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Stephens International, an executive search consultancy focused on the global (re)insurance and financial markets, has appointed Jeremy Kemp as a director.
Kemp will lead the company’s coverage of the asset management, capital markets, derivatives and insurance-linked securities/alternatives space.
Mark Stephens, who established the business in 2009, has linked with Kemp to enable the specialist search and consultancy firm to serve the changing needs of its (re)insurance and financial markets clients.
Kemp will lead the business coverage for asset management, capital markets, derivatives and alternatives and ILS, having served these markets since 1997.
“Jeremy and I have already
eVestment has launched eVestment Quantum Analytics, a web-based solution that adds multi-asset class portfolio analysis and portfolio construction capabilities to the firm’s existing data and analytics offerings.
Quantum is part of eVestment’s revamped suite of solutions designed to analyse and report on both traditional and alternative investment strategies while offering flexibility through tiered offerings for diverse client types.
“For members of the institutional investment world who need to construct and analyse strategies at a portfolio level, Quantum provides both the data across asset classes and the types of statistical and industry standard calculations necessary to guide portfolio level decisions,”
Hedge funds had their biggest outflow of 2013 in December, redeeming USD10.4bn or 0.5 per cent of assets, according to the latest TrimTabs/BarclayHedge Hedge Fund Flow Report.
“The hedge fund industry took in a three-year high of USD56.5bn in 2013, a strong turnaround from 2012, when the industry shed USD28.9bn,” said Sol Waksman, president and founder of BarclayHedge.
“Industry assets climbed to a five-year high of USD2.2trn in December from USD2.1trn in November, according to estimates based on data from 3,372 funds. Assets rose 19.9 per cent last year but were down 11.6 per cent from the all-time high
With just five months until the deadline for complying with the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD), hedge fund administrators are reporting that up to a fifth of fund managers are still not prepared.
A strong regulatory environment in each EU member state and guidelines from regulators are critical to providing fund managers with the necessary framework to ensure that the requirements of AIFMD are met by the looming deadline, says Nicola Smith, CEO of Gibraltar-based fund administrator, Helvetic Fund Administration.
Smith believes that full compliance with AIFMD is unavoidable and active steps should be and can still be taken during this final period to achieve compliance, or face penalties.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is introducing measures to promote trading on swap execution facilities (SEFs).
The Commission wants to support an orderly transition to mandatory trading of swaps, which begins for certain interest rate swaps on 15 February, 2014.
“As a result of the trade execution mandate, next week many swaps for the first time will trade on regulated platforms and benefit from market-wide, pre-trade transparency,” says acting chairman Mark Wetjen. “These measures, in conjunction with the Commission’s implementation of the trade execution mandate, will maximise the level of trading on these regulated platforms and support the transition to
The value of assets under custody held by Clearstream on behalf of customers registered an increase of six per cent to EUR12.0trn in January 2014 from EUR11.3trn in January 2013.
Securities held under custody in Clearstream’s international business as international central securities depository (ICSD) increased by seven per cent from EUR5.9trn in January 2013 to EUR6.3trn in January 2014, while domestic German securities held under custody in the German central securities depository (CSD) increased by five per cent from EUR5.3trn in January 2013 to EUR5.6trn in January 2014.
In January 2014, 3.90 million international settlement transactions were processed, an
The Central Bank of Ireland has confirmed that it will, with immediate effect, recognise the ability of authorised alternative investment fund managers (AIFMs) to passport the services described in Article 6(4) of the alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD).
Under the AIFMD, Member States are permitted to authorise AIFMs to provide certain investment services in addition to the collective management of alternative investment funds (AIFs), including management of portfolios of investments, investment advice, safekeeping and administration in relation to the shares or units of collective investment undertakings and reception and transmission of orders in relation to financial instruments.
These
INDOS Financial, the first independent UK authorised depositary specialising in hedge funds, is planning to offer a depositary-lite solution to US and other non-EU hedge fund managers.
Since the introduction of the AIFMD in July 2013, US and other non-EU hedge fund managers have needed to comply with a range of requirements in order to market their funds to European investors.
Some countries, notably Germany and Denmark, require compliance with the so-called ‘depositary-lite’ regime which requires the appointment of one or more firms to perform the depositary duties of safe keeping of assets, cash flow monitoring and oversight.
FIX Trading Community, the electronic trading standards body, has published recommended guidelines for transaction cost analysis (TCA) in equities.
The recommended guidelines for TCA in equities is the result of work by the FIX TCA Working Group to address the challenges currently faced by market participants to determine the cost of trading at any or all points in the investment cycle.
There are multiple methodologies and terminologies in current practice, which can result in a lack of transparency and objectivity while producing contradictory results.
To address these concerns, the TCA Working Group polled the members to determine the
Legg Mason’s affiliate Permal Group has launched the Permal Alternative Select Fund, its first open end alternative mutual fund.
The multi-strategy fund is sub-advised by a selection of hedge fund managers.
The fund, which offers investors daily liquidity, has a minimum investment of USD1,000.
By means of a tactical asset allocation programme, the fund is seeking to produce positive returns across a full market cycle, allocating assets to strategies that historically have had a low correlation to each other. These strategies may include equity hedge, event driven, global macro and relative value.
The initial investment strategies and sub-advisers
