p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research has announced the recruitment of two senior SRI and sustainable development analysts, Sarbjit Nahal and Valery Lucas-Leclin. Both join from Société Générale. They will be based in London, and will be repsonsible for development of SRI research worldwide and integration of ESG (environmental, social and governance) criteria into all research products from BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Portuguese management firm ESAF on 13 December listed a Luxembourg-registered ETF on NYSE Euronext Lisbon. The product replicates the NYSE Euronext Iberian index, which tracks shares of the Iberian peninsula, with a limit of 10% for the weight of each component. With the addition of the new fund, NYSE Euronext has 573 listings of 503 different ETF funds. Characteristics Name: ESAF NYSE Euronext Iberian ETF ISIN code: LU0550486814 TEER: 0.45%

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Melissa Lee, who since 2006 has been in charge of development and management of relations with Japanese, Korean and Hong Kong-based institutional clients at Pioneer Global Investments, is joining Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management Hong Kong Ltd as head of institutional clients, EdRAM announced on 13 December.Lee’s mission will be to develop commercial relations throughout Asia, promote EdRAM’s expertise in terms of equities management, convertible bonds and asset allocation, and to distribute all products of the range registered in the region, managed from Paris and Hong Kong.The statement adds that Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management Hong Kong Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management, was granted a license by the Securities and Futures Commission in February 2008 which allows it to manage funds and distribute all local as well as foreign investment vehicles. It now has 18 employees and manages assets of over EUR1.6bn.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Cristina García de Sola Riera, who was previously head of client services, marketing and sales support at BlackRock in Spain, on 1 December joined M&G Investments, whose team in Spain includes two people aside from the director, Ignacio Rodríguez Añino. García de Sola Riera will be in charge of development for M&G in Spain, Portugal, Andorra and Chile.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Swiss UBS group has recruited several specialists as a part of its wealth management development strategy in Asia. UBS has hired three private bankers from Credit Suisse and two from DBS, all of whom will be based in Singapore. Gary Goh, previously of Credit Suisse, joins UBS as executive director and desk head. Yvonne Koh and Loh Swee Sung, both formerly of Credit Suisse, join UBS, the first as director and client advisor, and the second as associate director and client advisor. Tan Yeu Cheng and Wendy Toh, previously of DBS, join UBS as executive director and associate director, respectively.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Goldman Sachs has rejected accusations that its trading practices contributed to the collapse of two Bear Stearns hedge funds in 2007, the Financial Times reports. In documents submitted to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, the bank endeavours to prove that its valuation of MBS held by the fund had a limited impact on their financial health.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Securities and Exchange Commission has notified Danny Bogar, former president of brokerage operations at Stanford International Bank, and several other brokers in recent months that it plans to file civil charges against them as part of the investigation into the fraud orchestrated by Allen Stanford, the Financial Times reports. @font-face { font-family: «Arial"; }@font-face { font-family: «Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: «Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } On 13 December, db x-trackers (Deutsche Bank), whose 160 ETF funds to date have all used synthetic replication, timidly took its first steps into a new era. “In response to demand from clients,” the German management firm has listed its first two physical replication products on the XTF segment of the Xetra platform (Deutsche Börse), both Irish-registered SRI products: db x-trackers STOXX Europe Christian ETF (DR) and db x-trackers Global Fund Supporters ETF (DR).Thorsten Michalik, head of db x-trackers, says that his firm will continue to privilege synthetic replication unreservedly, except in cases where clients explicitly demand a physical replication product. He admits that physical replication may in some cases present fiscal advantages for some types of investors, or be more convenient for subscribers whose status does not allow them to invest in funds which make use of derivatives. These funds will be demarcated with the suffix “DR” for “direct replication.”The Stoxx Europe Christian Index replicates the evolution of shares in companies selected on the basis of Christian criteria from the Stoxx Europe 600 index. This excludes businesses which are active in the areas of pornography, birth control, weapons, and gambling. Respect for these values is overseen by an independent commission composed of investment specialists and experts from Christian Brothers Investment Services Inc. Currently, the index includes 545 shares.The Dow Jones Global Fund 50 index, which is the underlying index for the second fund, replicates the evolution of the 50 largest caps which support the Global Fund, a multilateral institution which finances prevention and treatment of tuberculosis, malaria and HIV.The two ETFs bring the number of funds listed on XTF to 761.Characteristics of the first two “DR” funds from db x-trackersName: db x-trackers STOXX Europe Christian ETF (DR)ISIN code: IE00B3QWFQ10TER: 0.40%Name: db x-trackers Global Fund Supporters ETF (DR)ISIN code: IE00B46F7724TER: 0.25%

