Latest News
IFG Trust and Corporate Group has unveiled its new brand – First Names Group.
A coordinated launch of the new First Names Group brand was celebrated at events in the Isle of Man, Jersey, Switzerland, Cyprus and Ireland.
Staff will be operating under the new brand from 1 February.
2012 marked a period of significant change for the group. Formerly the international division of IFG Group, the division was the subject of a management buyout (backed by AnaCap Financial Partners) in July.
The new corporate identity has been designed to represent the group’s people-centric focus in all aspects of its
More than half the inflows into UCITS hedge funds (56 per cent, EUR13.2billion) went into fixed income strategies during 2012 according to the latest quarterly European research paper published by Alix Capital, provider of the UCITS Alternative Index.
The second most popular strategy proved to be macro, attracting 24.7 per cent (EUR5.8billion) of inflows. 2012 saw total assets under management for UCITS hedge funds increase by an impressive 20 per cent to a new high of EUR140billion. The research found that the three largest single strategy managers saw their AUM increase significantly: Standard Life Investments’ AUM climbed 59.8 per cent
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published its final Guidelines and a Feedback Statement on the Exemption for market making activities and primary market operations under the Short Selling Regulation.
The Guidelines are aimed at providing market participants and national supervisors with clarity on the criteria to be met to benefit from a market making exemption, and the conditions to be used in assessing the notifications.
These Guidelines will support the creation of a level-playing field, consistency of market practices and convergence of supervisory practices amongst national securities market regulators across the EU.
Steven Maijoor, ESMA
The National Futures Association (NFA) has taken an emergency enforcement action against Prodigy Asset Management (PAM), a commodity pool operator (CPO) and commodity trading advisor (CTA) located in New York City, and its principal Ezekiel Abdel Rahman.
NFA has taken the Member Responsibility Action (MRA) and Associate Responsibility Action (ARA) to protect investors because PAM and Rahman have failed to cooperate with NFA in its attempts to confirm information provided in various filings made by PAM and Rahman regarding PAM’s CPO and CTA operations.
On 7 January 2013, NFA contacted Rahman seeking verification of certain information that had been previously
Schulte Roth & Zabel (SRZ) has appointed Barry A Bohrer and Lisa A Prager as partners and Lara Covington as special counsel in the firm’s litigation practice.
The group’s arrival from Morvillo, Abramowitz, Grand, Iason, Anello & Bohrer brings further depth to SRZ’s 100-person litigation and enforcement practice.
“We are very excited to welcome this outstanding group of lawyers to the firm,” says Alan S Waldenberg, chair of the firm’s executive committee and chair of the tax group. “Expansion of the firm’s litigation and enforcement practice continues to be a key strategy for the firm in response to the
Fiera Capital has closed the acquisition of the Canadian fixed income, Canadian equity and domestic balanced account business from UBS Global Asset Management (Canada).
The deal represents assets under management of approximately CAD8bn for a cash consideration of CAD52m, subject to certain adjustments.
This transaction, previously announced on 11 December 2012, is immediately accretive to earnings.
The transaction has been approved by regulatory authorities and has satisfied other customary conditions.
The Japanese Yen has fallen sharply while the Euro is at its highest level against the US dollar since 2011. Keith Wade, Chief Economist and Clive Dennis, Head of Currencies at Schroders, share their views on the latest outbreak of currency wars and the impact this is having on the market…
Keith Wade, Chief Economist at Schroders – “The main central banks are heading for around USD1.7 trillion of asset purchases in 2013. The US is now directly targeting unemployment and the BoJ is committed to ending deflation. Both targets are ambitious and will require considerable purchases. Importantly for investors,
The National Futures Association’s board of directors has voted to accept the recommendations made by Berkeley Research Group (BRG) as part of its independent analysis of NFA’s audits of Peregrine Financial Group.
NFA staff will shortly develop a plan to act on the recommendations. The board will also appoint a special committee to oversee the timely implementation of the recommendations.
According to BRG, its 21 recommendations are "designed to improve the operations of NFA audits" based on the results of its analysis. The recommendations cover a wide range of topics, including auditor hiring, training, supervision and continuing education. In particular,
Blackstone has reported record full year, revenue, assets under management and public company earnings.
Stephen A Schwarzman (pictured), chairman and chief executive officer, says: “The fourth quarter of 2012 capped a year of record financial performance for Blackstone, with full-year revenues of over USD4bn and economic net income of USD2bn, our best results since becoming a public company over five-and-a-half years ago.
“We’ve generated consistently strong investment performance for our limited partner investors across market cycles since our inception 28 years ago, and 2012 was no exception, with all of our businesses beating their respective benchmarks. Our favourable performance continues
Bandon Capital Management has appointed Whitney Dow to its management team.
As managing director, he will be responsible for spearheading the firm’s marketing and relationship management efforts.
Dow brings to Bandon over 15 years of extensive investment management experience in marketing, business development, and relationship management. Most significantly, he spent nearly six years as a director with Russell Investments, responsible for the expansion of its distribution footprint in the US by building strategic relationships with national, regional, and independent broker-dealers and other intermediaries. Prior to Russell, Dow served for five years in consulting and analytical roles with Financial Research
