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Calypso Technology, an application software provider of an integrated trading, risk and processing platform to financial institutions and corporate treasuries, has launched an over-the-counter clearing service for derivative clearing members.
The latest product development builds on the Calypso System as a clearing platform implemented by a number of clearing houses for interest rate derivatives and credit derivatives clearing.
The company is now offering a solution for clearing members to clear and process OTC derivatives on behalf of their house and clients accounts, across multiple clearing houses.
The service provides support for all trade lifecycle events of a centrally cleared
The Systematic Alpha Futures programme, managed by the New York-based commodity trading adviser Systematic Alpha Management, has been added to Deutsche Bank’s dbSelect managed account platform.
SAM’s assets under management have jumped by almost 20 per cent in the past six months, from USD530m in April 2010 to USD640m at the end of September.
dbSelect is Deutsche Bank’s platform for accessing liquid hedge fund strategies, such as managed futures (CTAs), currency, global macro, volatility arbitrage and commodities. The platform currently has close to USD4bn in assets under management from pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, fund of funds, private banks, insurance
Hennessee Group, a consultant and adviser to direct investors in hedge funds, believes the spike in correlation between individual stocks has made alpha generation a challenge in 2010, particularly for fundamentally based long/short equity hedge funds.
Charles Gradante, co-founder of the Hennessee Group, says: “The ‘risk on-risk off’ trade, driven largely by macro sentiment, continues to dominate the financial markets. Until we see fundamentals return to the forefront of investing, we believe hedge funds will have difficulty executing their investment strategy, particularly on the short side.”
In addition to the spike in correlation, the Hennessee Group believes the continued outperformance
Merlin Securities, a prime brokerage services and technology provider, has launched Merlin Dossier, a one-click solution that allows hedge fund managers to create detailed reports about their funds with up-to-date net performance information.
“Merlin Dossier creates a standardised overview of a hedge fund, answering all of the questions that a prospective investor might have on a gross and net basis,” says Patrick McCurdy, partner and head of capital development at Merlin. “For many funds, the process of putting such reports together is tedious and extremely time-consuming. Merlin Dossier allows funds to select the type of information they wish to include
Laurent Crosnier has been promoted to the position of chief executive of Amundi London branch.
He will retain his current title of chief investment officer and continue to act in this capacity.
The investment business of Amundi London branch covers global fixed income, absolute return, currency, emerging debt, global corporate bonds and global equities.
Crosnier reports to Pascal Blanqué, deputy chief executive of Amundi in charge of the institutional investment division and chief investment officer of the Amundi Group.
Blanqué says: “With the appointment of Laurent Crosnier we are pursuing our ambition to make London a centre of excellence
Hedge funds, as measured by the Dow Jones Credit Suisse Hedge Fund Index, are up 5.98 per cent year-to-date as of 30 September.
The positive performance has catapulted the industry past its previous high water mark, with the index officially regaining all losses from the drawdown which occurred during the recent financial crisis.
In addition, assets have returned to the space with inflows of over USD14bn, the largest since the first quarter of 2008.
The Dow Jones Credit Suisse Q3 2010 Hedge Fund Industry Review shows that performance among the ten index sectors was largely positive with eight out
The Swiss banking group Syz has launched Oyster ForExtra Yield EUR, a new sub-fund of its Oyster Funds Sicav.
The sub-fund seeks to take advantage of the high interest rates paid by certain currencies.
This strategy has been tested for two years before being made available today in the form of a Ucits III fund.
Each month its assets are invested via forward foreign-exchange contracts in the five currencies having the best risk/return ratio. Macro-economic filters developed by the bank allow the downside risks to be limited in periods of market turbulence.
Although it is still reserved for institutional clients,
RBC Capital Markets, the corporate and investment banking arm of Royal Bank of Canada, has been designated a primary dealer in Germany and France, effectively immediately.
Harry Samuel, global co-head of fixed income and currencies, RBC Capital Markets, says: “In the UK, we have been a gilt-edged market maker for over a decade and in the US, we were designated as a primary dealer to the Federal Reserve of New York in July 2009. We are now looking to build on our success in these markets and are focused on establishing a trading capability across multiple jurisdictions in Europe.”
Herald Fund Services, working in conjunction with the Jersey law firm Crill Canavan, has launched the Comprehensive Investment ICC.
The new product enables advantage to be taken of Jersey’s regulatory system whilst reducing the set-up costs to a level more often associated with other jurisdictions.
Mike Capraro, managing director of Herald Fund Services, says: “Jersey leads the way in the regulation of international finance centres but regulatory excellence comes at a price to the customer and this premium can be an obstacle, particularly for start-up fund managers.
“By commoditising the set up of a fund within a product like the
Union Bancaire Privée has made three hires within its asset management division, as part of the expansion of its sales activities in Europe and Asia.
UBP believes that there is significant potential in European markets and has appointed a new head of sales – Europe to focus on augmenting the service it provides to both private and institutional clients in the region.
Nicolas Faller joins UBP on 1 November to take up this new role; he also joins the asset management executive committee. Faller was previously global head of distribution sales and a member of the executive committee at BNP
