Dans une note publiée mercredi, rapporte L’Agefi, BNP Paribas a notamment fait le point sur son financement et précisé qu’en dollars américains, elle avait un excès de liquidités à court terme qu’elle est obligée de déposer auprès de la Fed.En outre, dans un contexte de baisse des montants et des maturités offertes par les fonds monétaires américains, ses sources de financement ont été diversifiées (sociétés, institutionnels, Banques centrales, clients de banque privée et fonds monétaires) dans quatre zones géographiques (Etats-Unis, Asie Pacifique, Moyen-Orient et Europe de l’Ouest) avec des maturités allongées depuis le début de l’année. La banque assure également que ses liquidités à court terme en euros sont abondantes. D’après les données de Barclays, le financement de court terme représente près de 60% du financement total de l'établissement, qui note par ailleurs que la réduction du marché interbancaire est due à des changements structurels en raison des règles de Bâle 3 et non à une panique soudaine.

La société de gestion Overlord France Finance qui gère deux fonds d’investissement - Overlord Premium et Overlord Flex PE - a annoncé, mercredi 7 septembre, s’être associée avec CNP Assurances pour la commercialisation, auprès d’une clientèle privée, du contrat d’assurance vie multisupport, CNP Trésor Performance, accessible à partir de 75 000 euros.Caractéristiques :Nom du fonds en euros : Performance Euros–CNP Trésor Performance (3,70 % en 2010)Frais sur versement : 4%Frais de gestion sur le fonds en euros : 0.8 %Frais de gestion sur les unités de compte : 0.8%Frais d’arbitrages : 0.65 %, 1 arbitrage gratuit / anCommission de rachat : Néant

State Street Global Advisors a lancé auprès des investisseurs italiens, sur sa plate-forme SPDR ETF, 14 nouveaux ETF - dont 7 actions et 7 obligataires - cotés sur Deutsche Börse et le London Stock Exchange, rapporte Bluerating. Parmi ces produits figurent notamment un ETF actions qui réplique le Msci All Country World Index et un ETF obligataire offrant un accès à de la dette émergente en devise locale.

Amundi SGR, la société de gestion italienne d’Amundi, vient de nommer Simone Facchinato en tant que directeur des investissements (chief investment officer – CIO) et responsable de l’équipe investissements de Milan. Il remplace Roberto Dopudi, qui devient deputy head international client au sein de l’équipe de gestion Solutions d’Investissements Institutionnels auprès de la maison mère, Amundi SA, à Paris. Simone Facchinato avait rejoint CAAM SGR, joint venture entre Crédit Agricole et Banca Intesa, en 2006 en tant que responsable Financial Engineering. Depuis décembre 2007, il était responsable marketing de Crédit Agricole Asset Management SGR, puis d’Amundi SGR. En Italie, Amundi gère un encours de 25 milliards d’euros à fin mars.

Trois anciens de Thornburg Investment Management constituent la troisième équipe de gestion active actions que Pimco (groupe Allianz) recrute depuis le lancement en avril 2010 de sa plate-forme actions. Il s’agit en l’occurrence de Brad Kinkelaar et de Cliff Remily, qui deviennent executive vice presidents et global equity portfolio managers, tandis que Matt Burdett est nommé vice president & research analyst. Tous seront basés au siège de Pimco à Newport Beach.Par la même occasion, le gestionnaire américain a annoncé le 7 septembre la nomination de Neel kashkari comme Head of Global Equities. Managing director, il avait rejoint Pimco en décembre 2009 et assurait les fonctions de Head of New Investment Initiatives.Les stratégies actives dans le domaine des actions, chez Pimco, pèsent plus de 4 milliards de dollars d’encours. Ce pôle emploie notamment cinq gérants de portefeuille seniors, neuf analystes recherche, six traders et six product managers.