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } HFT Investment Management, a Chinese joint venture from BNP Paribas, is planning to launch its first offshore fund in the next three months via its new Hong Kong affiliate, in order to accelerate its international expansion, its CEO announced on 13 December. HFT Investment is 49% owned by BNP Paribas and 51% by Haitong Securities, the third-largest Chiense brokerage firm by capitalisation. HFT Investment is also hoping to launch its second foreign investment fund for Chinese investors in the next month, as part of the Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor (QDII) program, Tian Rencan announced at the Reuters Chinese investment summit. The new fund from HFT Investment is targeted in particular to high net worth retail investors. Investments will be largely focused on equities.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Man Group, which has launched an asset management firm in Italy, will release an Italian-registered fund of hedge funds, which is currently in the license application process, according to Plus 24, the money supplement of Il Sole – 24 Ore. The product will use the firm’s managed accounts platform.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Bank Sarasin announced on 13 December that it has appointed Christian Mosel as head of institutional and wholesale business in Germany. Since the beginning of December, he is in charge of all institutional operations for the German market, based in Frankfurt, the bank says in a statement. Mosel was previously head of institutional clients at HCI in Hamburg.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } US-based asset management firm Oppenheimer and Hyundai Securities from South Korea have signed an memorandum of understanding to create a non-exclusive alliance that would allow them to cooperate both in Korea and in the United States.The partnership project includes several areas of activity, including corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, institutional sales, research, and wealth management.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Agefi reports on the basis of a reliable source that Isabelle Bourcier, former global head of ETFs at Lyxor, who is leaving the Société Générale affiliate, will be joining the future specialist entity from Natixis AM, Ossiam. The French asset management firm, in which the bank owns 51%, is planning to launch its first ETFs in first quarter 2011.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The California pension fund CalPERS on 13 December announced a new asset allocation strategy to better adjust performance to risk. The president of CalPERS, Rob Feckner, says in a statement that the pension fund had not paid enough attention to allocation risks. The new allocation strategy, which does more to take into account market conditions, divides assets into five major categories on the basis of markets and inflation: liquidity (cash, Treasuries which are easily converted into cash in order to reduce deflationary risks); growth (exposure to rising markets, 63%); income (fixed income, for example, in order to provide revenues in falling markets, 16%); real (assets which are less sensitive to inflationary risks, 13%), and lastly, inflation (commodities and inflation-linked securities, 4%). CalPERS has also set fluctuation margins for the farious categories, for example, +/-7% for the “growth” category, and +/-3% for inflation and liquidity. “Allocations will not change hugely, but we will look at the assets differently,” says the president of the CalPERS investment committee, George Diehr.

Legg Mason has announced the appointment of Peter “Pete” H. Nachtwey as chief financial officer and a member of its executive committee. He will report to Mark R. Fetting, chairman and chief executive officer. He joins the firm from The Carlyle Group, where he was also chief financial officer and a member of their operating committee. Pete Nachtwey said, “At the right time, I am also ready to help expand Legg Mason’s investment capabilities through targeted acquisitions.”

