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BM&FBOVESPA Holds Voluntary Carbon Credit Market Auction
Sale will offer 180,000 carbon credits managed by the Social Carbon Company
April 7, 2010--The Brazilian Securities, Commodities and Futures Exchange - BM&FBOVESPA will hold on 08 April 2010, a voluntary carbon credit market auction. A total amount of 180,000 voluntary carbon units from projects managed by the Social Carbon Company will be auctioned.
The emission reductions were generated from 8 renewable biomass projects administered by the Social Carbon Company in ceramic factories. These plants are located in the Brazilian states of Sao Paulo (Panorama, Pauliceia), Para (Sao Miguel do Guama), Pernambuco (Lajedo, Paudalho), Sergipe (Itabaiana), Minas Gerais (Ituiutaba), and Rio de Janeiro (Itaborai). The projects involve fuel switching to renewable biomass fuels like sugarcane bagasse, acai seeds, and rice husks, among others. The carbon credits have been validated by certified entities authorized by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
The auction will be held in three sessions, with a lot traded per session. The initial bidding prices will be indicated by lots that vary in accordance to the vintages and are priced at BRL 10.00 to BRL 12.00 per unit. The first transaction will occur at 1:00 p.m. (Brazil Time) and will be carried out by BM&FBOVESPA's Carbon Credit Trading System. The financial settlement will be coordinated by Liquidez DTVM brokerage house.
BM&FBOVESPA's Carbon Credit Market
The Brazilian Exchange has previously organized two carbon credit auctions in 2007 and 2008. Both auctions offered Certified Emissions Reductions (CERs), held by the Sao Paulo Municipal Government, and generated by the Bandeirantes and Sao Joao landfill projects.
The objective of BM&FBOVESPA's carbon market is to foment carbon credit trading in Brazil within an organized trading environment. It also provides Brazilian companies an opportunity to sell their GHG emission reduction projects in the country. The Exchange's trading platform offers global participants a secure, transparent, and efficient trading atmosphere with competitive prices.
Source: BM&FBOVESPA
SEC Proposes Rules to Increase Investor Protections in Asset-Backed Securities
April 7, 2010--The Securities and Exchange Commission today proposed rules that would revise the disclosure, reporting and offering process for asset-backed securities (ABS) to better protect investors in the securitization market.
The proposed rules are intended to provide investors with more detailed and current information about ABS and more time to make their investment decisions. The proposed rules also seek to better align the interests of issuers and investors by creating a retention or "skin in the game" requirement for certain public offerings of ABS.
"The rules we are proposing stem from lessons learned during the financial crisis," said SEC Chairman Mary L. Schapiro. "These rules if adopted would revise the regulatory regime for asset-backed securities in order to better protect investors."
Asset-backed securities are created by buying and bundling loans — such as residential mortgage loans, commercial loans or student loans — and creating securities backed by those assets, which are then sold to investors. Often, a bundle of loans is divided into separate securities with different levels of risk and returns. Payments on the loans are distributed to the holders of the lower-risk, lower-interest securities first, and then to the holders of the higher-risk securities.
View Proposal on Asset-Backed Securities
Source: SEC.gov
Standard & Poor's Announces Changes In The S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index
April 7, 2010--Standard & Poor's will make the following changes in the S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index after the close of trading on Wednesday, April 7, 2010: - Cap-Link Ventures Ltd. (TSXVN:CAV) will trade under the new name Petrodorado Energy Ltd.
The new ticker symbol will be "PDQ" and the new CUSIP number will be 71646V 10 2.
There is no consolidation of capital. Company additions to and deletions from an S&P equity index do not in any way reflect an opinion on the investment merits of the company.
Source: Standard & Poors
Goldman accepts role in the system
April 7, 2010--Goldman Sachs’ 2009 annual letter to shareholders is a handy, if overdue, compendium of explanations, defences and talking points arising from the financial crisis.
The document reveals how the crisis – and the subsequent public and political backlash against Wall Street – has left the bank with little choice but to accept its role as a “systemically important” institution.
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Source: FT.com
US lenders face crucial reforms
April 7, 2010--Lenders in the US will have to retain a stake in any pools of loans they repackage and sell on to investors under proposed reforms aimed at remedying some of the practices that led to the credit crisis.
The proposals to make issuers of securitisations keep some “skin in the game” were put forward by the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday in a bid to rehabilitate a key cog in the financial system.
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Source: FT.com
ETFs Gain Foothold in Institutional Market
April 7, 2010--U.S. pension funds, endowments, foundations, and money managers that identified themselves as ETF users discuss how they use ETFs and who their primary providers are.
ETF use among U.S. pension funds, endowments and foundations has grown to about 14%, according to the results of Greenwich Associates' most recent annual study of the U.S. investment management market. Despite that relatively modest share, institutions actually represent roughly half the assets invested in ETFs in the United States according to recent industry estimates.
Almost half the institutional users in the Greenwich Associates annual study say they employ ETFs for what they consider "tactical" tasks related to the management of their portfolios. Approximately 20% of institutional ETF users say they employ the funds to implement "strategic or long-term" investment decisions, and an equal share report that they use ETFs for both tactical and strategic purposes.
