IBM has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Algorithmics for USD387 million, subject to price adjustments at closing. Algorithmics is a risk analytics firm with operations in Toronto, Canada.   The company’s risk analytics software, content and advisory services are used by banks, investment and insurance businesses to help assess risk, address regulatory requirements and make more insightful business decisions. Algorithmics is a member of Fitch Group, which is majority owned by Fimalac, a holding company based in Paris. This acquisition expands IBM’s business analytics capabilities in the financial services industry by helping clients quantify, manage and optimize their risk

Equity markets have had a torrid time of late, buffeted by the headwinds of slowing economic growth, and the ongoing worries about the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis. However, amongst all the gloom there are still some bright spots, says Willem Sels, UK Head of Investment Strategy at HSBC Private Bank… Lower valuations, healthy balance sheets, and low financing costs have enabled the M&A cycle to continue. High profile deals announced in recent weeks are evidence that every threat presents an opportunity. In our view the conditions remain in place for M&A activity to continue, which should be beneficial for markets

Seventy-eight per cent of all retail advisors are presently using alternative investments within client portfolios. According to a new report released this week by Cogent Research, the primary reasons that advisors are using alternatives are to further diversify portfolios (83%), manage risk (80%), or to achieve absolute returns (54%).   By contrast, far fewer advisors report using alternatives in an effort to deliver returns above a benchmark (20%) or for tax management purposes (19%). These and other findings are included in the 2011 Advisor Brandscape, an annual report based on a nationally representative survey of 1,643 retail investment advisors. A

Andrew Morris (pictured), managing director of Signature, a trading name of Rowan Dartington, on the current state of the markets and levels of company debt… Due to a combination of the Jackson Hole gathering and hurricane Irene, all eyes have again been on the United States. The country appears to be holding its breath for the feared economic slowdown. With both Bernanke and Obama caught in a financial straightjacket with little or no wriggle room, there was almost an air of resignation hanging over the nation.                                                                                                     However, here’s something to cheer everyone up. Constituents of the FTSE 350, ex the financial

By Anthony O’Driscoll – Apex Fund Services opened in Malta in June 2008 and the business has grown in tandem with the development of the jurisdiction as a European fund services hub. Malta’s attractiveness to international asset managers has increased particularly over the past two years with a shift in emphasis toward creating onshore funds that mirror alternative investment strategies previously mostly offered through vehicles domiciled in offshore jurisdictions such as the Cayman Islands and Bermuda. While Malta is in competition with established European fund centres such as Luxembourg and Dublin, it has the great advantage of significantly lower costs.

By Simon Gray – Malta’s efforts to put itself on the map as a fund domicile and servicing centre within the European Union have been an undoubted success. Although fund numbers and aggregate assets are still low by comparison with its main competitors within the EU, Luxembourg and Ireland, over the past three years the Mediterranean island nation has forced itself to the attention of managers and promoters examining whether investor attitudes and the new global regulatory environment make it advisable to base at least part of their fund range onshore in Europe. Over the next few years, the authorities

By George Gregory – Malta’s appeal as a European financial services jurisdiction has been demonstrated over the past few years not only by choice of the island as a fund domicile but also by the number of fund management companies set up in the jurisdiction providing services to both locally-established and foreign funds. That trend can only be further encouraged by Malta’s new tax regime, unveiled earlier this year, aimed at highly qualified expatriates. The new regime, applicable to income earned from the beginning of 2010, introduces a 15 per cent flat tax rate on employment income derived in Malta