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Nick Bayley is a managing director in the Compliance and Regulatory Consulting practice at Duff & Phelps. Prior to this, Nick was a Head of Department in the FCA's Markets Policy & International Division, FCA Senior Markets Adviser and was responsible for the UK regulator’s MiFID II Policy Project.
In the first of a series of monthly blogs throughout 2017, Nick will draw upon his expertise and share his views on the main challenges and opportunities that both sell-side and buy-side institutions need to be thinking about in relation to MiFID II. Without further ado, here is the first installment:
Outsourcing has not only become an accepted practice among hedge fund managers, it has become a necessity as funds large and small seek out ways to control their costs, manage their internal resources more effectively, and overcome the ever growing challenge of regulatory compliance.
Perhaps more than ever before, hedge fund managers recognise that as cloud technology makes huge strides forward it makes more sense to focus on their core activities of investing and raising capital, appointing a trusted outsourced provider to manage the raft of non-core activities that investors do not want managers to be preoccupied with.
Indeed, while
XM Group (Trading Point Group), an FX and CFD broker, has launched the MT5 platform with offerings of over 300 CFDs on single stocks.
The launch follows a series of testing phases which have made sure the additional platform is connected to all existing systems.
The addition will enable the company to extend its offerings to six asset classes including CFDs on single stocks (shares) in addition to the existing offerings which include FX, CFDs on indices, metals and energies.
Chris Zacharia, marketing director of XM, says: “This day is one of those milestone events, which don't happen
Money market funds with a shorter settlement period of T+1 are now tradable via Deutsche Börse’s Xetra.
These products are the first class of securities for which transactions are settled on the trading day following order execution.
All other classes of securities in exchange trading currently have a settlement period of T+2. The new offering addresses the particular trading and settlement conventions of money market funds.
The five money market funds were issued by BlackRock Institutional Cash Series plc and invest in a broad spectrum of fixed income securities and money market instruments with short term maturities. The
Event-driven hedge fund performance has continued to move upwards over recent weeks in a context where M&A activity has remained strong since the beginning of the year, especially in the US, according to Lyxor’s latest Hedge Fund Weekly Brief.
Lyxor writes that according to Dealogic, global M&A activity has reached USD490 billion year to date (YTD) as of 3 March.
Although global M&A volumes are slightly down compared to the same period last year (-7 per cent), this is mainly related to lower dealmaking in Asia (-36 per cent, including Japan).
M&A volumes are up 6 per cent
ZEDRA, a specialist in trust, corporate and fund services, has widened the scope of its client offering with the appointment of Bridget Barker as executive director funds and corporate.
Barker (pictured) will participate in key networking events, global panel discussions and spokesperson opportunities.
Barker joins ZEDRA from city law firm Macfarlanes with almost 36 years’ experience and is one of only three Senior Statesmen for private equity funds listed in the Chambers Legal Directory, 2017. Her experience in legal issues, particularly related to fund raising in the areas of private equity and real estate, is extensive.
Barker has
City Financial, an independent investment management firm with USD4 billion in group assets under management, has partnered with Novia Global to offer three risk‐rated model portfolios to international financial advisers.
The City Financial Cautious, Moderate and Adventurous model portfolios are managed by the firm’s multi‐asset team, led by veteran fund manager Mark Harris.
The portfolios are managed within pre‐determined risk limits that are independently verified by Distribution Technology, a risk profiling company.
The portfolios will be marketed by Global Wealth Management Solutions (GWMS), a financial product marketing firm focused on global intermediaries. GWMS also distributes the City Financial
JO Hambro Capital Management (JOHCM), the international investment boutique, has contracted Silverfinch to address the steep rise in regulatory reporting requirements the firm is facing.
Silverfinch, a look-through and data distribution hub for client regulatory reporting, recently launched a quadruple data solution, providing regulatory support across PRIIPs, VAG, GroMiKV and Solvency II.
JOHCM has appointed Silverfinch in order to use the firm’s streamlined approach in dealing with all four regulations and support the asset manager’s continued commitment to their clients across Europe.
John Dowdall (pictured), managing director of Silverfinch, says: “We launched our recent four-in-one data solution in
The number of Jersey-registered fund managers marketing into Europe through national private placement regimes (NPPRs) under the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) continued to rise during 2016, according to the latest figures from the Jersey Financial Services Commission (JFSC).
As at December 2016, 127 alternative investment fund managers (AIFMs) had been authorised in Jersey to market into Europe through NPPRs, up more than one fifth (22 per cent) compared to December 2015.
Over the same period, the total number of Jersey alternative investment funds (AIFs) being marketed into Europe through NPPRs also increased significantly to stand at 254,
The European Energy Exchange (EEX) is to acquire US-based Nodal Exchange for a low triple digit million US-Dollar investment.
As a result, Nodal Exchange will become part of EEX Group.
Nodal Exchange, headquartered in Virginia, is a regulated futures exchange which offers a variety of electricity and natural gas contracts to hedge against price risks in the US. All of the transactions on Nodal Exchange are cleared through its clearinghouse, Nodal Clear, a derivatives clearing organisation under the Commodity Exchange Act that is regulated by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
Through this acquisition, EEX Group will
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