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Franklin Templeton Investments has appointed Stephanie Ouwendijk as a vice president and portfolio manager.
Ouwendijk joined Franklin Templeton on 16 February 2015, as part of its Emerging Markets Debt Opportunities team which sits within the Franklin Templeton Fixed Income Group. She is based in London and reports to William Ledward, senior vice president and portfolio manager, who leads the Emerging Markets Debt Opportunities team. The team currently manages over USD10bn for institutional investors.
Ouwendijk joins Franklin Templeton from Ashmore Group, a London-based emerging markets asset management firm, where she served as fund manager since June 2010. Most recently,
The number of digital media teams with more than 10 employees jumped by 15.5% in 2014 compared with the previous year, according to Cerulli Associates.
This increase suggests that managers are reacting to the latest technological trends by hiring specialised people, rather than pre-empting the changes by training existing staff to deal with the advances.
A total of 79% of managers expect digital media headcount to climb further-an increase of more than 50% on those polled the previous year. Only 21% of managers expect to keep their resources at the same level.
Company websites are the top digital media channel
Recent research by the Institutional Limited Partners Association (ILPA) has highlighted growing discontent with the implementation of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) within the European Union (EU). Though the legislation set out to enhance oversight and standardise regulation across the EU, a significant majority of Europe-based investors feel they have been directly disadvantaged as a result, citing reduced international competitiveness as a key concern. In November 2014, Preqin conducted similar research, surveying 260 private equity and venture capital fund managers; 27% of respondents believed regulation to be the biggest challenge they face in 2015.
Preqin’s Fund Manager Profiles
Healthcare costs continue to spiral out of control and yet still achieve relatively poor outcomes, says Richard A Kimball Jr (pictured), CEO of HEXL…
It’s a dysfunctional system that I believe is primed for change. A new incentive paradigm is emerging. The era of preventive medicine and home health monitoring is on the rise. An interesting concept has come to light recently as telemedicine continues to improve and evolve. Due to the variety of ways technology can be utilised in patient care, now the traditional house call – which seems to have gone a little out of practice in recent
Euronext has signed a license agreement with the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) providing the JSE with the right to list the flagship Milling Wheat contract currently traded on Euronext.
The aim of the agreement is to extend access to the global benchmark Milling Wheat contract by broadening its international exposure to a wider audience.
In this context, through partnering with the largest exchange in the region, the agreement also extends Euronext’s reach into Africa, which according to International Monetary Fund forecasts, will be the world’s second fastest-growing region next year, expanding 5.75 per cent.
The license agreement
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published an annual report (Report) on its direct supervisory activities in 2014 regarding credit rating agencies (CRAs) and trade repositories (TR).
The report summarises the key actions taken during 2014 and outlines ESMA’s supervisory work plans for both sectors for 2015.
ESMA is now responsible for overseeing the activities of 27 registered and certified CRAs in the EU. As part of its supervisory work in 2014 ESMA concluded its investigation into the issue of structured finance ratings, completed a review of small and medium-sized CRAs and conducted work regarding sovereign ratings. In
Alternative asset manager and investment adviser, Absolute Return Partners (ARP) has strengthened its research team with the appointment of Alison Major Lépine as investment manager.
Reporting to Nick Rees, managing partner, she will start at ARP’s Richmond offices on 9 March.
Lépine joins ARP after spending almost 10 years as an investment manager at Railpen Investments, the GBP18bn industry-wide Railways Pension Scheme. During this time she was responsible for the Scheme's hedge fund investments, as well as managing and researching other strategies. Before Railpen, she was a portfolio manager on the multi-manager products at IKEA family office, IKANO Advisory
ConceptONE has facilitated the successful submission of AIFMD Annex IV filings for clients in multiple EU jurisdictions utilising its RegERM platform.
“Our team assisted our numerous clients to meet the Annex IV challenge utilising our proprietary technology, superior service and deep knowledge of the regulatory reporting protocols. Despite a number of unexpected hurdles with the NCA electronic platforms, our professional team was able to shepherd our clients’ submissions through on a timely basis,” says ConceptONE President and cofounder, R Dan Connell. “The primary reason for this success was rooted in ConceptONE’s Regulatory Enterprise Risk Management approach to reporting.”
Successfully navigating Annex
In the context of the release of the inflation report on Feb 12th, the BoE decided to remove the effective 0.5% floor for its benchmark interest rate. The December inflation figure, at 0.5% yoy, was actually the lowest number registered in the past 15 years. Against this backdrop, hedge funds have increased their short positioning on the GBPUSD over the last three months.
Towers Watson’s institutional investment clients allocated over USD8bn to smart beta strategies in 2014, bringing the total exposure to around USD40bn (in 550 portfolios), across a range of asset classes.
This compares to its clients having a USD32bn exposure to smart beta strategies at the end of 2013 and USD20bn in 2012, according to the company’s global investment manager selection data.
Luba Nikulina, global head of manager research at Towers Watson, says: “Interest in thinking smartly about betas within portfolios remains high but there is a considerable degree of caution about the proliferation of products labelled “smart beta”. We
