Neil Hounslow, head of prime brokerage services for Asia-Pacific at Credit Suisse, and two members of his team have left the firm, Asian Investor reports.Hounslow is replaced by Dereke Seeto, previously based in Sydney, where he had been director of prime brokerage services for Australia. Hounslow may join JP Morgan, Asian Investor states.

Dario Carfizzi has left Eurizon Capital, the asset management firm of the Intesa Sanpaolo group, where he had been a fund selector and manager, to join Groupama Asset Management Sgr in Italy, Bluerating reports. He will be Institutional Business Development Executive for the Italian market.

Fidelity China, the investment vehicle managed by Anthony Bolton, bought back its shares for the first time on Thursday, from shareholders pulling out of the firm due to its weak performance, the Financial Times reports. The investment trust spent more than GBP380,000 to raise its own stake in two separate share repurchases during the day, at a discount of 5% to the firm’s underlying value.

BNY Mellon Asset Management has announced that it is repositioning its range of UK equity funds managed by Newton, one of the asset management affiliates of the group. The objective is to make the product range more visible and comprehensible for investors, a statement says. The Newton UK Equity and Newton Growth Fund will merge, to create a product to be known as the Newton Income Fund, which will have GBP1.3bn in assets. It will be managed by Richard Wilmot and Ben Russon.

Mining companies, which are confronted with significant environmental, social and governance issues due to their commodity extraction activities, dislose little information about sustainable development, a research by Novethic and be-linked, covering 23 businesses in the industry with a total turnover of over EUR386bn, has found. More than half of the companies in the study had not made voluntary commitments concerning issues in the sector. Only ten companies out of 23 had joined the ITIE, an initiative which encourages signatory companies to publish information about the value of the minerals they mine, and encourages signatory governments to disclose information about how much money they receive. Six businesses out of 23 had a public policy of adhering to the Voluntary Principles to protect human rights, which aim to limit violations of human rights by security companies and national armies employed by the mining companies to protect their sites and operations. Among the few good practices, the study notes that nine businesses in the study had formed collaborative partnerships with NGOs. But in general, those relationships had involved some conflict. “The major mining groups are often challenged, locally and internationally, by many organisations who point to their poor environmental policies, and the facts that they ferret away riches and fail to respect the rights of local populations,” say the authors of the research. Pressure on the companies from NGOs may eventually drag down their financial results. The “media firepower” which they have at their disposal is also likely to damage the reputation of businesses, but may also represent an operational risk for them, as sites may get picketed. In addition to this, there are legal and financial risks due to legal actions against businesses. “At a time when mining companies are posting exceptional economic perforamnce, we wanted to raise the awareness of responsible investors about risks in this sector,” said Anne-Catherine Husson-Traore, CEO of Novethic.

The coverage rate for US pension funds in the month of August fell 5.6 percentage points, to 78%, according to monthly statistics from BNY Mellon Asset Management. The coverage rate, which is affected both by falling assets and by an increase in liabilities for the second consecutive month, is at its lowest level since September 2010.

BNY Mellon Asset Management on 8 September in Paris announced the launch of the BNY Absolute Return Equity fund, the first fund of its range to be managed by Insight Investment Management Limited (Insight Investment), one of its 18 management affiliates. The fund is a sub-fund of the BNY Mellon Global Funds plc Sicav, domiciled in Dublin and compliant with UCITS III. The new fund will aim to deliver positive absolute returns in all market conditions, over a 12-month period, investing both in long and short positions on the pan-European market, using paired-trade strategies. With the help of a specialised research process led by a team of highly-qualified professionals, the fund aims to identify valuation anomalies and to profit from those opportunities with the use of carefully developed investment positions, while undesired potential risk is hedged for. Anne-Laure Frischlander, CEO of BNY Mellon AM France, says that “the current period of major economic uncertainty and volatility on all asset classes demands that we rethink risk, and seek sources of revenue that are less directional and offer lower levels of correlation. The demonstrated experience of Insight in managing market risk and earning alpha in the past 5 years with its Absolute Insight UK Equity Market Neutral fund reassures us about the opportunities that such a product now represents for sophisticated investors who are increasingly demanding high-performance solutions in all market conditions.” The investment process for the fund is based on the long/short strategy that the equities team has been applying for the Absolute Insight UK Equity Market Neutral fund since May 2005. The fund will also be able to adopt larger positions and directional positions on the market, in order to seize opportunities for growth. In addition to dynamic management of net and gross exposure and daily liquidity, the managers will also use stop-loss strategies for each position in order to limit risk of losses. Though the fund has no geographical constraints, the management team will focus initially on Europe, and particularly the UK.

