Latest News
Interview with Paul Farrell – Since Walkers decided to open an office in Dublin last September the firm has grown steadily. There are currently 35 members of staff. Of these, five are lawyers working in the Investment Funds Group, which opened up for business 1 February 2011 with Walkers partner, Paul Farrell, at the helm.
Although it is never easy setting up shop in a new jurisdiction, a lot of research and planning, and identifying the right to people to recruit was done a few years beforehand.
As you’d expect of a leading global law firm, Walkers have hit the
Interview with Rosemary Quinlan – HSBC Securities Services has been operating out of Dublin since 1979, during which time it has become one of the leading players in the funds space. Responding to challenges and having the speed and innovation to overcome them has always been a key strength of this global player.
One challenge facing the industry today is the increased commoditisation of products and services being offered by administrators and depositories.
“Standardisation can help ensure transparency of both procedures and associated data and improve operational efficiency,” says Rosemary Quinlan, Managing Director HSBC Securities Services and Deputy Country CEO.
By James Williams – It’s no exaggeration to say that Ireland, as a jurisdiction, punches above its weight.
According to the Irish Funds Industry Association (IFIA), the total asset value of funds domiciled in Ireland, as of May 2011, was EUR987 billion; a 2.5% increase on 2010 (EUR963 billion). Add to that the EUR828 billion in non-domiciled funds being administered and the figure comes to EUR1.8 trillion in AuA based on figures released by the Central Bank of Ireland.
Continuous commitment from the Irish Government and strategic focus from the likes of IFIA and other industry bodies has seen the
Liontrust Asset Management is to acquire the fund management business of Occam Asset Management. The acquisition is in line with the firm’s publicly stated objective of expanding into the fast growing Asia and emerging markets asset classes to complement its existing UK and Europe fund management capability.
Occam brings the management of four Dublin-based funds – Occam Emerging Markets Opportunities, Occam Asia Focus, Occam Asia Absolute Return and Occam Europe Focus funds – and two Cayman Islands-domiciled hedge funds – Occam Sorbus and Occam Diversity funds – to Liontrust.
The Occam Asia Focus and Occam Asia Absolute Return funds are
Baring Asset Management (Barings), the international asset management firm, believes that even as the headlines focus on debt negotiations in Europe and the US, the underlying economic trends are deteriorating. Percival Stanion, Head of Asset Allocation at Barings, explains…
Global economic data continues to be both broadly weak and disappointing. The manufacturing strength that had powered the global economy out of recession appears to be petering out across north America, Europe and, most worryingly, Asia.
Barings believes the global weakness will continue for several months due to rising inventory levels, the continued fiscal retrenchment of governments, and anaemic job
Collas Crill has opened the doors to its new Singapore office – making it the first Channel Islands-based law firm to do so.
Sean Cheong, formerly a partner in Collas Crill’s Guernsey office, has relocated to Singapore to head up the new office. She has been joined by office manager Rachel Leong.
Cheong says: "We are delighted to have opened our doors in Singapore, Collas Crill’s first new office outside the Channel Islands. The opening is a clear indication of our ability to respond to the demand from institutional and private clients in Asia for Channel Islands legal services, particularly
NYSE Euronext (NYX) has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Metabit, a leading Tokyo-based provider of high performance market access products throughout Japan and Asia. Metabit will operate as a product line within the NYSE Technologies portfolio. The transaction is expected to close in third quarter of 2011. Terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed.
Metabit specialises in streamlined, low-latency technology solutions that enable industry-leading access to financial markets across Asia. Metabit’s products connect buy-side order flow with sell-side exchange participants and are designed exclusively for low latency direct market access (DMA) and exchange connectivity to markets through-out Asia. The
CME Group and the Mexican Derivatives Exchange (MexDer) have launched a north-to-south order routing agreement, giving customers in the US access to MexDer’s benchmark derivatives contracts, including Mexican Stock Exchange Index Futures, Bond Futures and MXN Peso/US Dollar Futures Contracts.
The first phase of the project, CME Group strategic partnership with MexDer went live April 4, 2011 and gave Mexican investors access to CME Group’s benchmark derivatives contracts including interest rates, foreign currencies, equity indexes, energy, metals and agricultural commodities.
“Mexico is the 13th largest economy in the world and we continue to look for opportunities to provide our customers
Concept Capital Markets is to acquire Alaris Trading Partners. The terms of the transaction, which is pending approval by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), have not been disclosed.
The combined company will offer institutional brokerage services to hedge funds, asset managers, and registered investment advisers on a global basis. Through strategic alliances with major securities industry firms, Concept offers clients a broad selection of services that includes multi-prime brokerage, financing, institutional reporting, outsourced middle and back office services, risk management and direct access and voice brokerage. Alaris will be fully integrated with Concept by the end of the third
Interview with Graham Phillips – There are a host of different variables that a new manager must consider when embarking on the launch of a new fund. In today’s “institutionalised” environment, the barriers to entry are considerably greater than they were five years ago. This is because investors are taking far more interest in the fund’s structure. They expect a manager to demonstrate robustness in every area, and using third party administrators to value assets (particularly OTC derivatives), to maintain first-rate accounts that are error-free is now de rigueur. Nobody in the industry wants a repeat of the Madoff incident.
