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Mindy M Posoff, president of Traversent Capital Partners in Philadelphia, has been elected to HighMark Funds’ seven-strong board of trustees.
Posoff, an investment management consultant, succeeds the retiring Robert M Whitler, a trustee since December 1998, and former executive vice president and chief trust officer of Union Bank, N.A.
HighMark Funds offers a wide range of mutual funds including world class fixed income funds, domestic and international equity funds, money market funds, and asset allocation portfolios.
“HighMark Funds is grateful to Bob for his 12 years of distinguished service and leadership on our board of trustees,” says HighMark Capital Management
The international derivatives markets of Eurex Group ended 2010 with a turnover of approximately 2.64 billion contracts, compared with 2.65 billion in 2009.
The total volume for 2010 splits into 1.9 billion contracts traded at Eurex (2009: 1.7 billion) and 745.2 million contracts traded at the International Securities Exchange (ISE) (2009: 960.2 million). This corresponds to a daily average trading volume of 10.4 million contracts compared with 10.5 million in 2009.
At Eurex, equity index derivatives was the largest segment in 2010 with a total volume of 805.1 million contracts (2009: 797.5 million). Derivatives on the EURO STOXX 50® index
The New York Stock Exchange will implement new circuit-breaker collar trigger levels for first-quarter 2011 effective Monday, January 3, 2011.
Circuit-breaker points represent the thresholds at which trading is halted marketwide for single-day declines in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA). They are set quarterly as 10, 20 and 30 per cent of the DJIA average closing values of the previous month, rounded to the nearest 50 points.
In first-quarter 2011, the 10-, 20- and 30-per cent decline levels, respectively, in the DJIA will be as follows –
Level 1 Halt: A 1,150-point drop in the DJIA before 2 pm will
Following the enactments of the Securities and Investment Business Act, 2010 (SIBA) and Mutual Funds Regulations, 2010, the BVI Financial Services Commission (BVI FSC) has now released the Public Funds Code, 2010.
The code, which will come into force on 31 March 2011 and will from that point apply to all BVI funds registered as public funds, is designed to implement the standards set by the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) for the regulation of retail funds, as far as is relevant and applicable to public funds. In addition to considering ISOCO’s Objectives and Principles, the FSC has also
The British Virgin Islands Financial Services Commission (BVI FSC) has formed the Securities, Investment Business and Mutual Fund Advisory Committee (SIBA Advisory Committee) to review the Securities and Investment Business Act, 2010 (SIBA) and related relevant legislation and recommend changes to the regulatory regime that governs securities, investment business and mutual funds in the Territory.
Ross Munro, Partner and Head of Investment Funds and Regulatory at the law firm Harneys has been appointed Chairman of the SIBA Advisory Committee, while the other members of the committee are: Robert Briant, Partner, Conyers Dill & Pearman; Ryan Geluk, Director, BDO; Ayana Hull-Brathwaite,
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has obtained more than USD860,000 in restitution and civil monetary penalties in a federal judgment against defendants Paul Abad of Orange County California, and his companies, Thirteen Thirty-Two, and Thirteen Thirty-Two, dba MRTS Asset Management.
The consent order requires the defendants jointly and severally to pay USD485,845 in restitution and a joint and several USD375,000 civil monetary penalty. The order also permanently bans the defendants from engaging in any commodity-related activity, including trading and registering with the CFTC.
The consent order stems from a CFTC complaint filed on December 1, 2008, charging the
Bermuda’s new Investment Funds Amendment Act 2010, which received the assent of the Governor General on 22 December and amends the Investment Funds Act 2006, has introduced several new provisions for the regulation of investment funds in the Caribbean jurisdiction.
The aim of the Amendment Act is to align “the regulatory framework for funds and fund administrators more closely with the requirements that exist in other regulatory legislation in Bermuda, while ensuring that the framework overall remains risk-based and recognises the unique nature of the funds industry [in Bermuda].”
The Amendment Act was introduced following consultation with Bermuda International Business
Robert Koller, an Austrian citizen, who completed law degrees in both Austria and Spain, has been awarded a landmark decision in a dispute lasting several years in relation to the Austrian legal profession.
Having first qualified as a lawyer in Spain, he applied to take the foreign lawyers’ test in Austria and requested exemption based on the fact that he had studied law in Austria and that there was a relevant provision in Austrian law.
However, his request for admittance to the aptitude test was denied in the first instance and also after appeal by the Oberste Berufungs und Disziplinarkommission
Global investor confidence rose 8.0 points in December according to figures released by State Street Global Markets. The State Street Global Investor Confidence Index rose from 94.4 to 104.4 during December, while in North America confidence rose 7.7 points to 103.1.
Investor confidence was not as positive among European investors however, with the index decreasing 10.8 points to 99 from November’s revised level of 109.8. In Asia, like North America, institutional investors were equally optimistic and confidence in that region increased by 7.4 points from a revised November level of 95.5 to 102.9 in December.
Developed by Harvard University
Hedge fund managers have turned extremely upbeat on US equities, according to the TrimTabs/BarclayHedge Survey of Hedge Fund Managers for December.
About 46% of the 92 hedge fund managers the firms surveyed in the past week are bullish on the S&P 500, while only 19% are bearish.
“These bullish and bearish readings are the highest and lowest, respectively, since the inception of our survey in May,” says Sol Waksman (pictured), founder and President of BarclayHedge. “The enthusiasm is not surprising. Our Hedge Fund Index shows consistent gains in 13 of the past 14 years, and hedge funds are firmly on track