Neuberger Berman is launching two international equities funds, the Global Equity Fund (acronyms NGQAX, NGQCX, NGQIX) and the Global Thematic Opportunities Fund (NGHAX, NGHCX, NGHIX), as complements to the Global Allocation Fund, launched in June. The first of these funds, manage dby Benjamin Segal and Saurin Shah, invests primarily in large and midcaps in developed and emerging markets, in shares in companies likely to generate sustainable and high profits, but which are trading below their intrinsic value. The team also seeks to control volatility. The Global Thematic Opportunities Fund uses a strategy which has been available to institutional investors and high net worth private investors since 2003, with an unconstrained approach. The objective for Tony Gleason, Alexandra Pomeroy, Richard Levine and William Hunter is to identify significant and undervalued themes and trends on the basis of research by Neuberger Berman, in order to select equities in companies likely to profit from those themes. As of the end of June, Neuberger Berman managed USD198bn, of which USD96bn were in equities, USD85bn in bonds, and USD18bn in alternative assets.

Advantage Plus, le hedge fund que gère John Paulson, accuse depuis le début de cette année une perte de 34 %, en grande partie à cause d’un mois d’août «noir» où il a chuté de 15 %, contre 1,1 % pour la moyenne du secteur, rapporte Cinco Días. Le fonds a aussi été pénalisé par la chute de 44 % du cours de Bank of America, même si John Paulson avait anticipé les problèmes et réduit de moitié sa position en mars à 60,4 millions de titres.

Selon des proches du dossier, le capital-investisseur Blackstone aurait payé au total environ 220 millions d’euros pour acheter les 6.800 logements sociaux et les 73 magasins du groupe immobilier Level One en faillite, rapporte la Börsen-Zeitung. La plupart de ces actifs sont situés à Berlin. Blackstone apporte bien moins que la moitié de la somme en fonds propres, l’opération étant principalement financée par Corealcredit Bank et SEB.

Net inflows to open-ended funds and dedicated funds in July totalled EUR6.6bn, according to statistics from the German financial management association (BVI).In open-ended funds, which attracted a net total of EUR3.9bn, investors concentrated on traditional asset classes. Equity funds posted a net inflow of EUR4.1bn. Bond funds attracted EUR1.1bn, while open-ended real estate funds posted subscriptions totalling EUR200m. However, diversified funds saw an outflow of EUR200m.BVI observes in a statement that the new classification of money market funds which came into use on 1 July has brought more than two thirds of the funds previously classified as money market funds into the bond fund category. As of the end of July, assets in money market funds totalled EUR11.9bn, compared with EUR39bn the previous month, while assets in bond funds rose to EUR183.6bn, from EUR154.1bn previously.As of the end of July, assets in open-ended funds totalled over EUR697bn, of which EUR235bn were in equity funds, and EUR184bn in bond funds. Diversified funds represent 17% (EUR119bn) of the total, while open-ended real estate funds represent 12%, with about EUR85bn.Assets in dedicated, institutional, funds totalled EUR848bn as of the end of July.

La banque helvétique Credit Suisse étudierait, selon La Tribune, qui cite la presse suisse, la possibilité de retirer son activité de banque privée des États-Unis. Elle doit en effet y faire face à la pression des autorités américaines, décidées à lutter contre l'évasion fiscale.

Bloomberg reports that the wealth management division of UBS in Zurich has recruited seven specialists from Turkey, including four advisers and three assistants, who previously worked at Credit Suisse. They will report to Beat Frey, head of the Turkey team.