BlackRock annonce que Mark Taborsky a été nommé managing director et gérant senior au sein de sa division Multi-asset client solutions (BMACS), en particulier pour l’activité de solutions fiduciaires destinée aux institutionnels. L’intéressé était auparavant executive vice-président chez Pimco. Au 30 juin, la division BMACS de BlackRock gérait 126 milliards de dollars, dont 50 milliards en mandats fiduciaires.

iShares, la branche ETF de BlackRock, a un nouveau responsable mondial (global head), Mark Wiedman. Il remplace Mike Latham, qui devient président (chairman) de l’entité, un poste nouvellement créé, selon des informations relayées par la presse anglo-saxonne et confirmées par BlackRock. Mike Latham restera également membre du comité opérationnel de BlackRock et co-responsable du bureau de San-Francisco. Mark Wiedman s’occupait préalablement de la stratégie au sein de BlackRock. Ce changement s’explique, d’après la presse anglo-saxonne qui cite une note interne, par le désir de Mike Latham de diminuer ses responsabilités quotidiennes, et notamment le nombre de voyages, au sein d’iShares pour avoir un rôle plus stratégique.

David Darnell, le nouveau COO de Bank of America (BofA), a indiqué aux dirigeants du pôle gestion de fortune, qui coiffe Merrill Lynch, qu’il a l’intention de préserver telles quelles les structures de rémunération des conseillers financiers, et de maintenir le «senior management» de cette activité en poste, rapporte The Wall Street Journal.En d’autres termes, le nouveau bras droit du CEO Brian Moynihan a annoncé lors de plusieurs «conference calls» que les conseillers continueront de percevoir un pourcentage sur les commissions qu’ils génèrent et qu’ils seront toujours récompensés s’ils atteignent certains objectifs en matière d’encours.

Les membres du réseau international d’investisseurs institutionnels (ICGN, International Corporate Govenance Network) vont débattre la semaine prochaine, à l’occasion de leur conférence annuelle qui se tiendra à Paris à compter du 12 septembre prochain, d’une série de recommandations sur la gestion du risque, les frais de gestion, les structures de rémunération, l’intégration des critères ESG (environnementaux, sociaux et de gouvernance), les droits de vote et les problèmes de commission qui pourraient être à l’avenir incluses dans les mandats d’investissement.Si ces recommandations sont ratifiées, elles pourraient ainsi inciter les membres du réseau, qui pèse quelque 12.000 milliards de dollars, notamment les fonds de pension, à intégrer une partie au moins des dispositions retenues dans leurs contrats d’investissement. Sur la question de la gestion du risque, les recommandations incitent les gérants à communiquer sur le détail de leurs risques en portefeuille et sur leur gestion. En réponse à la crise financière, l’ICGN suggère que les gérants devraient également mettre en œuvre une politique de «responsabilité systémique» avec des informations sur l’impact des risques sur la stabilité des marchés ainsi sur certaines classes d’actifs. Sur le chapitre de l’intégration des critères ESG, l’ICGN fait valoir qu’un meilleur agencement des programmes de rémunération, la mise en œuvre de normes d’intégrité dans le comportement du personnel ou/et l’information financière peuvent influencer à long terme la performance des actifs. L’ICGN souligne que ces préconisations viennent compléter les recommandations existantes à l’instar des Principes pour l’investissement responsable élaborés sous l'égide des Nations Unies (UN-PRI) ou encore d’autres dispositions spécifiques à certaines classes d’actifs (capital investissement, hedge funds).

