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"Space Between Walls" -Speech by Commissioner Bart Chilton
Finance, Credit and International Business Association International Credit Executives Conference, Chicago, IL
May 3, 2012--Introduction
Thanks to Rick Hayes for that great introduction. Aside from Russian roulette, having a fraternity brother introduce you must be one of the riskiest things that can be done. It really is wonderful to be with you this morning and be in my favorite city in the world: Chicago.
I grew up in a lakefront neighborhood. On clear nights, you could see the Chicago skyline. I did not know, nor would have cared at the time, about the tremendous revolution, innovation and economic transformation of financial markets that was taking place in Chicago back then.
There is a fascinating new book written by the "father of financial futures" Dr. Richard Sandor entitled, Good Derivatives. The book chronicles the multitude of market innovations taking place since the 1970's, and the environment in which those innovations thrived. One key point Dr. Sandor makes is that in order to flourish, market innovations need proper regulation. One might say: there needs to be suitable regulatory walls and space between those walls that balances the public interest with the ability for the private sector to successfully innovate.
Impacts on Businesses and Economies
So today, let's do some discourse on the future of these spectacular global financial markets. Just think about the complex financing and credit, the capital and other resources—both human and technological—that all work in concert to facilitate these incredibly elaborate, intricate and inter-related global markets of colossal size and scope—churning, all day.
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Source: CFTC.gov
ETF Industry Association Releases April 2012 ETF Data Reports
May 3, 2012--Some of the key highlights from the April 2012 ETF Data report include:
Assets in US listed Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) and Exchange Traded Notes (ETN) totaled approximately $1.20 trillion at April 2012 month-end, an increase of 6% over April 2011 month-end, when assets totaled $1.14 trillion.
ETF/ETN net cash inflows totaled approximately $3.0 billion for the month of April 2012, bringing year-to-date net cash inflows to $58.9 billion.
At April 2012 month-end, there were 1,458 U.S. listed products, an increase of 20% compared to the 1,216 U.S. listed products at the same time last year.
Fixed Income leads all categories year-to-date with $21.3 billion in net inflows. April marks the 16th consecutive month of net inflows to fixed income ETFs.
visit www.etf-ia.com for more info.
Source: ETFIA
RBC unit to cover nearly $3 million of investor ETF losses
May 2, 2012--Royal Bank of Canada's brokerage unit agreed to repay investors in Massachusetts up to $2.9 million to cover losses on leveraged and inverse leveraged exchange-traded funds, the latest phase of a nationwide regulatory crackdown on the sometimes volatile products.
The bank's RBC Capital Markets division was also fined $250,000 by Massachusetts' top securities regulator, William Galvin, for selling the "highly volatile, nontraditional" funds that did not fit with some clients' investment objectives, Galvin said in a statement on Wednesday.
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Source: Reuters
PIMCO Launches Active TIPS ETF
May 2, 2012--Fresh off the heels of the release of its Total Return ETF, PIMCO on Tuesday began trading its Global Advantage Inflation-Linked Bond Strategy Fund (ILB) on the NYSE.
According to the Newport Beach, Calif.-based bond behemoth, the latest ETF is designed for long-term returns above inflation by actively managing global inflation-linked bonds and currencies. The fund is managed by Mihir Worah, managing director and head of PIMCO’s real return portfolio management team.
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Source: AdvisorOne
Standard & Poor's Announces Changes In The S&P/TSX Canadian Indices
May 2, 2012--Standard & Poor's will make the following changes in the S&P/TSX Canadian Indices:
On May 1, 2012, the shareholders of Reliable Energy Ltd. (TSXVN:REL) approved the Plan of Arrangement whereby the company will be acquired by Crescent Point Energy Corp. (TSX:CPG).
Shareholders of Reliable Energy will receive 0.00794 shares of Crescent Point for every Reliable share held. Reliable Energy will be removed from the S&P/TSX Venture Composite and Venture Select Indices after the close of trading on Friday, May 4, 2012. Reliable Energy has been halted on the TSX Venture Exchange effective at the open of Wednesday, May 2, 2012. For index calculation purposes for May 2, 3 and 4, the price of Reliable Energy will be 0.00794 times the close price of Crescent Point.
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 & Poor's
Reed plans to continue examination of ETFs
Rhode Island senator: 'This market deserves more attention'
May 2, 2012--Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., chairman of the Senate Banking Subcommittee on Securities, Insurance and Investment, indicated that he would follow up on a hearing he held last year on the investment vehicles with another one in coming weeks.
"The [Securities and Exchange Commission] is closely monitoring this issue, and so am I," Mr. Reed said in a statement emailed to InvestmentNews.
On Tuesday, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. levied $9.1 million in penalties on four brokerage giants – Citigroup Global Markets Inc., Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, UBS Financial Services and Wells Fargo Advisors LLC – for selling complex ETFs to retail clients whose conservative portfolios shouldn't have contained the risky investments.
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Source: Investment News
Standard & Poor's Announces Changes In The S&P/TSX Canadian Indices
May 2, 2012--Standard & Poor's will make the following changes in the S&P/TSX Canadian Indices:
On May 1, 2012, the shareholders of Reliable Energy Ltd. (TSXVN:REL) approved the Plan of Arrangement whereby the company will be acquired by Crescent Point Energy Corp. (TSX:CPG).
