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In March 2012, the volume of assets placed in the investment funds covered by the Swiss Funds Assiciation (SFA) climbed to around CHF648 billion, an increase of CHF1.4 billion month-on-month.
There were inflows of assets for bond funds (+CHF2 billion), products in the “other funds” category (+CHF0.5 billion) and equity funds (+ CHF0.4 billion).
As of the end of March 2012, the total volume of assets in the investment funds covered by the statistics compiled by Swiss Fund Data AG and Lipper stood at CHF647.1 billion, an increase of CHF1.4 billion month-on-month. Funds for institutional investors accounted for CHF241.0 billion
Perseus Telecom, a global provider of connectivity, along with Reliance Globalcom, the Global telecommunications services arm of India’s largest integrated telecom operator Reliance Communications, has launched the world’s fastest available trans-Atlantic network connection, QuanTA, between major global financial exchanges.
The launch of QuanTA represents a landmark development in the latency race to zero and creates new opportunities for trading firms on both sides of the Atlantic.
The partnership between Perseus Telecom and Reliance Globalcom has resulted in the creation of an innovative high-speed, ultra low-latency network connection across the Atlantic by leveraging an existing system on the FLAG Atlantic-1
All private, professional and public funds in the British Virgin Islands are required to submit a Mutual Fund Annual Return (MFAR) to the BVI Financial Services Commission (FSC) no later than 30 June 2012 in respect of the calendar year ending 31 December 2011.
Funds and their service providers must make use of the Commission’s e-filing system when preparing and submitting their annual returns. The e-filing system can be accessed here.
As law firm Harneys points out, failure to complete and file the MFAR on or prior to 30 June exposes a fund to the risk of enforcement action by
Eurex Clearing and Pirum Systems announced have entered into a Connectivity Agreement to facilitate access to Eurex Clearing’s upcoming CCP service for securities lending.
Pirum Systems is an acknowledged market leader in automating post-trade processes for the securities finance industry. The direct connectivity between Eurex Clearing and Pirum’s automation platform allows market participants to make use of their existing Pirum interfaces to feed bilaterally agreed transactions to Eurex Clearing for CCP novation and downstream processing.
“We are very pleased to work with Pirum in our effort to bring the safety and efficiency of Eurex Clearing’s CCP services to the securities
The hedge fund industry on average does not hedge and the limited diversification of most hedge funds has been exposed, according to a report by SEB’s X-Asset team. And SEB believes that this type of ”naive” portfolio of hedge funds is likely to amplify cyclical swings of a balanced portfolio.
According to the report, those hedge funds looking for diversification can find it: equity market neutrals, macro and CTAs have all diversified macro risk in the past and offer an attractive mix for balanced portfolios.
SEB believes hedge funds add value to balanced portfolios but it is necessary to
During the first quarter of 2012, the Lyxor Hedge Fund Index was up 1.5% (-0.5% in March), characterised by increased dispersion among Hedge Fund strategies in March: +0.6% for Lyxor Merger Arbitrage Index vs -0.35% for Lyxor Special Situations Index within Event-Driven space, -1.6% for Lyxor L/S Equity Variable Bias Index vs +0.6% for Lyxor L/S Equity Long Bias Index.
A key driver of hedge fund performance during March 2012 was the divergence of economic fundamentals. The US economy continues to exhibit moderate growth, while Europe and the Emerging economies show signs of softening relative to expectations. The generally better
Gottex Fund Management’s entire product lone posted positive performance for March year to date, according to the company’s latest trading statement. The results saw Gottex increase its outperformance against its benchmarks.
Total fee-earning assets for the group increased by 3.1% to USD 7.6 billion compared to USD 7.3 billion at 31 December 2011, as a result of positive performance and subscriptions of USD350 million at Gottex Fund Management and LUMA GSS.
Gottex’s flagship market neutral plus product is expected to regain its high water mark in Q2 2012 and would then start accruing performance fees.
The firm has reported a
The transition to a new party leadership in 2012 should facilitate bolder reform and further unlock China’s growth potential, says Yiqian Jiang, fund manager, DWS Invest Chinese Equities fund…

We believe that fears of an economic hard-landing will prove unwarranted as the Chinese economy is poised to complete the last stage of “soft-landing” in first half of 2012, setting the stage for recovery in the second half of the year. Macro policy crossed an inflection point in the fourth quarter of 2011, turning from tightening to moderately accommodative. We expect policy turnaround to precede economic change by around six months, when the
The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged twin brothers from the UK with defrauding approximately 75,000 investors through an Internet-based pump-and-dump scheme. According to the SEC allegations, the brothers touted a fake “stock picking robot” that purportedly identified penny stocks set to double in price. Instead, they were merely touting stocks they were being paid separately to promote.
The SEC alleges that Alexander John Hunter and Thomas Edward Hunter were just 16 years old when they set their fraud in motion beginning in 2007. They disseminated e-mail newsletters through a pair of websites they created to tout stocks selected by
London and more specifically the Core West End, still ranks as the number one destination for hedge funds in Europe according to “Hedging the Risk”, a new research report from Jones Lang LaSalle.
Andrew Barnes, director in Jones Lang LaSalle’s West End Agency team, says: “Hedge funds experienced a challenging 2011 and activity was muted however they still paid some of the highest rents in London.
“There has also been a definite change in where Hedge fund managers will consider looking with some now prepared to consider alternative locations to keep occupational costs in check, particularly if the building has
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