Kames Capital (formerly Aegon Asset Management) is to launch an absolute return fund, which will be managed by Stephen Snowden and Colin Finlayson, Investment Week reports. It is the first product to be offered since the change of names. The Kames Absolute Return Bond Fund, which will invest in the entire curve, will be launched by the end of the month, and will represent the first addition to the Kames product range since the arrival of Stephen Snowden at the firm a few months ago (see Newsmanagers of 7 April 2011).

The time when managers could impose commission increases on funds has come to an end. At a time when costs are rising, asset managers are now having to accept reductions in their income. According to a study by Cerulli Associates (“European Fund Fee Analysis,” August 2011), the rise of passive management, regulatory changes, and recurrent criticism of fee levels are requiring active managers to change their positions on commissions and management fees. In order to remain competitive, reduced commissions appear to be inevitable, Cerulli estimates. The power to dictate prices remains the privilege of the best managers, and as in the luxuries sector, those who can offer something more than their rivals also have the pricing power, Cerulli observes. Less well-performing actors, who do not have good distribution networks, or who don’t have the best track records, will realise that it is increasingly difficult to justify high commissions in comparison with beta rivals, explains Yoon Ng, a senior analyst at Cerulli in London. However, the active management model is far from outmoded. Passive funds have managed to outperform active funds in only two asset classes out of five: diversified funds and commodities. Active funds performed better over three years in equities, alternative assets and bonds, even with administrative and management fees taken into account.In order to prove their superiority, active managers have often offered emerging markets equities funds or absolute return funds whose average fees total 2% and 1.6%, respectively; these are currently the best-selling funds.Ultimately, a vast majority of managers have ultimately moved to diversify their model and to offer both active and passive strategies. Among the elite management firms in terms of assets under management, only one firm is not yet offering passive strategies.Active managers with no passive funds in their product range have recently been launching low-cost active funds. Cerulli finds that this trend is not new, and that a recent study undertaken in partnership with Ignites Europe found that half of managers surveyed offered funds with a total TER of less than 1%, and that 60% of managers said they were planning to launch low-cost funds. Cerulli says growth in the low-cost actively-managed fund sector will be driven not only be active managers, but also by tracker funds, providers of ETFs, and fund of fund assemblers.

In the midst of uncertainty about outlooks for global economic growth, short bets on the markets are booming. Hedge funds and other major investors are making more bets on a drop in the Standard & Poor’s 500 (S&P 500) than they have for four year, according to statistics released by Bloomberg and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The figures for 30 August show that futures contracts on the S&P 500 betting that the index will fall show a net surplus of 107,913 contracts, a level not seen since September 2007, when there was a surplus of 127,474 contracts. Hedge fund managers may have various motives, as long/short hedge funds may be hedgeing long positions on some shares, while a growing number of macro funds are estimating that the S&P 500 will head downward.

The 2011 annual report from the association dedicated to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UN-PRI) has found an increasing level fo investor engagement with responsible investment.In the year to the end of August 2011, the report counted 209 new signatories to the PRI, bringing the total number of signatories to 900 companies, with assets of about USD30trn under management.The 2011 report finds that 94% of institutional investors and 93% of asset managers had an established responsible investment policy in the past twelve months. The previous year, the totals were 94% and 87%.Responsible investment is also globalising. The percentage of signatories with an established responsible investment policy increased from 84% to 96% in Latin America, largely due to progress in Brazil, and from 71% to 81% in Asia.

The B2B distributor max.xs, an affiliate of the publicly-traded financial group cash.life AG, has recruited four people for its client assistance deparment, serving investors and its product partners, the asset managers First Private Investment Management, Gamax Management, Kleinwort Benson Investors, Rothschild & Cie Gestion and Veritas Investment Trust, and the broker Wölbern Invest KG.Thomas Dinges (ex FPM) and Thomas Gils (ex Franklin Templeton) have been recruited as senior sales managers, while Sybille Schrempp (ex Meta Communication, formerly of Threadneedle) joins client service. In October, Alexandre Flechsig (ex Silk Invest) will join the marketing team.The new recruits will report to Rainer Ottemann, Managing Director and Head of Distribution, and Oliver Roll, Managing Director and Head of Fund Selection & Institutional Business.

