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Since the withdrawal of PaCRe Lt.’s financial strength rating and issuer credit rating at the company’s request, there has been considerable speculation in the market as to AM Best’s view on these hedge fund-sponsored reinsurers.
AM Best remains committed to rating these types of structures, which differ from a traditional reinsurance company primarily as a result of the investment strategy pursued and how that is balanced with the risks associated with underwriting activities.
Currently, AM Best maintains interactive ratings with six hedge fund reinsurers (HFRs). The rating process for these structures remains in accordance with Best’s Credit Rating Methodology,
Securities and corporate actions reference data provider Exchange Data International (EDI) has added equity analytics data, Worldwide Equity Analytics, to its comprehensive securities data offering.
This new service enables clients to identify the sources of risk and returns in their portfolios and project their volatility. It comprises a customisable set of more than 60 equity derived data fields such as Average Daily Volume, Simple Moving Averages, Alpha, Beta, and R-squared.
In addition to the analytics data, the service contains key reference and pricing data providing clients with a comprehensive overview of the global equity market.
Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Bloch
Hedge funds lost 2.45 per cent in August, according to the Barclay Hedge Fund Index compiled by BarclayHedge. The Index remains up 0.23 per cent year to date.
“A surprise currency devaluation by the People’s Bank of China on August 11 was interpreted by investors as an indication of a weakening economy, and sparked a global sell-off of risk assets,” says Sol Waksman (pictured), founder and president of BarclayHedge.
Fifteen of Barclay’s 18 hedge fund indices had losses in August. The Emerging Markets Index dropped 5.39 per cent, its largest loss since May of 2012 when it dropped 5.39 per
Multifonds is expanding its core transfer agency (TA) solution, Multifonds Global Investor (MFGI), to meet the needs of its asset servicing clients as they seek to consolidate and rationalise their TA processing systems.
Since the launch in 2012, the MFGI client base has grown by more than 80 per and assets on the platform have increased by 50 per cent. MFGI now supports more than USD1.8 trillion in assets across 20+ global fund domiciles; specifically MFGI has more than 20 per cent market share in Luxembourg and Ireland.
With the regulatory change agenda putting pressure on margins, service providers
Cowen Prime Services (formerly Concept Capital Markets) has won the Hedgeweek USA Award 2015 for “Best North American Prime Broker.” This is the second time the firm received this distinction this year, having also won it at the Hedgeweek Global Awards.
It also extends the string of similar awards earned from Hedgeweek in recent years.
Jack D Seibald (pictured), Managing Director and Global Co-head of Prime Brokerage Services, says: “We are honored for this recognition by Hedgeweek readers for our prime brokerage capabilities. As our clients’ trusted partner, we take our responsibility very seriously. We provide robust custody, execution
By Donald A Steinbrugge (pictured), CFA, Managing Partner, Agecroft Partners – Reinsurance is one of the few hedge fund strategies that has almost no correlation to the stock or bond markets and has the potential to generate high single digit to low double digit returns on average over the next 5 to 10 years, regardless of the direction of the capital markets.
It is important for investors to stress test their overall portfolio for major market selloffs, because most hedge fund strategies’ correlations to the capital markets are dynamic and rise dramatically during market selloffs as we saw in the
Berenberg Capital Markets has launched a US Equity trading desk in its New York office, with the ability to execute institutional equity trades in the US & Canada, including ADRs, as well as European securities via Berenberg Bank.
Led by industry veteran Scott Duxbury, BCM’s trading desk team brings a wealth of experience that will provide high quality service and execution to the company’s institutional client base. Duxbury, who has over 25 years industry experience, joined from Jones Trading in December 2014, and previously held senior roles at Rencap Securities and Merrill Lynch where he worked in Australia, London and
Markets were on standby mode ahead of the Fed’s meeting last week. Hedge funds were flat and there was little dispersion in returns across the managers (see chart). Event-Driven outperformed as equity volatility edged lower. Meanwhile, Fixed Income strategies underperformed as sovereign bond yields moved higher.
Hotspot, a leading institutional foreign exchange (FX) market owned and operated by BATS Global Markets (BATS), launched its new London-area matching engine on 14 September, with USD1.2 billion traded (single-count) in the first full week of operation.
The new venue will target Europe and Asia and specific FX currency pairs that dominate the European and Asian trading hours. To incentivise customers, all trading for all transactions that take place on the London matching engine will be free until the end of the year.
Chris Concannon, BATS CEO, says: “Exactly six months after acquiring Hotspot, we have demonstrated our commitment to
BCS Financial Group, a securities broker on the Moscow Exchange, has been granted access to Euroclear, the international central securities depository, through BCS Prime Brokerage Limited.
By using Euroclear, BCS Financial Group will broaden its product offering, enhance its operational efficiency, reduce risks and optimise the costs of trading, settlement and custody services.
BCS anticipates using Euroclear’s services in the European, UK (LSE IOB), US and Russian markets (local equities and government bonds).
Michael Barmettler, COO of Global Markets and Investment Banking at BCS Financial Group, says: “This is another significant milestone for BCS, proving the stability and