L’encours total des 300 plus grands fonds de pension du monde a progressé l’an dernier de 11% pour atteindre 12.500 milliards de dollars, en hausse de quelque 1.200 milliards de dollars par rapport à 2009, selon une étude Pensions & Investments et de Towers Watson. L’encours s'était accru de 8% l’année précédente. Le classement montre toutefois que malgré la progression des actifs totaux enregistrée l’an dernier, la croissance annualisée de l’ensemble des fonds a reculé à un peu plus de 6 % sur les cinq dernières années.Par région, c’est l’Europe qui affiche le taux de croissance sur 5 ans le plus élevé à 11 %, comparé à l’Asie (9 %) et à l’Amérique du Nord (1 %), tandis que le taux de croissance combiné des régions Amérique latine et Afrique a atteint 15 % sur la même période, bien que partant de plus bas. L’étude montre également que les 300 plus grands fonds de pension de la planète représentent désormais plus de 47 % de l’encours des fonds de pension à travers le monde.L’étude indique que les fonds à prestations définies (DB) représentent 70 % des actifs. Les actifs à DB ont progressé de 8 % en 2010, contre 13 % pour les fonds à cotisations déterminées (DC) et 21 % pour les fonds de prévoyance.Selon Thierry de la Noue, directeur du département Investissement de Towers Watson Paris, «les plus grands fonds de pension du monde ont donné à la composition de leurs actifs un biais plus défensif au cours des cinq dernières années pour faire face à la volatilité persistante et à l’imprévisibilité de l’environnement et de la croissance, les 20 plus grands fonds détenant désormais actions et obligations à égalité (40 % environ de chaque) et le reste en placements alternatifs et en liquidités. Parallèlement, les fonds d’Asie-Pacifique, et singulièrement ceux du Japon, ont conservé de fortes expositions aux obligations conformément aux convictions d’investissements qui prévalent dans ces régions et qui expliquent l’allocation 50 % des actifs des 20 plus grands fonds.»L’étude montre également qu’avec 34 %, les États-Unis restent le pays dont l’encours des fonds de pension est le plus important, bien que ce chiffre recule régulièrement depuis cinq ans. L’étude relève que 54 nouveaux fonds ont fait leur entrée au classement au cours des cinq années écoulées, venus essentiellement d’Australie (11), du Danemark (5), du Mexique (4), d’Allemagne (4) et de Finlande (4).L'étude peut consultée à l’adresse suivante : http://www.towerswatson.com/united-kingdom/research/5351

The former head of the German and international sales support team at F&C Asset Management, Manuela Fröhlich, has concluded the sabbatical which she bagan in November 2010. On 1 October, she will join the new London office of the Luxembourg-based Alceda Fund Management (EUR4.5bn in assets under administration) as managing director, head of global fund sales. In this role, she will be in charge of development for an international network of third-party distributors for open-ended funds from Alceda.

The Austrian developer IC Projektentwicklung has sold the BIZ 2 office building (18,500 square metres) in Vienna to the German firm Deka Immobilien GmbH for an undisclosed sum. The property will be added to the portfolio of the open-ended fund WestInvest ImmoValue, which is reserved for institutional investors.As of the end of July, Deka Immobilien Investment and its sister company WestInvest managed a atotal of EUR22bn in open-ended real estate funds.

Metzler Asset Management has announced that at the end of August it received a sales license from BaFin (Germany) and the FMA (Austria) for two Irish-registered funds specialised in equities, with concentrated portfolios of 30 positions. The products have no benchmark index, and are unconstrained in matter of portfolio construction.The first of the two, Metzler European Concentrated Growth (IE00B5T6MG33), invests primarily in high-quality large caps whose growth potential has been underestimated by the market, and which have limited exposure to the economic cycle.The second, Metzler European Small and Micro Cap (IE00B5M17487), focuses in European small and midcaps, mostly companies with capitalisation sizes of under EUR500m, with a maximum of EUR1bn.In both cases, the front-end fee and management commission are set at 5% and 1.8%, respectively.

Last month, with the increased market volatility, the European markets of NYSE Euronext posted an average of 14,658 on-book trades of ETFs, 90.7% more than in August 2010. As a result, the number of trades in the first eight months of 2011 are now up 10.6% compared with January-August last year. The previous all-time record for trading activity, set in May 2010, with 295,888 trades, was beaten by far, with a total of 337,862 trades.The average trading volume per transaction in August came out to EUR618.2m, 108% higher than in August 2010. For January-August, the total comes to EUR14.2bn, while the previous record in January 2008 was EUR14.8bn.As of 31 August, total assets in all ETFs listed in European markets of NYSE Euronext totalled EUR126bn, 6.8% more than one year previously.On 31 August, these markets had 572 ETF funds, listed 670 times. Since the beginning of 2011, 131 ETFs have been launched, of which 103 were primary listings, and 28 were secondary listings.The average spread for all ETFs listed in August was 28.5 basis points.

