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Union Bancaire Privée had net earnings of CHF103.3m (USD95.6m) at the end of the first half of 2010, in line with expectations.
UBP attracted CHF3.4bn (USD3.1bn) in capital inflows in the first half of 2010 and has seen its total assets under management stabilise at CHF71.9bn (USD66.5bn) as at 30 June 2010.
UBP has a Tier 1 capital ratio of 26.6 per cent.
“It is our determination and our flexibility which allow us to rise to today’s challenges and to maintain our profit margins at a time when the markets are still volatile,” says Guy de Picciotto, UBP’s chief executive.
Trading value in China’s interbank bond market reached USD7.2trn in 2009, a 19.7 per cent increase from 2008, according to a report by Celent.
Celent expects continued liberalisation of China’s fixed income market to create new opportunities for trading.
Commercial banks and insurance companies are the largest participants in China’s bond market, led by the large state-owned banks.
Celent estimates brisk growth in fixed income trading in 2010, led by a recovery in bond trading by mutual fund companies, with the share of commercial banks declining relative to other investor categories.
Trading in asset-backed securities and MBS will remain low.
The Swiss banking group Syz is continuing its expansion in Asia by extending the operations of its Hong Kong office.
In addition to alternative asset management, which has been available since January 2007, Syz will also promote and distribute its institutional asset management solutions and Oyster investment funds in the region.
To reflect this new orientation, the Hong Kong-based entity will change its company name from 3A Asia to Syz & Co Asia, subject to regulatory approval.
To carry through this new project, Daniel Ghirardi (pictured) will take on responsibility for the region as of September 2010.
“We have identified
ABC Quant, a provider of risk management analytical solutions for the hedge fund industry, has launched Quant Suite Barclay Edition.
The new application, powered by Barclay databases, offers a broad choice of advanced analytical tools for institutional investors and investment advisers.
BarclayHedge is powering the new platform through access to its range of hedge fund, fund of fund and managed futures (CTA) databases.
Barclay databases offer information for more than 5,800 alternative investment vehicles across all strategies and asset classes.
Quant Suite Barclay Edition provides automatic data updating twice a month.
It offers a choice of analytical solutions for investment
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act will significantly change the regulatory regime governing investment advisers, particularly investment advisers to private funds, such as hedge funds and private equity funds, a report by law firm Pillsbury says.
The primary purpose of the new rules and requirements is to “fill the regulatory gap,” by requiring advisers to private funds to register as investment advisers with the Securities and Exchange Commission or state securities regulators, unless an exemption applies, and provide information about their activities to the SEC.
Currently, advisers with USD25m or more of assets under management may register
NYSE Euronext is creating the first pan-European multilateral trading facility for corporate bonds, making it the first market operator to respond to the specifications issued by the Cassiopeia Committee on 26 April 2010.
The new platform will be open to all regulated institutions authorised to operate in Europe and seeking to trade, among professionals, fixed and floating rate bonds denominated in euros and issued by non-sovereign issuers.
Using technology based on the Universal Trading Platform, it will allow financial intermediaries to reap the full benefits of UTP’s scalability, capacity, ultra-low latency and resiliency.
The corporate bond trading platform will
Martin Currie, the active equity manager, intends to launch three Ucits III-compliant absolute alpha funds.
These launches are subject to regulatory approval, with the funds expected to be available to retail and institutional investors from October 2010.
The three strategies to be launched are Japan Absolute Alpha, European Absolute Alpha and Global Resources Absolute Alpha.
All three are based on existing hedge funds and will be managed by the same teams. These will be Luxembourg-domiciled Sicav funds with sterling, euro and dollar share classes. The minimum investment will for each fund will be USD10,000.
Japan Absolute Alpha will be managed
Singapore Exchange and Eurex are partnering to launch the SGX Euro Stoxx 50 Index futures and options on futures for the first time in Asia.
The partnership is based on a licence agreement between index provider Stoxx and SGX.
SGX will list US-dollar denominated Euro Stoxx 50 Index futures and options on futures in the second half of 2010, subject to Monetary Authority of Singapore approval.
SGX and Eurex will jointly market and promote the US-dollar based contracts as part of collaboration efforts between the two exchanges.
Chew Sutat, head of corporate and market strategy at SGX, says: “The SGX
Managed futures posted a slightly positive performance for June as commodities edged higher during the month, according to a report by Lipper Tass.
Trend followers generally ended the month in positive territory as they were able to benefit from the recent price trends in commodities, especially gold, and on flattening yield curves on both sides of the Atlantic.
The Lipper Managed Futures/CTAs Index registered a positive return of 0.12 per cent for June, bringing the year-to-date performance to minus 3.90 per cent.
Long exposures to equities, however, dragged down manager performance as markets sold off on lingering concerns over Eurozone
Law firm Pillsbury says hedge funds should be aware that substantially increasing their long positions in exchange-traded funds could result in a violation of the ownership limit set forth in the Investment Company Act of 1940.
The report, by Jay B. Gould, Ildiko Duckor, Clint A. Keller and Michael G. Wu, says in recent years, many hedge funds have significantly increased their holdings in ETFs.
Historically, hedge funds primarily acquired short positions in ETFs to hedge their long positions in a particular industry segment by obtaining short exposure to an entirely different industry segment.
However, many hedge funds are now
