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Offshore law firm Carey Olsen has continued the expansion of its finance practice in the Cayman Islands with the appointment of experienced attorney Adam Bathgate as counsel.
Charles River clients subject to the European Union’s Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II (MiFID II) are now able to comply using the Charles River Investment Management Solution (Charles River IMS).
Charles River has worked with clients across Europe, North America and Asia to deploy the necessary capabilities in time for the regulation’s 3 January implementation date.
Charles River’s MiFID II solution captures key data and trade lifecycle decision points needed for buy side firms to comply with trade and transaction reporting, best execution and commission management requirements. Charles River has also partnered with several MiFID II Approved Publication
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), in conjunction with the Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation, has fled criminal and civil enforcement actions against three banks and six individuals involved in commodities fraud and spoofing schemes.
The banks involved are Deutsche Bank, HSBC and UBS.
Division of Enforcement Director James McDonald, says: “Spoofing is a particularly pernicious example of bad actors seeking to manipulate the market through the abuse of technology. The technological developments that enabled electronic and algorithmic trading have created new opportunities in our markets.
“At the CFTC, we are committed to facilitating these market-enhancing
Net sales of UCITS and AIF totalled EUR68 billion in November 2017, down from EUR84 billion in October, according to the European Fund and Asset Management Association’s (EFAMA) latest Investment Funds Industry Fact Sheet.
UCITS registered net sales of EUR59 billion in the month, down from EUR75 billion in October. Long-term UCITS meanwhile, (UCITS excluding money market funds) recorded net sales of EUR60 billion, up from EUR57 billion in October, while net sales of equity funds totalled EUR25 billion, up from EUR12 billion in October. Net sales of bond funds totalled EUR28 billion, up from EUR26 billion in October, and net sales of multi-asset funds totalled EUR18 billion, up
Close to 50 per cent of investment managers and consultants surveyed at Northern Trust’s (Nasdaq: NTRS) annual Regulatory and Depositary conference cited client reporting as the greatest implementation challenge presented by MiFID II.
The survey of more than 100 attendees at the annual London event held in November focused on the regulatory demands faced by fund managers who noted further MiFID II challenges including: transaction and transparency reporting (approximately 20 per cent); inducements and research (approximately 20 per cent) and updating client documentation (approximately 15 per cent).
“The level of focus on client reporting was no surprise to us,”
Persistent trends across asset classes have continued to fuel CTA returns over recent weeks, writes Lyxor in the latest Weekly Brief from its Cross Asset Research team.
According to several benchmarks of performance, January is on track to see them delivering the highest monthly returns in a decade. Such exceptional performance results from the solid upward trend in equity indices, amid buoyant economic conditions globally and the soft pace of monetary retrenchment from central banks. Meanwhile, the current US earnings season is proving to be a good vintage so far, though less than 30 per cent of the companies listed
For most new fund managers the concept of having to prepare for a financial audit is entirely novel. Knowing what is involved and how best to prepare, in terms of applying best practices, is a new discipline, yet it is one that is crucial to running a successful fund management business.
With respect to the meteoric rise of cryptocurrency funds, there are only a handful of auditors that really know what they are doing, in terms of supporting them. For these managers, therefore, choosing the right auditor is important. If not, and they run into difficulties because the appointed auditor
By Richard Spencer, Partner, Campbells Legal – The stratospheric rise in the value of cryptocurrencies throughout 2017, coupled with significant price volatility, caught the attention of the world at large. Opinions remain polarised, with regulators warning “Main Street investors” of the risks associated with purchasing virtual currencies and cryptographic tokens. The underlying distributed ledger technology is far less controversial, with well-known global financial institutions investing heavily in this space.
Investment managers looking to launch crypto-focused investment funds aimed at professional investors often wish to set up a standalone, master-feeder or mini-master fund structure in the Caymans Islands. With many global
The Cayman Islands has recently taken a number of measures to reinforce its position in the global financial services market.
It has overhauled its anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing legislation, which includes explicitly bringing unregistered (ie not registered with CIMA) hedge funds and private equity funds, under its revised AML regulatory regime.
The complete legislation and regulations (which have been updated over the last 12 months) came into force in December 2017.
Specifically talking about the impact on investment funds, Matthew Taber, Partner, Harneys comments: “Previously there was a lacuna in the legislation and regulations, which meant that only those
By Marc Kish, Partner, Ogier – In a recent landmark decision of the Grand Court in A Company and A Funder, the Court has approved a third party litigation funding agreement and in doing so given a roadmap to funders as to what conditions it will apply in such cases. While previous decisions of the Grand Court have approved third party funding agreements in principle, the Court’s observations have until now been restricted to the use of funding for the benefit of impecunious liquidation estates. This was a case involving a large multinational seeking to take advantage of funding for