Frankfurt-based Schroders Investment Management is continuing to recruit in Germany. It has recently announced the recruitment of Bianca Eleonore Käs, educated as an economist, as a sales assistant in charge of wholesale clients (funds of funds and wealth managers) in Germany and Austria. She will report to Alexander Prawitz, director of distribution. Käs previously worked for a financial adviser.The recruitment follows those of Daniela Euchner as sales assistant for sales of open-ended funds in Germany (see Newsmanagers of 1 August), who joins the firm from Hartford Life; Alexander Wiss, as director of sales for retail, intermediaries, and regional banks in central Germany (see Newsmanagers of 8 July), and Tania Engel (ex American Express), who joined the firm as COO (see Newsmanagers of 5 July).

Helmut Knepel, the longstanding manager of the German ratings agency Feri EuroRating Services (MLP group), is leaving his position as chairman of the management board, to become chairman of the supervisory board. He will be replaced by Tobias Schmidt, who had already been a member of the management board since 2008, and who joined Feri more than 12 years ago.As has been planned for a long time, Eberhard Weiß, a very longstanding shareholder in Feri, will be leaving his role as a board member, but will remain as an adviser to the business. He will be replaced by Matthias Klöpper, who is also a management board member at the parent company, Feri Finance AG.Feri EuroRating Services (50 employees, about 1,000 clients), which has recently received a European ratings agency license from BaFin (see Newsmanagers of 9 May), is enlarging its board of directors (Geschäftsführung). Wolfgang Kubatzki, director of the real estate unit, will be joined on the board by Axel D. Angermann (economic research unit), and Daniel Burgmann (operations unit).

Carlos Rivero, who for two years has been head of the international fund platform at Ahorro Corporación, has been recruited by Inversis Bank Institutional, Funds People reports.Rivero joins Gustavo Montoya on the team in charge of the investment fund distribution platform, which is a part of Inversis Bank Institutional, a unit led by Salvador Martín.

The Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek announced earlier this week in a document submitted to the Hong Kong stock exchange that it has acquired about one third of Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s stake in China Construction Bank, valued at about USD2.8bn. The deal brings Temasek’s stake in the Chinese bank to 8.1%, up from 6.27% previously.

Total assets in the 300 largest pension funds in the world last year rose by 11%, to a total of USD12.5trn, up by about USD1.2trn since 2009, according to a study by Pensions & Investments and Towers Watson. Assets increased by 8% the previous year. The rankings show, however, that despite an increase in total assets last year, annualised growth for funds as a whole were down to slightly over 6% over the past five years.By region, Europe has the highest five-year growth rate, at 11%, compared with Asia at 9%, and North America at 1%, while the combined growth rate for Latin America and Africa was 15% in the same period, although assets started from a lower level. The study also finds that the 3,000 largest pension funds in the world now represent over 47% of assets in pension funds worldwide. The survey shows that defined-benefit funds (DB) represent 70% of assets. DB assets rose by 8% in 2010, compared with 13% for defined-contribution funds (DC), and 21% for retirement planning funds.According to Thierry de la Noue, head of the Investment department at Towers Watson Paris, “the largest pension funds in the world have given the composition of their assets a more defensive bias in the past five years, in order to contront persistent volatility, and an unpredictable growth environment, so that the 20 largest funds now hold equal proportions of equities and bonds (40% each), while the remainder is in alternative investments and cash. Meanwhile, funds in Asia-Pacific, and particularly Japan, have retained high exposures to bonds, in keeping with the prevailing investment convictions in these regions, which explain an allocation of 50% of assets to bonds from the largest funds.”The study also finds that at 34%, the United States remains the country with the largest volume of pension fund assets, although that percentage has been falling steadily for five years. The study finds that 54 new funds joined the rankings in the past five years, from Australia (11), Denmark (5), Mexico (4), Germany (4), and Finland (4). The study may be found at the following address: http://www.towerswatson.com/united-kingdom/research/5351

According to the weekly newsletter from Deutsche Bank, ETPs (ETFs, ETCs and ETNs) in Asia last week posted net subscriptions of USD4bn, the highest level of the year. Inflows were particularly strong in Japan, South Korea and China, with demand focused on equity products, primarily those investing in the most developed countries of the continent.

