Funds
Albert Fried & Company has selected SS&C’s Global Wealth Platform (GWP) to support its growing boutique prime brokerage business.
Albert Fried & Company was looking to gain a competitive advantage by using web-based performance reporting to enhance internal processes and client service. The broker-dealer will use SS&C’s performance and client reporting capabilities as part of a hosted middle- to –back-office platform to provide customers with high quality analysis and reporting.
The software will be deployed on a hosted basis, allowing Albert Fried to minimise internal technology costs while leveraging SS&C’s data management capabilities.
“Over the past several years,
Jersey has affirmed its position as a leading centre for companies looking to list, with the volume and value of Jersey companies listed on exchanges around the world rising significantly in the past 12 months, according to figures collated by Jersey Finance.
The latest figures show that there are now a total of 110 Jersey companies listed on exchanges around the world, reflecting growth of 13% on 2013 figures, whilst the total market capitalisation of those companies rose by around 62% year-on-year to GBP269 billion in 2014.
Of the 110 companies, 57 are quoted on the London Stock Exchange’s (LSE)
Natixis has become a clearing member of Eurex Clearing’s Securities Lending central counterparty (CCP) as well as EurexOTC Clear. The Lending CCP now has six clearing members, while EurexOTC Clear has more than 40.
“The CCP model for Natixis will not only help manage the rising burden of balance sheet regulation and costs, we believe it will also prompt new stock lending structures and business opportunities with non-standard profile counterparties,” says Gregoire Froehlich, Trader-Securities Lending & Borrowing, Natixis.
“Going live with EurexOTC Clear is a key milestone in our strategy of offering our clients a large choice of CCPs ahead of the EMIR mandatory clearing roll-out.
Altana Wealth has launched a new UCITs fund, The Altana Directors’ Dealings System Fund (ADDS), which is now open to external investors.
The fund tracks the short term opportunistic buying behaviour of company directors in US liquid listed companies and replicates the best 0.5% of their trades. Rigorous back testing of the system shows that during the period 2003 to 2014 ADDS significantly outperformed the S&P 500 index. The strategy has already attracted significant investor interest including a large external cornerstone investor.
The strategy has been running live in a (non-UCITS) wrapper since November 2014 and recorded gross returns of
BATS Global Markets (BATS) is to acquire Hotspot FX, an institutional spot foreign exchange market, in a cash transaction valued at USD365 million.
Closing is expected in the first half of 2015, and represents further expansion into non-equity trading businesses for BATS as it enters the world’s largest asset class. Turnover for the global FX market was estimated at USD5.3 trillion in 2013.
Joe Ratterman, Chief Executive Officer of BATS, says: “Hotspot is an innovative foreign exchange leader which will become an important part of our expanding global footprint, and we are excited to welcome their highly-regarded team to
Conifer Financial Services, a provider of fund administration, middle office, trade execution, and prime brokerage services to the asset management industry, has received an unqualified opinion in the Service Organisation Controls (SOC) 1 TYPE 2 (SSAE 16) 2014 examination of its fund administration entity, Conifer Asset Solutions.
Notable among the reports is the laudable lack of exceptions achieved by the business sector pertaining to Fund Services and Middle Back Office.
The SOC 1 Type 2 examination was conducted in accordance with the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) Statement on Standards for Attestation Engagements No. 16 (SSAE 16) and
Columbia Management has launched a liquid alternative mutual fund, the Columbia Adaptive Alternatives Fund (CLAAX) providing investors with access to a multi-strategy fund from Blackstone Alternative Investment Advisers.
Through the convenience of a traditional mutual fund with daily liquidity and multiple share classes, the fund offers investors access to a range of underlying hedge fund advisers selected by Blackstone, and to alternative beta strategies and non-traditional asset classes (including commodities, REITs, inflation-linked bonds and listed private equity) managed by Columbia Management.
The structure of the fund can provide several benefits: Access to a wide array of alternative investments and strategies
SuMi TRUST Global Asset Services has launched the BlueBay Global Investment Grade Credit Fund managed by BlueBay Asset Management for exclusive distribution in Japan by Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank Limited (SMTB).
The Fund has been structured as a Cayman Island open ended Unit Trust and will be distributed to the SMTB Trust Bank pension fund clients in Japan.
The Fund launched with USD69 million and offers both accumulation and distribution share classes denominated in Japanese Yen, both hedged and unhedged. BlueBay will be targeting returns that aim to meet the expectation of Japanese Pension Funds. SuMi TRUST global Asset Services will
Global Markets Exchange Group International (GMEX Group) has taken a strategic stake, through its GMEX Technologies Limited (GMEX TECH) subsidiary, in the UK based post-trade software firm Avenir Technology Limited (Avenir).
Avenir has developed a suite of innovative and cost effective systems for post-trade processing for exchanges, clearing houses, central securities depositories (CSDs) and share registrars across multiple assets classes including securities, derivatives and physical commodities.
Avenir’s first product is a share registry platform that is currently used by firms in the UK and New Zealand. Other products include AvenirSettle, a depository solution for handling physical settlement in securities as
The IQ Hedge Multi-Strategy Tracker ETF (QAI), the first liquid alternative exchange-traded fund (ETF), has topped USD1 billion in assets.
QAI, which marked its five year anniversary in March, is the largest fund in its category and anchors IndexIQ’s growing family of liquid alternative solutions that includes ETFs, mutual funds, separate accounts and model portfolios.
“This is a significant milestone for QAI, and a testament to the increased recognition of the role liquid alternatives can play in an investor’s portfolio,” says Adam Patti, chief executive officer at IndexIQ. “QAI is now widely considered the ‘S&P 500 of the hedge fund
