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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
Designed to track the credit default swap market for sovereign entities, Standard & Poor’s has launched a series of CDS Sovereign Indices.
The index series is comprised of the S&P International Developed Nation Sovereign CDS Index and S&P Eurozone Developed Nation Sovereign CDS Index.
“The feedback that we have received from some market participants is that sovereign CDS indices should be more representative of the portfolio holdings and market weights,” says J.R. Rieger, vice president of fixed income indices at S&P. “The launch of the S&P CDS Sovereign Indices not only meets this market demand, but allows users of
Threadneedle has launched the Threadneedle Apex European Fund, an Ireland-domiciled equity long/short hedge fund.
The fund has been launched to provide greater flexibility for investors wanting to access Threadneedle’s track record in a European-domiciled fund.
It will be managed by Paul Doyle, using the same strategy applied over the past ten years for the Threadneedle European Crescendo Fund. Year to date the Threadneedle European Crescendo Fund has achieved 7.97 per cent, with annualised returns of 6.10 per cent over ten years.
In managing the Apex European Fund, stock selection is the dominant driver of returns with a strong
New hedge fund and securities regulation through measures such as the Dodd-Frank legislation in the US and the European Union’s Directive on Alternative Investment Fund Managers are indicative of a changed global order, according to the International Organisation of Securities Commissions.
Iosco’s new principles for securities regulation represent a paradigm shift for regulators and a marked change from the long-standing confidence in self-regulation, says the organisation’s deputy secretary-general, Tajinder Singh (pictured).
“Financial stability depends on prudential market regulation,” he told delegates at the recent Channel Islands Stock Exchange Summit conference in Jersey. “What is important is implementation and co-operation
Skandia Investment Group has awarded Aviva Investors a GBP8m mandate to help further boost its Skandia UK Strategic Best Ideas Fund, the only long/short Ucits III multi-manager fund in the IMA’s UK All Companies sector.
Launched just over three years ago, the fund has outperformed the FTSE All Share Index by over ten per cent since its launch in September 2007, placing the fund in the top quartile of the IMA UK All Companies sector.
The fund is currently managed by seven UK based long/short equity managers: Paul Casson of Henderson, Richard Plackett of BlackRock, Tim Steer of Artemis,
Guernsey’s finance industry has significant opportunities to win business in India, according to Peter Niven, chief executive of Guernsey Finance, the promotional agency for the island’s finance industry.
Niven was speaking at the culmination of a week-long delegation to Delhi and Mumbai organised by Guernsey Finance and led by Carla McNulty Bauer (pictured with Sarvjit S Dhillon, group director at Bharti Enterprises), minister for the commerce and employment department within the Guernsey Government.
Guernsey opened an office in China nearly three years ago but this is the island’s first official delegation to India.
“There are plenty of opportunities and not
