Latest News
NYSE Euronext’s wholly owned subsidiary NYSE Technologies plans to launch a consolidated tape for European equity markets beginning in quarter three 2011.
The tape will be available both as a real-time consolidated data feed and as a 15-minute delayed “Tape of Record”.
The Tape of Record will be free of charge to all investors and will be made broadly available via both the internet and market data vendors.
The consolidated tape will contain complete coverage of post-trade equities data from all European regulated exchanges, MTFs, and OTC markets.
NYSE Technologies will invite other markets to partner in providing consolidated
By Doug Nairne – One of the most important changes in the global financial industry over the past three years, and indeed the business environment as a whole, is the increased importance placed upon due diligence. That means paying closer attention not just to counterparties in order to detect any evidence of fraud – although this is certainly a vital component – but also wider issues, especially legal ones, to see whether they could have any detrimental effect on a firm’s business.
For example, an important focus for business is the possible impact of the new UK Bribery Act, which
By Simon Gray – Risk is the element that hedge fund managers above all others, are supposed to thrive on, but members of the industry long ago understood that there are many more facets to the concept than the market volatility that brings opportunities to the strong-nerved. Indeed, the past few years have highlighted the factors memorably described by US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld, in another context, as “unknown unknowns” – risks that could not be protected against because their very possibility was not conceived of.
A recent white paper from Advent Software on Managing Risk in a New
By Paul Compton – The traumatic crisis that engulfed the industry two years ago prompted a renewed concern among many hedge fund managers to gain control over their positions and exposures. Traumatised investors started asking managers many more questions about how positions were being valued, and even, in the wake of Madoff, whether the assets the fund claimed actually existed. This greater activism on the part of investors has turned out to be a lasting phenomenon, with managers under pressure to answer questions continually about their investment exposures and operational risk.
Meanwhile, hedge fund managers also have to deal with
By Lance Smith – The market turbulence of the past three years has exposed a number of flaws and limitations in traditional approaches to risk management. In the aftermath of the crisis, investors are increasingly pressuring alternative investment managers to ensure the most advanced and appropriate tools and methodologies are being used to deliver the most robust risk management process possible.
In assessing risk management methods, timeliness requirements may be divided into three categories: real time, intra-day and end-of-day. Real-time risk measurement is vital, for instance, for option traders who need tick-by-tick deltas, but less essential to long/short equity
By Simon Gray – The alternative investment management industry has already had to come to terms with a wholesale shake-up in attitudes toward risk assessment and management in response to demand from investors. They are no longer willing to take on trust promises that managers are doing what they say they’re doing. In addition, investors need assurance that managers are equipped with all the tools and system necessary to protect themselves not only against the predictable volatility of markets but unlikely and improbable events too.
The about-face on the part of both private and institutional investors, many of which withdrew
Insparo Asset Management has added Merihan Tadrous to its operations team.
As operations analyst, Tadrous will work closely with chief operating officer Jon Laidlow and finance and operations manager James Gore in the day-to-day operations management of the firm’s Africa and Middle East fund.
The Insparo Africa & Middle East Fund makes investments in a range of sectors across the MENA and Sub-Saharan Africa regions.
In her day to day role, Tadrous will be responsible for all operational duties including trade settlement cycle, cash and position reconciliations for Insparo, which offers frontier market investment opportunities through the fund.
Moody’s has extended its hedge fund Operational Quality Rating Methodology to encompass managed accounts.
Moody’s will use the same OQ rating definition, scale and approach for managed accounts, including managed account platforms, as for a traditional hedge fund.
"The operational risk analysis for hedge fund shareholders and managed account holders is similar," says Joanne Job, Moody’s analyst and author of the rating implementation guidance. "We therefore felt it was appropriate to use a modified version of our existing Operational Quality rating methodology to analyse the risk associated with managed accounts."
Estimates suggest that the top ten managed account platforms exceed
Matrix Group, the privately owned UK financial services business, has appointed Paul Bramley as chief operating officer for its asset management division.
Bramley has over 20 years’ experience in financial services, including chief financial officer and chief operating officer roles in investment banking and asset management.
He has significant experience of building out the financial and operational infrastructure for growth businesses.
Bramley qualified as a chartered accountant with Arthur Andersen and subsequently worked at NatWest Markets, Kidder, Peabody and Merrill Lynch International in senior finance, treasury and operations roles.
Bramley is also a former chief financial officer of two
The prospectus of Brevan Howard Credit Catalysts has been approved by the UK Listing Authority following the announcement by Brevan Howard Capital Management on 14 October of the proposed initial public offering of the company.
BH Credit Catalysts is a closed-ended, Guernsey-incorporated investment company, proposed to have a premium listing on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange in December 2010.
The company, a feeder fund, will invest substantially all of its assets in Brevan Howard Credit Catalysts Master Fund, an open-ended, Cayman-incorporated investment company which commenced operations in June 2009.
Shares will be offered to sophisticated and institutional