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Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Banking is combining its existing cross asset product offering to UK Professional Asset Managers under the new ‘SOLENTIS’ range.
The SOLENTIS team will bring all the existing component parts together under one focused team offering both syndicated and bespoke structured solutions to suit the cross asset needs of professional investors.
SOLENTIS brings the solutions-driven approach, usually only offered to very large institutional investors, to mainstream UK discretionary investment managers.
The solutions offered under one focused team will allow investors to optimise their risk/return profile and take full advantage of new market opportunities. Moreover, the
By Rick Gorter – Earlier this year, a shadow seemed to hang over the fund administration sector in the Cayman Islands, amid reports of staff cuts and movement of operations to lower-cost jurisdictions. While some of this may have taken place, the overall view of the sector is that of steady growth.
As the world moves further away from the financial downturn, the alternative asset investment sector is looking at the future from a positive viewpoint. From a fund administration perspective, business can only get bigger. After the Madoff scandal, most hedge funds have parked their administrative responsibilities in the
By Alan Raftery – There is a new-found hedge fund environment and the message for all involved is clear – be prepared. Today, it is vital for all in the hedge fund industry to have the right tools to survive and succeed in a volatile setting.
One of the most important requirements is the right technology and operational infrastructure, one that can deliver the service levels required by clients and their investors, and that can ensure smooth transition of front-to-back offering – from order management through to accounting. Increasing efficiencies while having the flexibility to adapt to different trends is
By Simon Gray – For years, industry professionals acknowledge, the Cayman Islands financial services sector – and the territory’s government – remained largely silent as the jurisdiction was branded as the epitome of the real and supposed ills of the offshore financial industry – tax evasion, money laundering, fraud and worse. But those days are now decisively over.
For at least two decades the islands have suffered from a dramatic dichotomy between its image among financial sector professionals, among whom its depth of expertise and experience is well established, and that held by the general public – including many politicians,
By Rohan Small (pictured) and Jeffrey Short – The Cayman Islands – one of the world’s leading offshore jurisdictions for the establishment of investment funds – has faced many tests to copper-fasten its dominant position. And now, even in the face of its toughest test ever in terms of intensifying laws on regulation and transparency, both from the European Union and the US, the fund jurisdiction looks set to overcome yet another hurdle.
Take the new EU Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive. The AIFMD will impose a number of additional registration and reporting requirements on alternative investment funds as well
By Ingrid Pierce (pictured) and Colette Wilkins – Following the global financial crisis, investors unhappy with an informal wind-down process are increasingly seeking to bring that process to an end and have the board replaced by a court-appointed liquidator.
With solvent funds also being targeted, managers need to be aware of the circumstances in which an informal wind-down can, and should, be replaced with a formal liquidation and, conversely, the options available to counter such action or enhance constitutional documents to mitigate risk.
There is no doubt that an insolvent fund can be wound up by the Grand Court of
By Derek Adler – Ifina has had a presence in the Cayman Islands for most of the past decade, but for much of that period the largest share of the firm’s administration work has come from the British Virgin Islands. However, particularly in the past year we have experienced a significant increase in the volume of demand from clients for servicing of Cayman-domiciled funds.
There are a number of reasons for the surge in new Cayman activity. First, we are very much a client-driven business that aims to provide our customers with a choice. If they perceive that Cayman is
By Anthony Travers – There’s no doubt that the global financial meltdown has resulted in a fundamentally changed set of financial and regulatory circumstances and a more hostile political environment. Yet it is perverse that the Cayman Islands have been the focus of numerous public relations attacks from G20 countries that themselves have suffered badly at the hands of the global meltdown.
The Cayman Islands’ regulatory system ensured that no financial institution failed, its Aa3 Moody’s rating is superior to that of Ireland, and its budget, despite ludicrous headlines from a transparently briefed popular press, is now balanced.
Whilst we
By Simon Gray – Like writer Mark Twain, who famously observed, “The report of my death is an exaggeration,” members of the alternative fund sector in the Cayman Islands have become familiar with reading their own obituary. Since the onset of the financial crisis, and especially the G20-led campaign to clamp down on opaque and poorly-regulated financial centres, the world’s leading offshore fund domicile has been regularly written off by onshore competitors and media commentators.
For instance, last July the Financial Times cited hedge fund managers as saying that “the future of the Cayman Islands as a hedge fund domicile
Hedge funds advanced for the 6th straight month in December to close 2010 at a high for the year, according to the latest results from the Greenwich Global Hedge Fund Index (GGHFI).
All major Greenwich Hedge Fund strategy groups finished the year higher, with Event-Driven, Directional Trading, and Long-Short Equity managers posting the best returns. The GGHFI advanced 3.07% in December and finished the year with a gain of 10.67%.
December was also a positive month for equity benchmarks – the S&P 500 Total Return (+6.68%), MSCI World Equity (+7.25%), and FTSE 100 (+6.72%) equity indices all ended the month higher. Some