Now that the German savings banks are the sole proprietors of DekaBank (EUR96.75bn in assets in open-ended retail funds, over EUR20bn in real estate funds, and EUR50.8bn in institutional funds as of the end of July), the command structure for the central asset management firm for the savings bank network is set to evolve. Since Walter Groll’s term as head of capital market operations was not renewed in June (see Newsmanagers of 8 April), the board will now be composed of only five members. Development of derivative transactions was clearly not a priority for the savings banks, who also were loath to forgive Groll for tax-optimistation deals to the profit of certain clients, as procedure had not been respected in these cases, and they cost the firm more than EUR60m in profits in 2010.Oliver Behrens, in charge of securities asset management, will now be responsible for trading activities, and thus all capital market products from the group. Matthias Danne, CFO and head of the asset management/real estate division, takes charge of all credit activities. Hans-Jürgen Gutenberger, who had been in charge of retail distribution, is now also head of treasury.The responsibilities of Franz S. Waas, chairman of the board, and Friedrich Oelrich, chief risk officer, will remain unchanged.

Ignis Advisors, a multi-manager business unit established in November 2010 by Ignis AM, has recruited Aoifinn Devitt, principal and founder of Clontarf Capital, as head of client strategies. She was previouslya specialist consultant at Cambridge Associates in London and Boston, and at Goldman Sachs. Aoifinn Devitt will be joined by two of her associates at Clontarf Capital, Javier Herranz and Cian O’Sullivan,who will further strengthen the investment team. She will be working closely with Claude Chene, Ignis Asset Management’s recently appointed global head of distribution, to bring Ignis Advisors’ capabilities to a wider client base.Ignis Advisors has also hired a chief operating officer. Mark Long, who held roles as senior vice president operational due diligence, European general counsel and head of corporate development at FRM, has joined with responsibility for operational due diligence, product development and operations. Andreas Schroeder, formerly of ABP, has joined as head of quant analytics, responsible for risk modelling and quantitative asset allocation.

On 1 November, Frank Pörschke, who until 31 August had been chairman of the management board at Eurohypo, will join the Jones Lang LaSalle Germany group as international director. He will then become CEO from 1 January 2012, replacing Andreas Quint, who has directed the German operations of Jones Lang LaSalle for the past three years, and who has been promoted to head of the pan-European corporate finance unit, a position in which he will shuttle between London and Frankfurt.

Une taxe européenne sur les transactions financières est en cours de finalisation et sera présentée début octobre au plus tard, a expliqué le commissaire européen à la Fiscalité, Aldirgas Semeta. Ses équipes ont planché cet été sur une formule permettant d'éviter une délocalisation des transactions dans d’autres centres financiers. Le commissaire rejette l’argument voulant que les banques ne sont pas en situation de s’acquitter d’une telle taxe.

Le conseil d’administration a décidé de révoquer Jean-Michel Bonnichon de son mandat de directeur général en raison d’un conflit l’opposant à ABC participation et gestion, administrateur et actionnaire de référence d’ABC arbitrage. Il a nommé Dominique Ceolin, président directeur général de la société ABC arbitrage.

86 % des conseillers portent un regard confiant sur la profession, avec un montant moyen de collecte brute qui retrouve son niveau de 2008

L'institution a changé hier de rhétorique, évoquant les risques pour la croissance en zone euro

Elle pourrait abaisser rapidement son taux directeur. Mais une intervention sur le marché des changes ne peut pas être exclue

Les effets de la crise boursière de cet été n'ont pas pu être intégrés aux prévisions de l'institution

Barack Obama a annoncé un programme de relance de 447 milliards de dollars, aidé par la Fed qui envisage des mesures d’assouplissement monétaire

Le conseil des ministres des Finances renâcle à réguler de peur de subir la défiance des investisseurs

Le quotidien assure que le courtier actions britannique Evolution Group pourrait annoncer dès aujourd’hui son rachat par l’anglo-sud –africain Investec, pour plus de 230 millions de livres (264 millions d’euros), à raison d’une livre par titre. L’acquéreur pourrait vouloir scinder l’activité de gestion de fortune.