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In October EUR16.9bn flowed into equity funds in Europe, according to Lipper FMI. One has to go all the way back to April 2006 to find when the equity total was last exceeded – then EUR22.6bn. Clearly this was still primarily an emerging market story, with over EUR7.5bn moving into emerging equity funds. However, it was interesting to see that European equity funds (including small caps) attracted EUR1.3bn after these products had suffered outflows of EUR12.9bn over the previous nine months, Lipper shows. This month a quarter of equity fund sales can be attributed to ETFs, whereas in April 2006 only EUR520m was attributable to ETFs out of EUR22.6bn. But even without this activity the asset class still attracted more new money than bond funds, which have enjoyed greater attention from European investors in every other month of 2010.Total net sales hit EUR20.3bn in October, although this reaches EUR30.8bn when the impact of money market funds is stripped out. For the year to date, net sales now stand at EUR248.5bn (ex-liquidity), above the level achieved for the whole of 2009.Franklin Templeton retook the crown for the greatest sales this month (EUR3.2bn), although once more the company was very close to Allianz/Pimco (EUR2.9bn). On the equity side, ETF giants Deutsche Bank and BlackRock enjoyed the benefits of these products success. Once ETFs are stripped out, there were three clear winners with net sales of EUR1bn or more — Amundi, JPMorgan and UBS.According to statistics published by the European fund and asset management association(EFAMA), UCITS funds finished the month of October with net inflows of EUR7bn, after outflows of EUR12bn in September. Long-term UCITS-compliant funds (excluding money markets) posted net inflows of EUR26bn, compared with only EUR10bn in September. This development is largely due to net inflows of EUR13bn to equities funds, which investors avoided in the previous months. Since the beginning of the year, long-term UCITS funds posted cumulative net inflows of EUR203bn, compared with EUR137bn in the first ten months of 2009. Money market funds in October saw further outflows, of nearly EUR20bn, bringing outflows in the first ten months of the year to EUR126.8bn.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Skandia Investment Group (SIG) on 13 December announced that it has awarded a GBP90m mandate to TewentyFour Asset Management for its Skandia Sterling Bond Fund. The fund was previously managed by Goldman Sachs Asset Management. SIG estimates that the prospects of an increase in interest rates suggests that most corporate bond funds are running high interest rate risks; hence the idea of launching a corporate bond fund with a much more limited rate risk profile. TwentyFour relies on a strategy based on the short term, while the Goldman Sachs mandate was much more focused on the long term.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Via its Luxembourg Sicav, Franklin Templeton is now offering retail investors a version of its Templeton Global Aggregate Bond Fund, a strategy which has been available to institutional investors since 1997. The fund, whose currency of reference is the US dollar, was launched on 29 October.The fund is managed in London by John Beck and David Zahn, vice presidents of the international fixed income group at Franklin Templeton. The managers are permitted to hold up to 10% non-investment grade debt in the portfolio.CharacteristicsNames: Templeton Global Aggregate Bond Fund A(acc)USD and Templeton Global Aggregate Bond Fund A(Mdis)USDISIN codes: LU0543369267 and LU0543369770Front-end fee: 3% maximumManagement commission: 0.95%Minimal subscription: USD5,000Assets as of 10 December 2010: USD10.7m

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Raphaelle Moysan, who helped to set up the European fixed income derivatives activity at National Australia Bank, is joining Aviva Investors as client portfolio manager for fixed income, and will report to Anne-Sophie Girault, head of client portfolio management, Fonds Professionell reports.Moysan will be based in London, and will be in charge of recruiting new clients and relations with investment advisers, in close collaboration with the global fixed income management team and the business development team.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Richard Philbin has left his position at head of Architas Multi-Manager, the multi-management arm of Axa Wealth, in order to pursue other interests. His departure comes at a time when Axa Wealth is seeking to increase its presence in Europe, working with other Axa entities. Caspar Rock will take over from Philbin at the beginning of next year, as chief investment officer.Since its creation slightly over two years ago, Architas has seen its assets under management increase to nearly GBP4bn.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Thz Barclays UK Retirement Fund has launched its own asset management firm, Oak Pensions Asset Management, Financial Times Fund Management reports. The objective is to accelerate decision-making for investments in uncertain times.

p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Funds People reports that SGK Fondsleitung (Liechtenstein) AG, the management affiliate of Clariden Leu (Credit Suisse group), has announced the reopening of the Clariden Leu (Lie) Cat Bond fund to new investors, as many cat bond issues have been announced since the beginning of second half. Subscriptions were suspended in June due to a lack of new bond issues.

The world’s hedge fund industry employs an estimated 300,000 people. That’s according to the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA) – the global hedge fund industry association. It’s the first time the number of jobs created by the sector globally has been assessed. The totals include both those employed directly within the hedge fund sector and those jobs generated by the industry among service providers like administrators, lawyers and accountants. The ratio of direct jobs to indirect jobs was found by AIMA to be generally 1:2, so the number of direct jobs within the industry globally is 100,000 with a further 200,000 indirect jobs generated by the industry.The regional breakdown of the figures is 240,000 in North America, 50,000 in Europe and 10,000 in Asia-Pacific.

