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For UBS Fund Services, the AIFM Directive represents a significant opportunity to expand its business offering. As a global operation, it is well positioned to capitalise on the regulatory changes being introduced in Europe as compared to administrators without a European presence. In addition to offices in Dublin and Luxembourg, both of which are already working to support managers under the directive, UBS also has its own dedicated AIFMD working group whose sole focus is keeping on top of salient issues.
“We see a lot of opportunities to help our existing non-EU managers, some of whom are looking to establish
By Colin MacKay – The 2007/8 global financial crisis continues to influence the environment within which the Cayman investment funds industry operates. Global economic patterns, largely driven by factors emerging from that crisis, continue to shape cross-border political and regulatory developments. These, in turn, impact the investment management, banking, prime brokerage, administration, accounting and legal communities, each of which continues to favour Cayman for investment fund structuring and operation.
In geo-political terms, 2013 has seen a continued evolution of the thinking on what British Prime Minister Cameron dubbed the “3 Ts” of cross-border activity: taxation, transparency and trade. This evolution
By James Williams – December 2013 proved to be a busy period for the Cayman Islands in terms of the development of its regulatory framework. On 6 December 2013, after a period of consultation with industry practitioners, the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA) – the Islands’ financial regulator – released its Statement of Guidance for Regulated Mutual Funds (‘SoG-MF’).
In essence, the SoG-MF codifies and sets guidance on the minimum corporate governance standards required by operators of regulated mutual funds (directors, general partners) and gives the operators a clear understanding of their primary duties. For example, the operators must ensure
For investors in Asian hedge funds, it was China and not the region's hottest major market, Japan, that provided the best bang for the buck in 2013 – a result set to ensure greater capital inflows into steadily growing China-focused funds as reported by Reuters.
Scoring with heavy bets on Internet, tech and casino stocks, hedge funds investing in the Greater China region gained an average 20 per cent last year compared to a flat MSCI China index, their best showing in five years.
By contrast, Japan-focused equity funds gained an average 26 per cent last year, data from Eurekahedge showed, lagging a 29 per cent rise in the
Hedge funds gained 1.23 per cent in December, according to the Barclay Hedge Fund Index compiled by BarclayHedge.
The index gained 11.21 per cent in 2013.
“The US Fed announced in December that it would reduce Quantitative Easing purchases from USD85bn to USD75bn per month, and assured market participants that until certain growth rates and unemployment levels were achieved, interest rates would remain low,” says Sol Waksman, founder and president of BarclayHedge. “Equity prices in the US and Europe rallied on the news and the S&P 500 reached a record high on the final trading day of the year."
IndexIQ saw assets under management jump 37 per cent in 2013 to USD1.125bn, driven in part by its IQ Hedge Multi-Strategy Tracker ETF (QAI).
QAI, the first hedge fund-style ETF and the industry’s largest alternative exchange-traded fund, more than doubled in size during the period, ending the year with nearly USD630m in assets.
In addition, IndexIQ continued to invest in its future growth during the year, expanding the sales force to include two new external wholesalers, covering the western and eastern territories, and bringing three new internal wholesalers on board.
“We are pleased to see our education-focused approach
Rob Smith, Manager of the German Growth Trust at Barings, comments on the latest GDP figures from Germany…
When it comes to Germany, given the huge trade flows that influence the GDP numbers, it would not be advisable to extrapolate a trend from just a couple of quarters.
All other things being equal, GDP will be negatively influenced by an increase in imports exceeding the movement in exports, which is what we have seen in the last two quarters. This has resulted in an overall negative drag effect for the year as a whole.
Given that Germany imports many raw
Hedge fund and asset management technology provider HedgeGuard has launched its UK business as it begins the rollout of a new cloud technology platform and international expansion.
HedgeGuard’s software is designed to reduce costs across the asset management industry and provide cloud-based front-to-back office ‘intelligence’ for all clients on any device.
Already active in the French market, HedgeGuard’s software is designed to be user-friendly. It has adapted to increased volatility and regulation on behalf of its existing clients, with the reporting, risk and compliance modules that managers increasingly need.
Designed by hedge fund managers for hedge fund managers, HedgeGuard’s
The board of directors of ALTIN has decided to link its capital reduction policy directly to share price performance.
When share price appreciation is satisfactory, the board considers that indiscriminate capital reductions are not in the best long-term interests of the majority of shareholders and of the company.
In the future and so long as the discount does not narrow significantly, capital will be returned to compensate investors when share price performance falls below a 10 per cent to 12 per cent target. Such capital reductions will be conducted exclusively through the repurchase of own shares.
The board
BCS, the largest trader of equities and FX on the Russian exchange, has appointed John Barker as executive chairman of BCS Financial Group (BCS) in London.
Barker (pictured) took up his new role at BCS in January 2014.
Barker brings more than 20 years of management experience in the financial market to the firm. He was formerly the managing director and head of international at Liquidnet Europe. He has also held various senior positions at Instinet Global Services, including director of operations, head of trade support and managing the membership of multiple exchanges, clearing and settlement systems. During this
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