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A Q&A with Brian Desmond, CSO and EVP Head of Fund Services at Horseshoe Group.
For readers unfamiliar with ILS Funds, can you give a brief summary of the asset class?
Insurance Linked Securities (ILS) are financial instruments sold to investors and whose value is affected by an insured loss event. Two examples of the financial instruments used are catastrophe bonds and collateralised reinsurance contracts.
The buyer of protection, or the entity that is transferring the insurance risk is called the cedent and the seller or writer of the protection could be an individual investor or a hedge fund. For investors in
With some offshore jurisdictions having only moved recently to introduce registers of beneficial ownership, one could argue that having had its own register in place for over 70 years, Bermuda has been ahead of the curve. Now, as global regulatory oversight and transparency expectations rise, Bermuda is well placed to demonstrate that its house is very much in order.
The Bermuda Government and the Bermuda Monetary Authority have always paid close attention and cared to know who is doing business in Bermuda.
“That has been the standard operating procedure for Bermuda throughout its history as an international financial centre,” says
Although the Cayman Islands tends to be the default option for most alternative fund managers, there is a good argument for saying that Bermuda is equally, if not more attractive; certainly from a cost perspective and a ‘substance’ perspective, with a well-established business district in Hamilton, the island’s capital.
Indeed, an estimated 400 international companies are physically based in Bermuda, with an increasing number of fund management entities either setting up, or thinking of doing so. After all, Bermuda is only a two-hour flight to the US east coast, making it an ideal location for hedge fund managers and PE
Tax transparency has been an evolving focal point for the world’s economies as governments look to satisfy rigorous global compliance standards and shore up their tax revenues. Western media have focused on international financial centres following recent years’ cyber breaches that led to sensationalistic reporting about offshore investments, stoking a public appetite for revelations on high-net-worth financial matters, including taxes.
The standard argument one often hears is ‘why should companies avoid paying taxes in their home domicile?’ The question certainly has merit, but those posing the question need to take the time to hear the answer – the reality is
By Sean Moran, Bermuda Business Development Agency – This year promises to be a big one for Bermuda as we push forward on several strategies to make our market even more attractive and competitive for asset managers and allocators. In doing so, we aim to balance our goals as a jurisdiction with the many geopolitical and regulatory issues taking shape in 2018, including US tax reform, Brexit, and numerous global compliance initiatives.
Yet, these are the types of challenges Bermuda has always thrived on dealing with—and by doing so, has set itself apart from other financial centres. The spirit of
Crytocurrency exchange Coinbase has appointed Alesia Hass as its new Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Hass (pictured), joins Coinbase from hedge fund firm Och-Ziff Capital Management where she held the same position.
At Och-Ziff, Haas oversaw all aspects of accounting, tax, treasury, financial operations, internal audit and shareholder services, having previously served as Chief Financial Officer and Head of Strategy for OneWest Bank, and held senior finance, investment and strategy roles with Merrill Lynch and General Electric.
“I’m incredibly excited to have Alesia join Coinbase as our new CFO,” says Brian Armstrong, Co-founder & CEO at Coinbase. “She brings deep
BlackRock is to acquire Tennenbaum Capital Partners, an investment manager focused on middle market performing credit and special situation credit opportunities.
The acquisition augments BlackRock’s position as a leading global credit asset manager and advances its goal of providing clients with a diverse range of alternative investment products and solutions to meet their evolving needs.
TCP complements BlackRock’s Global Credit business with seasoned investment talent and a strong long-term track record at a time when clients are increasingly turning to private credit as a higher-yielding alternative to traditional fixed income allocations. A key element of the transaction is the
CompIQ, an enterprise software platform that provides investment management firms with real-time compensation benchmarking and related compliance services, has launched the second version of its enterprise platform following extensive customer feedback.
CompIQ’s initial focus has been on real estate, venture capital, private equity and hedge funds. The company will soon expand to cover traditional asset management and financial services more broadly. The company is led by CEO Adam Zoia (pictured), founder of Glocap Search, a premier search firm known for serving the specialised recruiting needs of clients in the investment management industry.
“CompIQ was formed to empower organisations with
OpenFin has appointed Mark Yallop as a non-executive board director.
Yallop (pictured), serves as an Independent Member of the Prudential Regulation Committee at the Bank of England and as Chair for the Fixed Income, Currency and Commodities (FICC) Markets Standards Board (FMSB). Prior to his current tenures, he served as UK Group CEO at UBS, responsible for UBS’s Investment Banking, Wealth Management and Asset Management activities; Group COO and main board director at ICAP; Group COO at Deutsche Bank; and on the board of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA).
Yallop says: “As the financial services industry emerges
JP Morgan Asset Management has appointed Alistair Lowe as managing director and senior portfolio manager, Quantitative Beta Strategies (QBS).
In this new role, Lowe (pictured), will oversee QBS’s team of alternative beta and quantitative equity portfolio managers in New York. He reports to Yazann Romahi, Chief Investment Officer of Quantitative Beta Strategies, and will be based in New York.
Prior to joining JP Morgan, Lowe was an independent consultant advising asset managers and RIAs in asset allocation and portfolio construction. Previously he was a senior advisor to the investment committee at the quantitative liquid alternatives manager AlphaSimplex. Lowe spent the
