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The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has ordered Barclays Bank PLC and four of its traders to pay USD453m in civil penalties for manipulating electric energy prices in California and other western markets between November 2006 and December 2008.
FERC also ordered Barclays to disgorge USD34.9m, plus interest, in unjust profits to the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Programs of Arizona, California, Oregon, and Washington.
Barclays has vowed to fight the fine stating that FERC’s assessment “does not reflect a balanced and full description of the facts or the applicable legal standard.”
"We intend to vigorously defend this
Nicholas Tsang, the son-in-law of China’s Vice Premier Wang Yang, has launched a Hong Kong-based hedge fund focused on mainland equities. Zhang joins a growing number of young family members of top officials who have set up asset management businesses in the city of late.
South China Morning Post reports that Nicholas Zhang, who married Wang’s only daughter some years ago, started Magnolia Capital Management this year with some of his former colleagues from the Hong Kong offices of Soros Fund Management and UBS, said sources familiar with the situation who declined to be named.
Zhang, now in his late 20s,
CI Investments has launched the Lawrence Park Strategic Income Fund, expanding the firm’s selection of funds in the global fixed income category.
The portfolio manager is Lawrence Park Capital Partners.
The Lawrence Park Strategic Income Fund’s mandate is to generate positive returns with low volatility through exposure to global corporate bond markets, and provide protection from rising interest rates. The fund manages a portfolio of primarily investment-grade corporate bonds, while using hedging tools to lower the interest rate duration of the portfolio and help to immunise the fund from interest rate moves.
The fund relies on Lawrence
Broadridge Financial Solutions has closed its acquisition of Bonaire Software Solutions, a provider of fee calculation, billing and revenue and expense management solutions for asset managers including institutional asset managers, wealth managers, mutual funds, bank trusts, hedge funds and capital markets firms.
Terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.
"The addition of Bonaire is a great advancement in our strategy to offer expanded fee and expense management solutions to the financial services industry," says Gerard Scavelli, president, mutual funds and retirement solutions group, Broadridge. "The combined Broadridge and Bonaire solutions will help create the transparency, automation and
The Securities and Exchange Commission has obtained a USD13.9m penalty against former Goldman Sachs board member Rajat K. Gupta for illegally tipping corporate secrets to former hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam.
Gupta is also permanently barred from serving as an officer or director of a public company.
The SEC previously obtained a record USD92.8m penalty against Rajaratnam for prior insider trading charges.
“The sanctions imposed today send a clear message to board members who are entrusted with protecting the confidences of the companies they serve,” says George S Canellos, co-director of the SEC’s division of enforcement. “If
SC Distributors, an alternative investment distribution organisation, has appointed Shelle Graves as regional vice president for the South Central region, which includes Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana.
Graves joins SC Distributors from RS Funds, where she was a proven top performer over the past nine and a half years. During her tenure at RS Funds, Graves’ region consistently ranked number one in sales with some of the country’s top tier investment firms.
“We’re excited to add someone with Shelle’s proven background and experience,” says Mike McDaniel, national sales manager. “Her dynamic track record in the financial services industry and
US property/casualty (P/C) insurers invest in alternative and other less traditional asset classes, including hedge funds and private equity investments, in an effort to gain portfolio diversification and enhance investment returns, according to a report by Fitch Ratings.
At year-end 2012, alternative investments represented eight per cent of P/C industry invested assets, compared with approximately 70 per cent fixed income securities, and 14 per cent common equities.
In the report, Fitch reviewed the P/C industry’s investments in alternative and other invested assets at year-end 2012, compiling information from Schedule BA of US statutory financial statements on 50 P/C
ITG, an independent execution and research broker, has released the new ITG Dynamic Implementation Shortfall Algorithm 2.0 (ITG DIS 2.0), a tool for portfolio traders.
ITG DIS 2.0 builds on the original Dynamic Implementation Shortfall Algorithm, which was created to execute portfolio trades in a coordinated, cost-effective manner.
ITG DIS 2.0 offers enhanced optimisation capabilities that can handle even imbalanced and illiquid portfolio trades. ITG DIS 2.0 incorporates intraday patterns in cost and risk to formulate its trading strategy and dynamically updates its strategy as conditions change over the execution horizon.
“ITG Dynamic Implementation Shortfall Algorithm 2.0 gives
Los Angeles-based investment management firm Ivory Investment Management has appointed Craig Pollak as head of institutional marketing.
Pollak, who will be based in Ivory’s New York office, will be responsible for developing and maintaining relationships with institutional investors.
“We are pleased to welcome Craig back to the Ivory team,” says Curtis Macnguyen, Ivory’s founder and head portfolio manager. “Craig brings a wealth of knowledge to the firm as our Head of Institutional Marketing and we are fortunate to have him rejoin to broaden our capabilities and visibility with institutional investors especially pension funds, endowments and foundations. There is
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has launched a consultation on draft regulatory technical standards (RTS) aimed at implementing the provisions of the European Markets Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) related to OTC derivative transactions by non-European Union (EU) counterparties and aimed at preventing attempts by non-EU counterparties to evade EMIR’s provisions.
The consultation paper clarifies the conditions where EMIR’s provisions regarding central clearing or risk mitigation techniques would apply to OTC derivatives by two non-EU counterparties which have a direct, substantial and foreseeable effect in the EU.
The proposed RTS would only apply when two counterparties to the
