Latest News
The Securities and Exchange Commission’s office of compliance inspections and examinations (OCIE) has issued a risk alert on the due diligence processes that investment advisers use when they recommend or place clients’ assets in alternative investments such as hedge funds, private equity funds, or funds of private funds.
“Money continues to flow into alternative investments. We thought it was important to assess advisers’ due diligence processes and to promote compliance with existing legal requirements, including the duty to ensure that such investments or recommendations are consistent with client objectives,” says OCIE director Drew Bowden.
The alert describes
Investor demand for international diversification helped propel a sharp rise in capital raisings using depositary receipts (DR) in 2013, with 51 transactions coming from companies based in 20 countries, a jump of 65 per cent on 2012.
In 2012, 31 DR capital raisings were conducted by issuers from just 12 countries.
BNY Mellon’s year-end report on the DR industry shows that US exchanges witnessed a return of companies from around the world eager to tap American investors via capital raisings and new depositary receipt programs. The 51 DR capital raisings raised USD10.4bn, down from USD12.7bn in 2012. Of those,
James A Webb has been appointed to BNY Mellon Global Markets’ currency administration team in London.
Webb joins BNY Mellon from the currency management business of State Street Bank Europe.
Reporting to John Murray, London-based global head of sales for BNY Mellon’s currency administration business, Webb will be responsible as managing director for the development and growth of BNY Mellon’s currency administration business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).
Webb has worked in a number of industry segments during his 17-year career, including global markets, asset servicing, and asset management, carrying out responsibilities that included business
By Dermot Butler, President, Custom House Group – In a weak moment I agreed to a request to write this paper, giving my predictions on the hedge fund space in 2014. Anyone who is prepared to predict the future must either be very wise and knowledgeable (not me for sure), very lucky (which I have been over the years) or most likely, stupidly arrogant, (probably stupid but I hope not arrogant). However, having agreed, I had no choice but to sit down, pick up my pen and collect my thoughts, concentrating on the administration sector.
Before I could focus on
FSMLabs’s TimeKeeper Cloud is now available on AWS Marketplace.
FSMLabs provides customers using TimeKeeper Cloud on Amazon Web Services (AWS) improved efficiency, scalability, and cost effectiveness for financial trading, gaming, and database applications hosted in the AWS cloud.
Challenges with cost and scalability are forcing financial trading firms to consider cloud technology, and legacy time synchronisation solutions fail to meet client requirements while it is common to see computing resources deviate from reference time by minutes per day.
FSMLabs’ TimeKeeper Cloud delivers a reliable, accurate, and auditable time synchronisation solution in a cloud-based environment solving complex time synchronisation
Kinetic Partners has recruited Kent McParland as a director within the corporate recovery practice in the firm’s New York office.
Brought on to facilitate and execute liquidations and restructurings on behalf of distressed investments, McParland will focus on building the New York practice as well as supporting the corporate recovery team globally.
In addition to augmenting the practice’s restructuring engagements and traditional approach to the market via financial institutions and smaller institutional investors, McParland will also service the growing need of investors seeking to wind down their positions in distressed 2008 assets and zombie funds.
McParland joins Kinetic
Abacus Group, a provider of hosted IT solutions for hedge funds and private equity funds, has formed a partnership with Global Relay, a specialist in hosted email archiving, messaging and compliance services.
Global Relay will provide a secure, reliable and compliant message archiving solution as part of the AbacusFLEX private cloud platform.
The partnership offers AbacusFLEX clients integration with Global Relay’s compliance archiving and monitoring solution.
The Dodd-Frank Act requires that hedge funds, private equity funds and investment advisors retain and monitor electronic messages. Now, in partnership with Global Relay, AbacusFLEX clients’ email, Bloomberg, Instant Messenger (IM), mobile
NYSE Liffe is to expand its index derivatives franchise with the launch of futures based on MSCI Factor Indices.
NYSE Liffe expects to introduce the industry’s first futures contracts on MSCI Equal Weighted Indices and MSCI Minimum Volatility Indices on 3 February via Bclear, the exchange’s wholesale facility.
The following new contracts will be available:
• MSCI Emerging Market Minimum Volatility and Equal Weighted Futures
• MSCI Europe Minimum Volatility and Equal Weighted Futures
• MSCI USA Equal Weighted Futures
• MSCI World Minimum Volatility and Equal Weighted Futures
Also known as Smart Beta Indices, these benchmarks have
State Street has opened an office in Shanghai which will provide alternative investment servicing solutions to support the firm’s hedge fund clients as they expand their business in China.
It will also support client and business development initiatives in China for State Street’s Alternative Investment Solutions (AIS) business in the private equity and real estate asset classes.
Carol Hall, senior managing director of State Street’s AIS team, says: “This is an exciting milestone for State Street and our continued development in China. We are very pleased to be able to support our global clients as they expand into the
Trading volume in S&P 500 Index (SPX) Weeklys options totalled an estimated 747,616 contracts last week, an all-time daily volume record, according to Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE).
The new record surpassed – by 75 per cent – the previous daily record of 426,955 SPX Weeklys (SPXW) contracts traded yesterday.
Prior to this week, the single-day volume record had been 425,270 contracts from 31 May 2013.
SPX Weeklys options have driven tremendous growth in the CBOE’s SPX options complex over the last several years. Average daily volume (ADV) for SPX Weeklys options during 2013 reached an all-time high
Special Reports
FeatureD
- Insight
