 en février. L’activité en Allemagne s’est contractée en mars pour la première fois depuis le mois de décembre mais à un rythme moins marqué qu’initialement annoncé. L’indice PMI a reculé à 48,4 en mars contre 50,2 en février. L’indice PMI pour la France s’est établi à 46,7 le mois dernier, en deçà de la première estimation (flash), à 47,6, communiquée le 22 mars.

The bailout package for Greece and the long-term refinancing operation (LTRO) for the European Central Bank have led US money market funds to invest in Germany and France again, Handelsblatt reports: in February, the ten largest money market funds, which have increased their flows by 21% to at least EUR15.1bn for bunds and 18% to at least USD13.9bn for OATs, according to estimates by iMoneyNet.

Almudena Cambas has joined Asesores y Gestores Financieros (A&G), a firm in which the largest shareholder is EFG International, as head of marketing, Funds People has announced. Cambas had since 2007 been director of communications at Banco Gallego.

Joe Linhares, CEO of BlackRock for Europe, on Friday called for European regulations to make a stricter separation between ETF promoters who use derivatives (synthetics) and the providers of these derivatives (swaps), which ESMA did not do in its proposals in late January, Handelsblatt reports. Linhares also claims that the names of ETFs should make it possible to easily determine whether the ETF uses synthetic or physical replication. Linhares is also critical of proposals by ESMA which would impose the same securities lending standards for counterparties and swaps, even though the portfolio and collateral do not have the same objective: in the former case, the aim is to avoid letting the portfolio get too concentrated, while collateral aims to minimise counterparty risks. Lastly, the BlackRock head affirms that it is necessary to label particularly complex ETFs, which is not the case for all products of that type, which use swaps. However, inverse leveraged funds clearly need to be identified as high risk.

As of 30 March, Landesbank Berlin Investment GmbH (LLB-Invest) has suspended subscriptions and redemptions from its real estate fund of funds Stratego Grund (ISIN code: DE000A0ERSF5) a product with EUR300m invested in 15 open-ended real estate funds, which in turn are invested in about 500 real estate properties. The Stratego fund does not have enough liquidity to meet redemption demands. It is also legally unable to use credit, as it is required to maintain a balance of trade between all investors. If this situation of inadequate liquidity persists, LLB-Invest will be required to liquidate the fund, which would take a lot of time, the Berlin-based asset management firm states.

The index provider MSCI has announced the launch of a family of indices, the MSCI Economic Exposure indices, which reflect the performance of businesses with significant exposure to specific regions or countries, Investment Europe reports. MSCI has launched the first five indices, which provide exposure to companies on developed markets which are active in emerging markets.

The chairwoman of Medef, Laurence Parisot, announced on 1 April on Europe 1, without condemning a bonus of EUR16m to the chairman of Publicis, that even before the scandal broke out, she had asked the Medef ethical committee to “work on an enrichment to the Afep medef code, in order to sgrengthen it” and to take into account new business practices. Three subjects were identified as part of this “overhaul,” one of which is “pay scales over the very long term,” such as the pay recently granted to Lévy, for example. The board will also consider “non-competition clauses, which are developing” and will “study the ‘say on pay’ mechanism.”

Natixis AM has made deep changes to its organization, with the aim of “establishing” its expertise in “core” areas, and at the same time, of highlighting its expertise in high-potential satellite areas. All of this is based on the principle the firm holds by: a multi-boutique model with independent management teams, while only support functions are shared. In an interview with Newsmanagers, Voisin discusses the interest which investors may have in the offerings, and the ambitions the asset management firm has.

George Soros lost two lawsuits this week, which will cost him millions of US dollars, Investment News reports. According to Fox Nation, the billionaire and Indian magnate Purnendu Chatterjee have failed in their effort to get a case against them dismissed. Soros is also facing a case against him in the European court of human rights, related to a fine which was levelled against him in 2002 for insider trading, which was later overturned.