Amundi SGR, the Italian asset management firm of Amundi, has appointed Simone Facchinato as chief investment officer (CIO) and head of the investment team in Milan. He replaces Roberto Dopudi, who becomes deputy head international client in the Institutional Investment Solutions management team at the firm’s parent company, Amundi SA, in Paris. Facchinato joined CAAM SGR, a joint venture of Crédit Agricole and Banca Intesa, in 2006, as head of Financial Engineering. Since December 2007, he has served as head of marketing at Crédit Agricole Asset Management SGR, and then at Amundi SGR. In Italy, Amundi managed assets of EUR25bn as of the end of March.

HSBC has launched a physical replication ETF dedicated to emerging markets on the London Stock Exchange (LSE).The HSBC MSCI Emerging Markets ETF replicates the performance of the MSCI Emerging Markets index, which includes the largest caps in emerging markets including Brazil, Russia, China and India.

J.P. Morgan Asset management announced on Wednesday, 7 September that it has launched, and registered in Sweden, the JPMorgan Funds – Global Mining Fund1, which invests in mining sector equities.The global portfolio of the fund, which is composed of about 50 to 100 positions on businesses of various cap sizes, is invested in companies of the mining sector or other associated areas of activity worldwide. The fund is focusing on mining companies that produce various metals, steel, gold, precious metals, minerals, and aluminum, and which have low production costs, promising plans, and excellent management.CharacteristicsISIN code A (acc) EUR: LU0362757584Date of inception: 08/02/2011Benchmark index: HSBC Global Mining Index (Total Return Net)Net assets in the fund: EUR2.9bn

Assets under management at Swisscanto throughout the group were down by CHF3.4bn to CHF54.7bn as of the end of its fiscal year on 30 June, of which a decline of CHF3.9bn were due to the strength of the Swiss franc alone, Swisscanto announced in a statement released on 7 September.Following withdrawals of capital from money market funds due to interest rates, and to reorganisations at institutional clients, the group has posted a net outflow of CHF1.9bn, the statement says.According to market statistics from SFA/Lipper, which is using a new database, Swisscanto has retained fourth place in the period under review, after UBS, Credit Suisse and Pictet, with a market share of 7.3%.

The Netherlands and London-based alternative management boutique Aethra Asset Management, founded in 2008 by two former ABN Amro managers, has had to close down its funds and return the money to investors, as inflows were not at expected levels, Financial News reports. The funds affected include a long-only European equity fund, an absolute return fund, and a global macro hedge fund.

The Alliance Trust group has recruited Jürgen Lanzer as a portfolio manager in its international equities team, led by Ilario Di Bon. He will begin in his new role in early October.Lanzer, who will be based in London, was previously at Schroders, where he had been since 2007. He had previously worked at UBS, with his new boss, Di Bon.

State Street Global Advisors is offering 14 new ETFs, including 7 equity and 7 bond funds, listed on Deutsche Börse and the London Stock Exchange, to Italian investors, via its SPDR ETF platform, Bluerating reports. The products include an equity ETF which replicates the MSCI All Country World Index, and a bond ETF which offers access to emerging market debt in local currencies.

BlackRock has announced that Mark Taborsky has been appointed as managing director and senior manager in the multi-asset client solutions (BMACS) division, focusing on fiduciary solutions aimed at institutionals. Taborsky was previously executive vice president at Pimco. As of 30 June, the BMACS division of BlackRock managed USD126bn in assets, of which USD50bn were in fiduciary mandates.

András Szálkai joined at the beginning of August the Emerging Markets Equities team at Raiffeisen Capital Management. He will be applying his experience primarily to cover Central Europe on Angelika Millendorfer’s team. András Szálkai was a fund manager at Vontobel Asset Management in Vienna for several years, and then changed to the Portfolio Management Team at East Capital in Stockholm and Vienna in 2006.

iShares, the ETF arm of BlackRock, has a new global head, Mark Wiedman. He replaces Mike Latham, who becomes chairman of the entity, a newly-created position, according to reports in the US and UK press which have been confirmed by BlackRock.Latham will remain a member of the operational committee at BlackRock and co-head of its San Francisco office.Wiedman was previously head of strategy at BlackRock.According to the UK and US press, citing an internal memo, the change is a result of a desire on the part of Latham to reduce his day-to-day responsibilities, and the frequency with which he travels, in order to take on a more strategic role at iShares.