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Element22, a boutique data and analytics advisory firm serving the financial services industry, has announced the results of its comprehensive benchmark study, which was sponsored by UBS Asset Management.
This inaugural study revealed that some asset management firms have reached an inflection point in generating alpha, improving business operations and increasing client acquisition and retention with alternative data and advanced analytics, according to a new survey by Element22 and UBS Asset Management.
The study highlighted that the survey participants are at varying stages of a four-year journey to develop robust alternative data and advanced analytics capabilities. The latter principally includes
Refinitiv, formerly Thomson Reuters Financial and Risk, has added Sunday trading capabilities to its equities trading platform and announced the adoption of REDI by Riyad Capital to enhance the firm’s trading execution capabilities in Saudi Arabia.
REDI enables regional and global clients to trade into the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) markets. Clients can now optimise their execution of complex orders and monitor live profit and loss on existing position, particularly with higher commission rates and the increasing risk of managing diverse portfolios in MENA. The system offers sophisticated portfolio and basket trading functionality allowing users in MENA to
CubeLogic, a specialist in business intelligence-enabled risk management solutions and FERDEC, a specialist in MAR/MAD II/REMIT transaction surveillance solutions for physical and financial Energy and Commodity markets, have formed a strategic partnership to enable CubeLogic’s clients to leverage the sophisticated transaction surveillance capabilities of the ferdecTS solution directly from within the RiskCubed suite.
Increasing demand for transaction surveillance functionality inspired CubeLogic to seek partner solutions to complement the capabilities of its RiskCubed risk management platform. FERDEC’s unrivalled expertise in European physical and financial Energy and Commodity markets made it the natural choice. The ferdecTS engine can detect potential market abuse
By Arne Bolch, GSK Luxembourg – The 2016 Paris agreement on climate change as well as the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals may until recently not have been high on the agenda of asset management professionals. This may be about to change.
In the spirit of the agreement and the UN agenda, measures taken at European level have identified (or rather stated) a need for Europe’s financial system to (i) contribute to sustainable and inclusive [economic] growth as well as to (ii) strengthen financial stability by incorporating environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors
On 23 August 2018, Luxembourg’s regulator, the CSSF, published a Circular 18/698 which set out to codify the organisation, substance and authorisation of Luxembourg investment fund managers. Amongst others the Circular replaces Circular 12/546, which detailed the CSSF’s expectations for UCITS managers and also served as the benchmark for AIFMs under the AIFM Directive.
This approach to further clarify and summarise what is expected of a Luxembourg management company is helpful according to Daniela Klasen-Martin (pictured), Managing Director and Country Head, Crestbridge Luxembourg, a leading independent administration, management and corporate governance solutions business.
“The Circular is a summary of practices
Private equity is sitting astride a mountain of dry powder, which currently stands at USD1.14 trillion according to Preqin*. Fund raising has never been easier but with so much money floating around, valuations are being driven upwards.
This is placing enormous importance on private equity managers planning for exits. How can they be sure that the target company will continue to grow and generate an attractive earnings multiple at exit when the valuation is already high at entry?
“The multiples being asked for right now are exorbitant; it used to be common to pay 10 or 11X EBITDA but in
Since Brexit has become a reality, UK managers have been putting in place contingency to protect their businesses, creating opportunities for other European financial centres including Luxembourg. Once the UK leaves the EU next year neither the UCITS or AIFMD regimes will apply and UK entities will no longer be able to manage and market their funds in the EU.
The risk to losing access to the single market is unacceptable to the UK fund manager community and in that regard Luxembourg is a really viable alternative, according to James Burke (pictured), Head of Apex Europe, Apex Fund Services (Ireland).
By Kavitha Ramachandran – Brexit is a major political disruptor and, despite the uncertainties, it brings tremendous opportunities. London is a key financial centre and it is no surprise that while we wait for the final negotiations to fall in place, financial industry players have started taking action to create a presence on the Continent to stay competitive and continue to attract capital. As a result, the asset management industry is seeing a shift from the UK to the Continent which is creating opportunities for countries in the EU27.
Simultaneously, digitalisation is gaining pace due to changing investor profiles and demands, cost
Luxembourg’s Reserved AIF (RAIF) has completely changed the Grand Duchy’s alternatives marketplace, from a fund structuring perspective. Over the last three decades it has become the de facto onshore jurisdiction for UCITS funds, but this has started to change in the last few years.
According to EFAMA, total AUM in AIFs grew by 15.1 per cent year-on-year to reach EUR673 billion at the end of 2017, while UCITS’ assets increased by 11.9 per cent over the same period.
As PwC points out in its 2018 Barometer Report, assets held by both AIF and UCITS funds in Luxembourg reached EUR4.1 trillion
Luxembourg continues to see net inflows of capital and is now the world’s second largest fund centre with, as of August 2018, EUR4.3 trillion worth of net assets under management, and this only in regulated funds, according to the Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry (ALFI).
Luxembourg was the first EU jurisdiction to introduce the AIFM Directive, drafting a law and filing it with the Luxembourg parliament on August 24th, 2012 well ahead of the July 2013 deadline. Since then, the Grand Duchy has increasingly embraced moving away from traditional retail cross-border fund distribution under UCITS to become a real