Shareholders of Reliable Energy will receive 0.00794 shares of Crescent Point for every Reliable share held. Reliable Energy will be removed from the S&P/TSX Venture Composite and Venture Select Indices after the close of trading on Friday, May 4, 2012. Reliable Energy has been halted on the TSX Venture Exchange effective at the open of Wednesday, May 2, 2012. For index calculation purposes for May 2, 3 and 4, the price of Reliable Energy will be 0.00794 times the close price of Crescent Point.
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 & Poor's
ETFGI-Latin America ETF/ETP Industry As At End Of April 2012 - Preliminary Findings
May 2, 2012--Summary for ETFs listed in Latin America
At the end of April 2012, the Latin America ETF industry had 32 ETFs, with 487 listings, assets of US$11.4 Bn, from 15 providers on 4 exchanges.
Assets
ETF assets have increased by 3.4% from US$11.0 Bn in March 2012 to US$11.4 Bn in April 2012.
YTD through end of April 2012, ETF assets have increased by 9.9% from US$10.3 Bn to US$11.4 Bn.
Flows
In April 2012, ETFs saw net inflows of US$591.3 Mn. Equity ETFs gathered net inflows of US$566.4 Mn and fixed income ETFs gathered net inflows of US$4.7 Mn. YTD through end of April 2012, ETFs saw net outflows of US$172.1 Mn. Equity ETFs have experienced US$151.4 Mn net outflows and fixed income ETFs have experienced net outflows of US$20.0 Mn. YTD through end of April 2012, leveraged ETFs have gathered net inflows of US$12.3 Mn, while inverse ETFs have experienced net outflows of US$13.0 Mn.
iShares gathered the largest net inflows in April with US$678.6 Mn, followed by Protego with US$20.3 Mn. BBVA Asset Management experienced the largest net outflows in April with US$98.7 Mn.
BBVA Asset Management experienced the largest net outflows YTD with US$103.5 Mn, followed by Itau Unibanco with US$64.7 Mn and iShares with US$3.3 Mn net outflows.
request report
Source: ETFGI
ETFGI-United States ETF/ETP industry as at end of April 2012 - Preliminary findings
May 2, 2012--Summary for US listed ETFs
At the end of April 2012, the US ETF industry had 1,170 ETFs, assets of US$1,074.5 Bn, from 30 providers on 3 exchanges.
Assets
ETF assets have decreased by 0.2% from US$1,077.1 Bn in March 2012 to US$1,074.5 Bn in April 2012.
YTD through end of April 2012, ETF assets have increased by 14.4% from US$939.3 Bn to US$1,074.5 Bn.
Flows
In April 2012, ETFs saw net inflows of US$4.2 Bn. Fixed income ETFs gathered net inflows of US$4.6 Bn, of which US$1.8 Bn went into corporate bond ETFs. Commodity ETFs gathered net inflows of US$0.5 Bn, of which US$0.7 Bn went into ETFs providing exposure to precious metals, while ETFs providing exposure to agriculture, energy, industrial metals and broad commodity indices experienced net outflows totalling a combined US$0.1 Bn. Equity ETFs experienced net outflows of US$0.8 Bn, of which ETFs providing exposure to US equity indices saw net outflows of US$0.4 Bn, while ETFs providing exposure to global equity indices gathered net inflows of US$0.3 Bn.
YTD through end of April 2012, ETFs have gathered net inflows of US$53.0 Bn. Equity ETFs have gathered US$33.1 Bn, of which net inflows of US$19.7 Bn went into ETFs providing exposure to US equity indices. Fixed income ETFs have gathered net inflows of US$20.2 Bn, of which US$7.6 Bn net inflows went into high yield ETFs, while government bond ETFs have experienced net outflows of US$0.8 Bn. Commodity ETFs have gathered net inflows US$0.2 Bn, of which US$0.6 Bn net inflows went into ETFs providing exposure to precious metals, while ETFs providing exposure to agricultural commodities experienced net outflows of US$0.3 Bn.
YTD through end of April 2012, leveraged ETFs have experienced net outflows of US$3.2 Bn, inverse ETFs have experienced US$0.3 Bn net outflows, while leveraged inverse ETFs have gathered US$2.5 Bn net inflows.
Vanguard gathered the largest net inflows in April with US$4.4 Bn, followed by iShares with US$1.2 Bn and Van Eck Associates Corp with US$1.0 Bn net inflows.
Vanguard gathered the largest net inflows YTD with US$21.7 Bn, followed by iShares with US$13.0 Bn and SPDR ETFs with US$6.2 Bn net inflows.
PowerShares experienced the largest net outflows in April with US$2.5 Bn.
Direxion Shares experienced the largest net outflows YTD with US$0.6 Bn, followed by ProShares with US$0.5 Bn and Bank of New York with US$0.3 Bn net outflows.
request report
Source: ETFGI
CFTC Votes to Clarify Indemnification and Confidentiality Provisions in the Dodd-Frank Act
Commission Issues Proposed Interpretative Statement; Seeks Public Comment
May1, 2012--The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today voted to issue a Proposed Interpretative Statement regarding the confidentiality and indemnification provisions in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act).
The proposal generally exempts foreign regulators from the indemnification and confidentiality provision in the Dodd-Frank Act, and ensures that foreign regulators have access to data in Swap Data Repositories (SDR). This exemption only applies to data that is required to be reported and if the SDR is recognized by the country’s law and regulation. The proposal passed the Commission by a vote of 5-0. The proposal’s comment period will be open for 30 days from the date of publication in the Federal Register.
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Source: CFTC.gov