Out of 29 of the largest asset managers operating in the UK, five do not have any publicly available policy explaining their approach to incorporating environmental, social and governance issues into investment activities, according to a new research by FairPensions. Of those asset managers who do have such a policy, nine provide detail with respect to governance issues but only a general overview on how environmental and social issues are incorporated. However, the number of asset managers who make public a comprehensive policy on how they incorporate environmental and social issues, in addition to governance issues, has increased from three in 2008 to ten in 2010. FairPensions reveals a gulf between the best and worst performers in the UK’s asset management industry on voting and engagement disclosure. Top performers include F&C Asset Management (scoring 95%), Baillie Gifford (90%) and Newton Investment Management (88%); with Morgan Stanley, Wellington Management and INVESCO Perpetual as the bottom three. Firms making a significant positive breakthrough in performance compared to previous years include Henderson, Threadneedle, Capital and State Street.Although not included within the ranking criteria, the report includes an analysis of the compliance statements issued in response to the Stewardship Code. While the Code has attracted significant industry support - with 24 of the 29 asset managers surveyed publishing a compliance statement - the research finds that the quality of these statements is highly variable. For example, the quality of disclosure on vitally important conflicts of interest policies ranges from cursory one-line statements to - in a minority of cases (fewer than 10) - detailed, stand-alone policy documents listing all relevant conflicts and the arrangements in place to manage these effectively.A further notable feature of the compliance statements reviewed is the absence of reference to management of environmental and social risks, even in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill which should have removed all doubt as to the financial relevance of environmental and social issues.

Les statistiques de Morningstar montrent que le fonds de Bill Gross, le Pimco Total Return qui pèse quelque 256 milliards de dollars, a subi une décollecte de 1,9 milliard de dollars en novembre, rapporte Mutual Fund Wire. C’est la première fois en deux ans que le fonds subit un tel revers. Le Pimco Total Return a perdu 1,5% le mois dernier, son plus mauvais résultat depuis septembre 2008. Le Barclays Capital US Aggregate Bond Index a pour sa part reculé de 0,57% durant la même période.

BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research a annoncé le recrutement deux analystes senior ISR et développement durable, Sarbjit Nahal et Valery Lucas-Leclin.Tous deux issus de la Société Générale, ils seront basés à Londres et vont être responsables du développement de la recherche ISR dans le monde et de l’intégration des critères ESG (environnement, social et gouvernance) dans tous les produits de recherche de BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research.

Selon l’Agefi, Isabelle Bourcier, l’ex-responsable mondiale des ETF de Lyxor, qui quitte la filiale de la Société Générale, va de bonne source rejoindre la future entité spécialisée de Natixis AM, Ossiam. Cette société de gestion française dont la banque détient 51 %, prévoit de lancer ses premiers ETF au cours du premier trimestre 2011.

Selon la Tribune, Axa a prévu de reconduire l’an prochain son offre de bonus dopant le rendement annuel du contrat en euros, et présente cette proposition comme une arme marketing susceptible de lui faire gagner des parts de marché. En 2010, les principaux contrats grand public de l’assureur anciens et nouveaux (Arpèges, Odyssiel, Privilège, Figures Libres, Expantiel et Optial) seront rémunérés par un taux de base unique de 3,30 %, rappelle le quotidien. Mais ce rendement sera augmenté d’un «Bonus Euro+" si l'épargne sur le contrat est au minimum de 50.000 euros et si elle est investie au minimum à 25 % en unités de compte (parts de Sicav ou de fonds boursiers). Si l’une des deux conditions est remplie, le bonus est de 0,15 % ce qui signifie que le rendement s'élève à 3,45 %. Si les deux conditions sont respectées, le bonus atteint alors 0,70 %, et le rendement global grimpe à 4 %.

Le gestionnaire portugais ESAF a fait coter le 13 décembre un ETF de droit luxembourgeois sur NYSE Euronext Lisbonne. Ce produit réplique l’indice de NYSE Euronext Iberian qui suit les valeurs de la péninsule ibérique, avec un plafonnement à 10 % du poids des composantes.Avec ce nouveau fonds, NYSE Euronext cote 573 fois 503 ETF différents.Caractéristiques :Dénomination : ESAF NYSE Euronext Iberian ETFCode Isin : LU0550486814Taux de frais sur encours : 0,45 %