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The total value of funds business in Guernsey is at a five-year high following a predicted rise in net asset value in Q2 2018, according to the latest figures from the Guernsey Financial Services Commission.
The figures for the end of June 2018 showed the net asset value stood at GBP276.2 billion, the highest since the end of June 2013, and a growth of more than GBP13 billion (4.94 per cent) on Q1 2018 and a 12-month growth of more than GBP5 billion (1.9 per cent).
Private equity business was a huge contributor, with a near GBP7 billion (6.6
After almost 12 years in the role, Geoff Cook has decided to step down from his role as Chief Executive of Jersey Finance, the promotional body for the Jersey finance industry.
Appointed in 2007, Cook (pictured), has been at the helm of the organisation, helping guide the island through the financial crisis of 2007/8 and playing a key role over the last decade in driving Jersey forward as an international finance centre of excellence.
He will remain in his position as CEO throughout his notice period. The Board is already engaged with the Appointments Commission in terms of advertising
BMO Financial Group has completed its acquisition of KGS-Alpha Capital Markets (KGS), a New York-based fixed income broker-dealer specialising in US mortgage-backed (MBS) and asset-backed securities (ABS) in the institutional investor market.
BMO announced the acquisition on 1May 1 2018.
The transaction complements BMO Capital Markets’ existing MBS trading business and immediately makes BMO a top-tier dealer in securitised products, with special emphasis on agency-backed residential and commercial MBS products.
KGS has been rebranded as BMO Capital Markets.
Boutique fund manager JK Investment Management has appointed new third-party fund marketing firm Daymer Bay Capital to exclusively market its flagship fund, the JK Global Opportunities Fund, across Europe.
JK Investment Management, which was founded in 2003 and has over USD150m of assets under management becomes Daymer Bay Capital’s third client after Granahan Investment Management and Guinness Asset Management signed up to use the firm’s services a month ago.
The JK Global Opportunities Fund (with USD94m in assets as of 15 August 2018) is UCITs compliant and adopts an opportunistic, contrarian, value-driven approach to multi-asset investing.
Daymer Bay
Four Seasons Asia, a long only and long/short investment house focused on Japan, is to launch a Japan-dedicated UCITS fund.
Four Seasons was created in 2006 by CEO Shigeka Koda and Managing Director Kahori Ando, who both also act as Co-Chief Investment Officers, and have more than 50 years of investment experience in the space between them. Shigeka Koda spent 14 years at Goldman Sachs prior to founding Four Seasons, where he was Japanese Equity Senior Portfolio Manager.
Kahori Ando spent 12 years at Sparx Asset Management before joining Four Seasons, latterly as Japanese Equity Senior Portfolio Manager. The firm
The Post-Trade Distributed Ledger (PTDL) Group, which brings together major post-trade industry participants and regulators to share information and ideas about how distributed ledger technology can transform the post-trade landscape, is to merge with the Global Blockchain Business Council (GBBC), a trade association for the blockchain technology ecosystem.
Under the GBBC’s direction, the PTDL Group will work to increase the level of interaction and activity between its 40-plus institutions, engage in thought leadership and regulatory engagement, and further grow its membership base.
The PTDL Group aims to provide a collaborative environment for post-trade market participants to share information on blockchain
The Association of National Numbering Agencies (ANNA) and the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) have signed a new initiative to link International Securities Identification Numbers (ISINs) and Legal Entity Identifiers (LEIs).
The initiative has been created to help improve transparency of exposure by linking the issuer and issuance of securities.
The new, global initiative will map new and legacy ISINs to their corresponding LEIs. By linking the two ISO standards together, firms will be able to aggregate the data required to gain a clear view of their securities exposure within a given issuer and its related entities. Once
MDX Technology (MDX), a provider of real-time data collaboration and distribution solutions for the trading community, has appointed Darren Bishop to help drive global business development activities and create innovative new product offerings.
Reporting to MDX CEO Paul Watmough, Bishop brings deep domain expertise, a unique understanding of the specialist needs of the MDX target customers, together with first-hand experience of building a specialist financial technology business.
Bishop’s impressive career spans some 30 years in the market data and credit & rates arenas. Most recently he was CEO at LiquidityChain, a TP ICAP backed venture. During this time, he
NEX Markets, a provider of electronic trading technology services in the fixed income and foreign exchange (FX) markets, has released a new report highlighting greater transparency and improved behaviour in the FX market since the Global FX Code came into effect in May 2017.
In the report titled ‘The FX Global Code: changing transparency and behaviour’, NEX Markets has witnessed a significant reduction in hold times, reject rates and a tightening of spreads on the bilateral EBS Direct platform. This suggests an industry-wide move for greater transparency and improved market behaviour.
Of the top 10 liquidity providers (LPs) on
London-based broker-dealer BTIG Limited has appointed Christopher Rollins as its Chief Executive Officer CEO, effective immediately.
Rollins (pictured), assumes leadership of the firm following a successful role as Managing Director, International Equities, and Head of US Execution Services at BTIG, LLC in New York.
He will be tasked with expanding BTIG’s existing suite of multi-asset class products, and accelerating the growth of its geographical footprint across Europe. Prior to BTIG, Rollins spent more than 15 years at Goldman Sachs in several key leadership roles including Managing Director and Co-Head of European Execution Services in London. Previously, he spent over a decade
