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The competitive positioning of Europe’s leading fixed-income dealers is increasingly defined by regulations and banks’ strategic responses to new rules that have altered the economics of the business, according to a study by Greenwich Associates.
The 2015 Greenwich Associates European Fixed-Income Study reveals that instead of fighting for market share, banks are increasingly focused on profitability as they work to preserve margins by improving productivity through cost reductions and by becoming much more selective about when and where they deploy capital.
“Dealers that once amassed huge market shares by providing coverage and liquidity to investors broadly across most or even
- 13/11/2015
London-based credit long/short hedge fund manager Palmerston Capital, which was set up by ex-JP Morgan credit trading head Stuart Wain, has closed its Founder Share Class as assets under management now total USD264 million.
The fund has returned 9.55 per cent net of fees year to date with low volatility.
Launched in January 2014 with friends and family money of USD15 million, Palmerston Capital signed an acceleration deal with Tages Capital in Q3 2014 taking AUM over USD100 million. The Founder share class remained open to other investors with discounted fee terms up to a total of USD250 million
- 13/11/2015
AI Insight has expanded it alternative Investment research, education and compliance documentation platform to individual subscribers. This new platform access is geared towards Financial Advisors and RIAs who do not have access to AI Insight through a Broker Dealer subscription.
As evidenced by FINRA and the SEC's 2015 examination priorities, regulators are continuing to heighten their focus on Alternative Investments. Now, more than ever, it is critical for Financial Advisors and RIAs to ensure that they are performing due diligence, making sound suitability decisions and presenting investments to clients in a clear and balanced manner.
"AI Insight has always
- 13/11/2015
Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BofA Merrill) has unveiled new advanced features on its global trading and consulting platform, providing buy and sell-side clients with more efficient order handling and improved fill rates for options trading.
Trader Instinct, the firm’s multi-asset global trading platform, offers a wide range of customisable trading solutions to meet client objectives. The new enhancements to the Instinct Options component of the platform include an infrastructure upgrade, a range of new algorithms, and direct option market data feeds for more efficient, finely tuned processing.
According to Meaghan Dugan (pictured), head of Electronic Options Product: “The
- 13/11/2015
Macro Risk Advisors (MRA) raised USD332,000 during the firm's fourth annual charitable trading day on 29 October, with the firm donating all of the net commissions earned from option, stock and ETF trades to charity.
The four organisations to benefit from MRA’s fundraising efforts are: Blythedale Children’s Hospital; Project ABLE; One Love Foundation; and the Navy SEAL Foundation will each receive USD83,000.
Representatives from the charities joined the MRA team for the opening bell to watch the stock and option execution process in real time. The event started off with great excitement, and momentum continued throughout the day until the
- 13/11/2015
Interview with Andrew Lapkin (pictured) & Joshua Kestler – Please explain what you think is driving the continued increase in demand for hedge fund managed accounts?
Andrew Lapkin: Institutional investors are under increasing pressure for their portfolios to generate returns to meet their liabilities or other investment goals. This task has become even tougher in the current investment environment, especially given historically low interest rates. As a result, hedge funds are an attractive option on the basis of returns with an expected lower correlation to other more traditional strategies. A challenge for many institutional investors is that investments in traditional
- 12/11/2015
- 12/11/2015
Establishing a hedge fund, let alone attaining the necessary investment track record to entice allocators, is a challenging proposition. The cost of setting up a hedge fund has skyrocketed amid growing regulation and investor demands for institutional-standard infrastructure. Citi's 2014 Hedge Fund Industry Operating Metrics Survey estimated managers required a minimum of USD310million in AUM to ensure their two per-cent management fee covered all of their operational and regulatory overheads.
It is arguable this figure is too high, although most market participants would still put that break-even threshold between USD100million and USD150million. The problem is compounded as institutional investors are
- 12/11/2015
- 12/11/2015
Solvency II regulation, which is aimed at European insurance providers to improve transparency on the cost of capital related to their underlying assets – think of it as Basel III for insurers – is set to make managed accounts an even more popular vehicle moving forward.
Due to be ushered in on 1 January 2014, the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) stated that the market wasn't ready and that it should be pushed back two years. As such, the insurance community must now demonstrate a plan to demonstrate how they will be Solvency II compliant when the regulation
- 12/11/2015
Amundi Alternative Investments was one of the first managed account platforms in Europe to become fully AIFMD-compliant. With approximately USD5billion in assets, the Dublin-domiciled platform is perfectly placed to capitalise on growing demand from the USD2.02trillion Australian Superannuation market for investment solutions that offer a clear value-add (and value for money).
At least this is the view of Michael Hart (pictured), deputy CEO and global head of business development for Amundi's alternative asset unit. Having just returned from Australia, Hart says that the main concern of institutional investors is transparency and identifying potential conflicts of interest.
"The Australian government is
- 12/11/2015
2015 has certainly been an interesting year thus far, with macroeconomic negativity and uncertainty mixed with idiosyncratic events resulting in a sustained period of market volatility, with the traditional fear gauge or VIX Index peaking at 50.78 on 24 August, the highest level since 2009.
In theory, this increased level of volatility and dispersion amongst financial markets should allow hedge funds to distinguish themselves from traditional strategies, fighting back against the increasing criticism of the last five years that questioned their purpose. In fact, many of the larger industry names have struggled, with the asset weighted, large manager biased HFRX
- 12/11/2015
- 12/11/2015
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