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The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) is planning to strengthen intraday settlement finality in the US financial markets by proposing the implementation of major structural changes in the settlement of equities, corporate debt and municipal debt securities over the next five years.
In a white paper to the industry titled “A Roadmap for Promoting Intraday Settlement Finality in the US Markets,” DTCC, through its depository, The Depository Trust Company (DTC), says it will make major, multi-year enhancements that “represent DTC’s vision for the future of settlement finality and risk reduction” in the financial services industry.
While “DTC continuously monitors
Michael Singer has joined Ramius as chief executive officer reporting to Peter Cohen.
Singer will be responsible for overseeing and managing the day-to-day operations of Ramius.
Thomas Strauss will become chairman of Ramius and vice chairman of Cowen Group, with a focus on expanding global relationships and partnerships in the asset management business.
Cohen says: “We are very pleased to have Michael join us as we accelerate the build out of the Ramius platform. Michael has an exceptionally strong and diverse background in alternative asset management, and he will focus on expanding our current suite of products and broadening our
Phoenix Investment Adviser, a private investment firm that specialises in high-yield corporate debt, has increased its assets under management by almost 40 per cent year-over-year, managing over USD530m as of 1 December.
This robust growth, coupled with ongoing interest from a global range of institutional allocators, has prompted the firm to continue expanding its investment team.
Alex Duncan, the most recent of several senior hires, has been appointed as a senior research analyst. He will be covering the healthcare, chemicals, power, and shipping sectors. Duncan will report to Phoenix’s founder and chief investment officer Jeffrey Peskind (pictured).
"We’ve grown significantly
Hedge funds posted gains in November as equities traded in a wide intra-month range following the US Presidential election and as global financial markets focused on the US fiscal cliff.
The HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index gained 0.35 per cent for the month, posting its fifth gain in the last six months, according to data released by HFR.
Relative value arbitrage (RVA) and event driven (ED) strategies were top contributors in November, with both the HFRI Relative Value Arbitrage Index and HFRI Event Driven Index gaining 0.7 per cent. RVA strategies remain the top area of hedge fund strategy performance
Carey Olsen has advised the Battle Against Cancer Investment Trust (BACIT Limited) on its establishment as a Guernsey registered closed-ended investment company and its recent flotation on the Main List of the London Stock Exchange.
BACIT is a new investment company formed by a group of leading fund managers. It raised GBP270m which will be invested in long-only funds, hedge funds and private equity funds – some of which are not readily accessible to the investor community.
The managers of the underlying funds will not charge management fees to BACIT Limited which will invest up to one per cent of
ESMA proposals limiting the use of indices by Ucits funds will require a change in investment approach for EUR3bn of CTA Ucits assets, according to a paper published by Alix Capital, the Geneva-based investment boutique specialising in regulated alternatives investments.
The paper discusses the impact of the regulation and examines the options available to CTA managers to ensure compliance with the ESMA proposals.
Current Ucits regulations do not allow direct investment in commodities therefore many CTA managers use indices to gain commodity exposure. The ESMA consultation, entitled “Guidelines on ETFs and other Ucits issues: Consultation on recallability of repo and
Horton Point, a systematic trading firm based in New York, is expanding into the seeding business.
Originally built as proprietary trading firm, Horton Point later expanded to include a number of institutional managed account investors.
It is now moving into the incubation business and is raising a private equity fund to serve as a seeding vehicle for a number of systematic traders.
“We see large numbers of deeply experienced talented quantitative traders being displaced from large firms. Many are eager to set up their own shops. Their alpha-generation skills are very appealing, but they lack other ingredients necessary to build
Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, a counsellor to global financial institutions and corporations, has named associates Nathan M Bull, Sophie K Cuthbertson, Douglas J Donahue, Brian Foster, Ellen Halstead and Jeffrey Nagle to special counsel.
W Christopher White (pictured), chairman of Cadwalader, says: "It is with great pleasure that I announce the promotion of Nathan M Bull, Sophie K Cuthbertson, Douglas J Donahue, Brian Foster, Ellen Halstead and Jeffrey Nagle to special counsel. Each of them has demonstrated a commitment to the law, the profession and to Cadwalader. I commend them for this achievement and on this important step in their
The Isle of Man Government has confirmed that it will be adopting tax information sharing arrangements with the UK which will follow closely the FATCA intergovernmental agreement currently being negotiated with the US.
Chief Minister Allan Bell (pictured) says: “The nature of tax cooperation is changing and, as I made clear in my Agenda for Change speech to Tynwald in October, automatic exchange is becoming the global standard. The island already shares tax information automatically under the EU Savings Directive and has recently announced that it will do so on a wider basis with the US.
“This decision is
Alternative UCITS funds returned 0.32 per cent in November according to Geneva-based Alix Capital, provider of the UCITS Alternative Index Global. That takes YTD returns to 1.13 per cent. All but three strategies made positive gains last month.
The best performing strategies were UAI Emerging Markets, up 0.73 per cent, UAI Multi-Strategy, up 0.71 per cent, and UAI Macro, up 0.42 per cent. The worst performing strategy proved to be the UAI FX Index, recording losses of 0.24 per cent, closely followed by UAI Commodities, which finished down 0.22 per cent. CTA and Commodities are now, by some considerable distance,
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