Solutions
There was a palpable air of excitement at the 5th Amsterdam Investor Forum, hosted by ABN AMRO AMRO Clearing at the bank’s headquarters on 17 February 2016. This was the biggest event yet with approximately 280 attendees, of whom 42 per cent were institutional investors and FoHFs, 40 per cent were single hedge fund managers, and 18 per cent were service providers including hedge fund consultants.
During the course of the day, a wide range of engaging panel discussions provided insights on some of the key trends and issues shaping Europe’s hedge fund industry. And judging by the level of networking
By Meghan McAlpine – Given the uptick in new funds being raised, competition for investors’ capital has increased significantly. Investors are being more thorough in the diligence process and almost always requesting more information than what’s presented in a standard DDQ. In order to compete for this capital, fund managers are providing a substantial amount of information to investors.
The industry as a whole is seeing an increase in transparency, which has been insisted upon by investors over the past several years. Performance, while a very important factor, is only part of the criteria that investors are considering when determining whether or not to
Regulation continues to weigh heavy on the shoulders of global fund managers. When asked the question, "What worries you most about your portfolio in 2016?" some 30 per cent of attendees said increased regulatory pressure, with 17 per cent citing higher jumps in volatility.
With more regulation coming down the pipeline, most notably the pervasive second iteration of Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, MiFID II, due to be transposed across Europe in January 2018, the need to update and improve operational systems and procedures will continue at pace to cope with increased transparency demands.
Indeed, the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (`AIFMD')
FIX Trading Community is sponsoring the ISO Study Group to determine the rules for the allocation of the ISIN standard to derivative instruments.
As part of this effort, FIX is documenting a set of best practices to support the creation and dissemination of the ISIN identifiers amongst market participants using the FIX open standards. The other standards currently being discussed by the Study Group include FpML and multiple ISO standards. FIX is committed to integrating its open standards with both ISO and FpML to ensure maximum inter-operability amongst the standards.
The ISO TC68/SC4/SG2 Study Group on ISIN Allocation for OTC
ProTrak International has released a major upgrade to its CRM platform for investment managers, hedge funds and private equity firms, Release 11.0.
The latest release features a new option allows users to set up a designated secure folder where a copy of every document referenced in ProTrak is automatically kept and preserved in its original form, so that users cannot move or delete them.
Based on extensive observations and feedback from their global user community, ProTrack has also added a predictive, wizard-like Simplified Query option that pre-fills commonly used fields to save time. Individually personalised watermarks enable mass-customised reporting in
CME Group is to sell its suburban Chicago data centre in Aurora, Illinois to data centre services provider CyrusOne for USD130 million. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions.
As part of the sale, CME Group will enter into a 15-year lease for data centre space and will continue to operate its electronic trading platform, CME Globex, from the data centre and will offer co-location services there. CME Group will have the ability to expand co-location services within the leased space going forward. The agreement also outlines the ways in which CyrusOne and CME Group will enhance the range
By Philip Graham (pictured), Harneys, TEAM BVI Member – One of the hottest topics in the hedge fund industry for 2016 is the Common Reporting Standard (CRS). It is affecting everyone far and wide and given it was implemented in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) on 1 January, 2016, the investment funds community in this jurisdiction are working very hard and diligently towards ensuring that every fund domiciled in the BVI is fully compliant before all of the requisite time periods.
For those that have been hibernating in caves over the last few months, CRS is the standard for automatic exchange of financial
Cowen Prime Services has been named Best Global Prime Broker at the 2016 Hedgeweek Awards.
This award is based on a peer review system whereby Hedgeweek’s readers, including institutional and high net worth investors, hedge fund managers, and other industry professionals at fund administrators, prime brokers, custodians, and advisers, select the top performer in a series of categories.
Michael S Rosen, Global Co-Head of Prime Brokerage Services, says: “It is gratifying to have been recognised by industry peers for our leadership in prime services. This award is meaningful because, as former investment managers who understand the complexity of launching
Twenty-eight of the world’s largest banks are participating in industrywide testing of the first ever Central Margining service for non-cleared OTC derivatives, which was released by AcadiaSoft and delivered in collaboration with TriOptima last month.
Industry testing of the AcadiaSoft Collateral Hub marks the successful completion of the first phase of a high profile industry initiative around electronic margin management announced last July. With the successful release and testing of two-way Central Margining for Initial Margin (IM), AcadiaSoft, in partnership with TriOptima, has confirmed usability for its platform for straight-through-processing of derivatives margins. The new service will facilitate industry compliance
Custom House Global Fund Services, an independent hedge fund administration specialist, is expanding its sales and operations in North America with the appointment of Sebastien Sacre as Managing Director of the Chicago office – the US headquarters for Custom House – while John Lumley, has joined as the Head of Sales, Americas, based in New York.
"We are extremely pleased to have talent of the caliber of Sebastien and John join our global team and spearhead our operations and business development in the Americas," says Mark Hedderman, CEO, Custom House Global Fund Services. He added, "Sebastien is responsible for the