Source: Greenwich Associates
IndexIQ Marks Three-Year Anniversary of Its IQ Hedge Family of Hedge Fund Replication Indexes
Extraordinary market volatility provides real world "stress test" for firm's IQ Hedge(TM) indexes; only hedge fund replication index family in existence over that period
April 7, 2010--IndexIQ, a leading developer of index-based alternative investment solutions, today marked the three-year anniversary for its proprietary family of hedge fund replication and alternative beta indexes.
Designed to replicate the performance characteristics of sophisticated hedge fund strategies, including Global Macro, Emerging Markets, Long/Short Equity, Market Neutral, Event Driven, and Fixed Income Arbitrage, the IQ Hedge(TM) indexes were originally introduced on March 30, 2007. These indexes have been calculating live with Standard & Poors since inception and the index values are published daily on Bloomberg (see table below for index identifiers). The hedge fund strategies covered are among the most prevalent in the market, comprising approximately 80% of overall hedge fund assets globally (Source: Credit Suisse/Tremont). While other hedge fund replication/alternative beta indexes have since been launched, IQ Hedge was the first and only family of hedge fund replication/alternative beta indexes in existence over the entire three years, a period defined by extreme market volatility.
For the three-year period ending March 31, 2010, the returns for the indexes were as follows:
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Source: IndexIQ
Invesco PowerShares Lists Industry's First Suite of U.S. Small-Cap Sector ETFs on NASDAQ
April 7, 2010--Invesco PowerShares, a leading provider of exchange-traded funds (ETFs), announced today the industry's first suite of ETFs offering sector-specific beta exposure to U.S. small-cap equities began trading on the NASDAQ Stock Market. The suite is comprised of nine ETF portfolios; each constructed to track a subset of the S&P SmallCap 600 Index. The ETF portfolio names and ticker symbols are listed below.
Ticker Name of PowerShares Portfolio XLYS PowerShares S&P SmallCap Consumer Discretionary Portfolio XLPS PowerShares S&P SmallCap Consumer Staples Portfolio XLES PowerShares S&P SmallCap Energy Portfolio XLFS PowerShares S&P SmallCap Financials Portfolio XLVS PowerShares S&P SmallCap Health Care Portfolio XLIS PowerShares S&P SmallCap Industrials Portfolio XLKS PowerShares S&P SmallCap Information Technology Portfolio XLBS PowerShares S&P SmallCap Materials Portfolio XLUS PowerShares S&P SmallCap Utilities Portfolio
"We take great pride in being a leading ETF innovator, and are pleased to introduce a unique suite of small-cap sector portfolios that offer investors access to a vibrant portion of the U.S. equity universe," said Ben Fulton, Invesco PowerShares managing director of global ETFs. "Over the long term, small-cap companies have outperformed large caps with much of this outperformance occurring during post-recessionary periods. We believe the PowerShares S&P SmallCap Sector Portfolios provide investors a compelling new way to implement sector-based strategies using the beneficial ETF structure."
The nine PowerShares S&P SmallCap Sector Portfolios are based upon respective S&P SmallCap 600 Capped Sector Indexes. Each Fund will normally invest at least 90% of its total assets in common stocks that comprise the underlying index. The indexes are designed to measure the overall performance of common stocks of a respective sector. The S&P SmallCap 600 Capped Sector Indexes use a modified market-capitalization-weighted methodology and are rebalanced quarterly on the third Friday of March, June, September and December. Constituents are replaced on an as-needed basis. Investing in securities of small-sized companies may involve greater risk than is customarily associated with investing in large companies.
The PowerShares S&P SmallCap Sector Portfolios are based upon a subset of the constituents in the S&P SmallCap 600 Index, which is a float-adjusted, market-capitalization-weighted index reflecting the U.S. small-cap equity universe. The constituents in the underlying sector indexes have met the qualifications for inclusion in the broader index to ensure that they are investable and financially viable. In order to qualify for inclusion, a stock must meet the following criteria at the time of their addition to the S&P SmallCap 600 Index:
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Source: Invesco PowerShares
NYSE Liffe U.S. to Offer Full Suite of Interest Rate Futures
Eurodollar and 2-year, 5-year, 10-year and 30-year US Treasury Futures to Launch Q3 2010
-Delivering Innovative Capital and Operational Efficiencies to the Market
April 6, 2010-- NYSE Liffe U.S., the new US futures exchange of NYSE Euronext (NYX), today announced that it will launch a comprehensive family of interest rate futures in the third quarter of 2010 to coincide with the anticipated regulatory approval and launch of New York Portfolio Clearing (NYPC), its innovative new clearing joint venture with DTCC. NYSE Liffe U.S. will launch Eurodollar futures as well as 2-year, 5-year, 10-year and 30-year US Treasury futures. Options on these futures are expected to be launched in fourth-quarter 2010.
Interest rate futures listed on NYSE Liffe U.S. will benefit from the powerful operational and capital efficiencies achieved through the NYPC clearing solution. NYPC will deliver unique capital efficiencies achieved by calculating margin requirements based on the total risk within a common FICC and NYPC member’s portfolio of both cash bonds and derivatives. Additionally, all participants that transact US Treasury futures on NYSE Liffe U.S. will benefit from a highly efficient, single-net delivery process at expiry between FICC cash bond positions and NYPC futures positions, substantially reducing settlement risks at delivery.