Jupiter Fund Management on 30 March announced the appointment of Maarten Slendenbroek as executive director in charge of distribution and strategy. In this newly-created position, Slendenbroek, who will join Jupiter in second half 2012, will report to the group’s CEO, Edward Bonham Carter. He will aim to develop Jupiter’s distribution capacities in the United Kingdom and abroad. Slendenbroek joins the firm from BlackRock, where he spent 18 years, most recently as head of international retail investment.

As of the end of December, the average allocation by British pension funds fell to 45.3% compared with 51.4% as of the end of 2010, and 72.4% ten years previously. It has thus fallen by over one tenth (37%) in one decade. In 2011, the bond allocation did not change much, but it has gained 10.1% over ten years, according to BNY Mellon Asset Servicing. The group also states that the variance in results was large in 2011, with the best pension fund earning 12.4%, while the worst lost 4.2%. On average, British pension funds gained 4.3% last year, for their third consecutive year in positive territory, after an average loss of 13.8% in 2008.

Emerging markets equity funds have seen outflows for the first time since the beginning of the year in the last week of March, but for first quarter overall, they show inflows of USD25.59bn, compared with outflows of USD23.72bn for the first three months of 2011, according to statistics from SPFR Global. In the last week of March, equity funds overall posted net outflows of USD4.42bn, while bond funds posted net subscriptions totalled USD4.35bn. Money market funds finished the week with outflows of USD11.3bn. Since the beginning of the year, bond funds have posted a net inflow of USD103.76bn, compared with USD31.70bn for first quarter 2011. Money market funds have finished the week with net outflows largely equivalent to first quarter 2011, with USD67.16bn, compared with USD68.4bn one year previously.

After one of his worst years ever in 2011, Bill Gross, manager of the Total Return Fund from Pimco, the largest bond fund in the world with USD252bn in assets, has gained 2.88% in the first three months of this year, the Wall Street Journal reports. This puts him ahead of the Barclays Capital Aggregate Bond Index by 2.58%, and in the top 11% of bond managers for the quarter, according to Morningstar. Gross came back thanks to big bets on MBS from Fannie May and Freddie Mac. He has increased his fund’s exposure to these shares from 38% in September 2011 to 52% as of the end of February.

On 29 March, ProShares introduced the ProShares UltraPro Short 20+ ETF, whose acronym is TTT, on NYSE Arca. The fund seeks to replicate the daily performance of the Barclays Capital 20+ Year US Treasury Bond Index, inversely, with leverage of three. The fund charges fees of 0.95%.

TCW has been awarded a mandate by NCB Capital, an asset management firm based in Saudi Arabia. TCW will manage a portfolio of international equities, and will help NCB Capital with international sales of its fund, Mutual Fund Wire reports.

The British asset management firm F&C has recruited Alvin Chua as its head for Asia, with the mission of winning over new institutional clients, and launching new funds and new partnerships, Asian Investor reports. With the arrival of Chua, the Hong Kong office now has 4 members. Chua had previously worked at F&C from June 2008 until May 2009, as head of distribution and development for Asia. Assets under management at F&C total about USD160bn.

One after another, State Street Corporation has announced that it has been awarded two large custody contracts, one for USD80.4bn from the Washington State Investment Board (WSIB), and one for USD32bn from QSuper. For the WSIB, the contract is for daily reporting on investments and compliance, securities lending, securities valuation and settlement. For QSuper, State Street will provider valuation of securities, compliance monitoring and reporting on alternative assets and fiscal and accounting services.

Agicam on 30 March announced that it has awarded a mandate to Caceis for the functions of depository banking, custody and fund administration for all of its business common investment fund (FCPE) products. The agreement covers over 80 FCPEs with EUR800m in assets. From offices in Paris and Marseille, Agicam manages financial assets for complementary retirement retirement planning and insurance schemes from representative entities of the AG2R La Mondiale group. It also manages the range of financial vehicles which makes up the employee savings product range. Overall, Agicam assets under management total about EUR13bn.

