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The trustee of the GBP145m Midcounties Co-operative Pension Scheme has chosen Towers Watson to manage its investment portfolio on a fiduciary management basis, following a competitive tender.
Towers Watson’s delegated investment service provides an integrated approach to managing assets against liabilities for all sizes of pension funds in the context of a journey plan to full funding. The company is one of the world largest fiduciary managers and now has delegated responsibility for around USD60bn of assets worldwide.
Chris Ford (pictured), EMEA head of investment at Towers Watson, says: “We are delighted that the Midcounties trustee has appointed
HSBC Global Asset Management (USA) has appointed Mary Bowers as a senior global high yield fund manager in its global fixed income team, based in New York.
The team manages approximately USD3bn in the high yield capability. Bowers will manage the HSBC GIF Global High Yield Bond Fund and the recently launched HSBC GIF Global Short Duration High Yield Bond Fund which have USD1.1bn and USD20m in assets respectively.
Bowers joins from Aberdeen Asset Management/Artio Global Investors (formerly Julius Baer Asset Management) in New York, where she had ten years of experience in global high yield portfolio management, co-managing approximately
Institutional investors across the world are most concerned about tail risk and rising interest rates as they begin to position their portfolios for the end of ultra-loose monetary policy in developed markets.
That is one of the key findings from Allianz Global Investors’ survey of nearly 400 senior decision makers at institutional investors from 41 countries around the world.
While only a minority of respondents expect interest rates to rise towards their long-term historical averages before 2015, rising interest rates and tail risk are seen as most prevalent economic risk factors affecting investment performance over the next three
Peppercomm Strategic Communications has acquired Walek & Associates, an independent financial, capital markets and investor relations firm.
The move combines Peppercomm’s full suite of integrated marketing and communications offerings, including creative design, digital, social media, experiential and strategic licensing, with Walek’s concentrated expertise in asset management, capital markets and investor relations.
The announcement comes on the heels of Peppercomm’s recent acquisition of Janine Gordon & Associates and the formation of JGAPeppercomm, a specialty group focused on the consumer lifestyle and non-profit sectors. Together, these two acquisitions are part of Peppercomm’s move to deepen the firm’s expertise in key
Deutsche Börse will act as the exclusive licensor of Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) market data and information products to all international clients.
The new cooperation will benefit existing and potential customers by giving them access to both exchanges’ market data products under a single license agreement. A signing ceremony was held in Frankfurt on 2 October 2013.
The partnership also allows Deutsche Börse to deepen its client service capabilities in important Asian markets such as India, as well as strengthen the strategic alliance between the two exchanges.
“By partnering with BSE we give customers access to the
EDHEC-Risk Institute and Lyxor are launching a three-year research chair entitled “Risk Allocation Solutions” to develop academic insights that can be used towards the design of high-performance multi-asset investment solutions, based on specific investor needs.
Year one will focus on the next generation of risk parity, which may suffer from one major shortcoming, namely the fact that it is not explicitly sensitive to changes in economic conditions.
To find optimal ways to allocate risk budgets in investors’ portfolio construction, EDHEC-Risk Institute will in particular develop a dynamic risk allocation approach through three major topics:
• Extending standard
US-dollar prime money market funds (MMFs) have increased their total exposure to European financial institutions by 16 per cent (USD27bn) in the first two months of Q3 2013, says Moody’s Investors Service.
Most of this increase is due to higher exposures to Swedish and French banks, which rose by 40 per cent and 22 per cent respectively.
Within Euro-denominated MMFs, exposure to European financial institutions remained stable, albeit with significant country shifts, while Sterling MMFs reduced their exposure to the euro area by 6.5 per cent (GBP3.2bn).
US domiciled USD funds increased assets under management (AUMs) by
Investor Analytics sees ESMA’s recently updated guidelines as firmly placing risk statistics like value-at-risk and sensitivity analysis as mandatory requirements for AIFMD reporting.
Investor Analytics has seen a tremendous increase in clients’ interest to better understand the risk reporting requirements of Annex IV, which is part of the sweeping Alternative Investment Funds Manager Directive (AIFMD).
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has recently responded to stakeholders’ questions and has clarified the reporting requirements for alternative investment fund managers to include a wide array of risk analytics.
Highlights of the 1 October final report issued by ESMA
FINMA, the Swiss financial regulator, is currently conducting investigations into several Swiss financial institutions in connection with possible manipulation of foreign exchange markets.
FINMA is coordinating closely with authorities in other countries as multiple banks around the world are potentially implicated.
FINMA will give no further details on the investigations or the banks potentially involved.
Kinetic Partners is now offering a global background checking service to complement its investor led fund, fund manager and service provider operational due diligence (ODD) services.
Individuals applicable for background investigation may include a fund manager’s chief executive officer, portfolio manager/chief investment officer, chief operating officer, chief financial officer or independent fund directors.
The scope of background checks will include criminal, education, employment, credit and civil checks amongst other areas and the scope will vary according to location of that individual and the firm.
Quentin Thom, director, Kinetic Partners, says: “As our global due diligence offering continues
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