Funds
Currently, there are 101 Approved Investment Managers licensed in the BVI, based on figures published by the Islands' financial regulator, the BVI Financial Services Commission (as of 30 September 2015).
Factor in that the BVI now has two new fund products (the BVI Incubator Fund and BVI Approved Fund) and these are positive times.
"It's exciting to be able to provide something new to clients. It shows that the jurisdiction is working to support fund managers in different ways," says Mara Spencer (pictured), Managing Director of ACE Fund Services, an independent BVI fund administrator. "The Approved and Incubator funds had long
Deloitte has launched Prisma, which is designed to help investment managers, banks and insurance firms to navigate complex global marketing regulation and tax rules. As a managed service, Prisma delivers reports for multiple regulatory and investor requirements.
Mark Ward, head of investment management at Deloitte UK, says: “A recent paper from the World Economic Forum recognised the challenge of regulatory cost pressures on asset managers. It also noted that global regulation has meant significant resource has been used to ensure compliance processes are up to date and properly monitored at any given time.
“Investment managers are subject to
CTAs are currently holding a net short position in commodities and developed market equities, and have increased their net long exposure to fixed income, in what signifies a clear, deflationary position. This defensive posture would suggest that managers are expecting further downward pressure on inflation expectations (to do with many factors, the most important being China’s slow down) and is a sign that CTAs think that further deflationary risks lie ahead.
This is a somewhat sombre, downbeat outlook for early 2016. The opening weeks of the year have been some of the worst on record for global stock markets. Over
Franklin Square Capital Partners, a manager of business development companies (BDCs), has originated a unitranche term loan for PSKW, LLC (PSKW), a developer and marketer of co-pay assistance (CPA) programs for pharmaceutical drugs.
The financing supported the acquisition of PSKW by Genstar Capital (Genstar), a San Francisco, CA-based private equity investment firm focused on actively investing in high-quality companies for more than 20 years. In addition, the financing also supported PSKW's add-on acquisition of PDR Network, LLC, a provider of behaviour-based prescription management programs.
The financing was provided by FS Investment Corporation (NYSE: FSIC), FS Investment Corporation II (FSIC
Omni Partners has held the final close of its second secured lending fund, Omni Secured Lending Fund II (OSL II), with additional commitments of USD34 million, leaving total vintage II commitments at USD240 million.
OSL II provides its underlying investors with exposure to short-term loans secured against UK residential and commercial properties. Since inception in April 2015 the fund has delivered a net IRR of 11.1 per cent
OSL II enforces strict lending requirements: all loans, which vary in duration from 6 to 18 months, are asset backed (thus helping to minimise losses) and have a maximum Loan-to-Value (LTV)
Fixed-income electronic trading platform MarketAxess saw record global Emerging Market (EM) trading volumes of USD146 billion during 2015, a 30 per cent increase in trading volumes compared to the previous year.
MarketAxess further expanded its group of global liquidity providers for EM trading during 2015, and added to its breadth of currencies available on the platform. Local market debt trading was the fastest growing product on MarketAxess during 2015, up 208 per cent compared to 2014.
Kevin McPherson, Global Head of Sales at MarketAxess, says: "We're in a new phase of uncertainty for emerging market fixed-income. Trends in volatility
Recognos Financial, provider of AI based data management solutions for the financial services industry, has launched Recognos ETI, a new data extraction platform designed to unlock greater context and insight from otherwise untapped business data.
Utilising the latest advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), natural language processing (NLP), semantic and other technologies, Recognos ETI allows companies to extract, transform and integrate both structured and unstructured documents and data into useable business intelligence.
"Recent studies have shown that 80 per cent of all data in large organisations is unstructured, including many mission-critical documents such as contracts, prospectuses, and compliance documentation,” says
Franklin Square Capital Partners, a manager of business development companies (BDCs), has unveiled an new structure for non-traded alternative investments that reduces fees and seeks to align the interests of investors, advisors, regulators and sponsors.
The firm recently announced that FS Investment Corporation IV (FSIC IV), an income-focused non-traded business development company (BDC), commenced operations with an industry-leading commission structure that responds to FINRA Regulatory Notice 15-02 (15-02).
The amendments to NASD Rule 2340 presented in 15-02, which take effect on April 11, were designed to, among other things, enhance the disclosure of sales charges on investor account statements.
Wholesale electronic trading platform ParFX has expanded the number of currencies in its offering with the addition of the Hungarian forint (HUF).
In recent years, the Hungarian forint has become increasingly popular among the global FX trading community, with approximately 90 per cent of Hungarian forint trades executed outside of Hungary’s domestic borders. According to the Bank for International Settlements, it is one of the 25 most actively traded currencies in the world.
The introduction of EUR/HUF to ParFX follows the recent addition of the forint to the CLS settlement system, and has been welcomed by the platform’s growing customer base.
ParFX also announced the addition of a number of CLS-eligible currency pairs, with AUD/JPY, NZD/JPY, USD/SEK, USD/NOK and USD/DKK being introduced alongside
Mark Hawtin, Investment Director, GAM, on the challenges facing Apple…
The numbers reported by Apple last night showed that Apple is struggling to grow in a smartphone market that is becoming saturated at the high end. The move to the iPhone 6 and the large screen format gave them a final boost into a segment of the market they were not present in. What next? China is a real concern for Apple because it is clear now that the iPhone is not seen as a utility product but as a luxury item. Luxury brands are struggling in the slow-down; more utility names are