About 18 months after its creation, the asset allocation assistance website for IFAs Myflow just before the weekend announced the launch of a new product, the first participative directory of independent financial advisers aimed at retail clients, http://www.leconseilpatrimonial.com/, which will be unveiled on 3-4 April, at the conference of the Chambre des Indépendants du Patrimoine (CIP). The objective is to bring solutions to retail clients seeking advising on their financial investments, to put more than 1,800 independent financial advisers in contact, and to promote advising. “We need to work on relationships. Independent financial advisers are too isolated,” says the CEO of Mythflow, Frédéric Picard, who is hoping to position the platform, which is designed as a “tool for commercial conquest,” between insurers, platforms, asset management firms, IFAs and groups of IFAs.

Barclays has registered the 16 sub-funds of its GlobalAccess multi-manager funds range in France. The management of the products, which cover various asset classes and geographical regions, is outsourced to various asset management firms (one or more firms, depending on the fund). For example, the Emerging Market Equity fund is managed by Aberdeen, Arrow Street, Fidelity, BNY Mellon ARX and East Capital. The US Small & Mid Cap fund has been contracted out to Pyramis Global Advisors, Delaware Investments and Kennedy Capital. “Each manager is selected for their expertise in a particular market. That manager is then “teamed up” with other specialists in complementary styles, in order to diversify the sources of outperformance (“alpha”). Assets are contracted out to the asset managers, who are selected via management mandates, ...” a press statement explains. The range, which has over EUR3bn in assets, is managed by the multi-management team from Wealth & Investment Management, composed of nine professionals, based in London and Paris. The team, led by Jaime Arguello, manages nearly EUR9bn in investments and EUR6.5bn in assets advised in fund selection.

Aviva Investors France has started the year 2012 well, with external inflows of EUR949m as of 15 march. The new comes after “a very trying year in 2011,” the chairman of the board at Aviva Investors France, Jean-François Boulier, admitted on 30 March at a press conference. Over the year 2011 as a whole, net external inflows totalled EUR487m, of which EUR138m went to French clients. Gross external inflows totlaled EUR6.2bn, of which EUR1.2bn were for long-term assets. As of the end of December, assets under management totalled EUR79.7bn, compared with EUR80.7bn as of the end of December 2010. As of the end of the year, bonds represented 73.6% of assets, or EUR58.68bn,, compared with barely 13% for equities (EUR10.26bn) and 13.5% for short-term assets. In 2012, Aviva Investors France is planning to continue its external development, with the emphasis on institutional investors and concentrating its sales efforts on its expertise in bond, real estate and multi-asset class management. Following the recruitment of two credit analysts in 2011, the firm is planning to add to its management teams, setting up Aviva Investors France as the centre of expertise for European equity management at the group. Meanwhile, a programme to unite and improve the operational platforms, initiated in late 2010, is expected to be completed by the end of 2012. After the deployment of a monitoring and control module for market risks last year, Aviva Investors France in early February deployed operational management modules. All of these modules are included in a single platform, which will be used for all Aviva Investors sites. The strategic review initiated by the group, which reduced personnel by 12%, will have a limited impact in France, with only three employees out of about 100 to depart. This is partly because Aviva Investors France has opted for a “gradual increase” in its activities over the past few years, says Boulier.

The legal merger of Clariden Leu AG (“Clariden Leu”) into Credit Suisse AG (“Credit Suisse”) takes effect today, the group has announced in a statement. As a part of the operation, Credit Suisse legally takes control of all active and passive assets, as well as rights and liabilities, of Cariden Leu. The technical integration of all activities will be completed by the end of 2012. Credit Suisse Group AG on 15 November 2011 announced plans to fully integrate its affiliate, Clariden Leu, into Credit Suisse.