Europe ETF News up to 1 year Ago
EU savers need a single-market place to invest
April 25, 2024--Proposals to leverage the single market to boost retail investment could lead to a product citizens will trust
The European Union is sitting on €33.5 trillion in household savings 1 , or one quarter of its collective GDP, yet much of this money is stuck in banks because households prefer cash over market investments.
Meanwhile, former Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta pointed to the EU's fragmented capital markets as a big opportunity to spark growth and future investment in his report on the 27-country single market, published 17 April (Letta, 2024).
He offered a menu of ideas to help the EU put its finances to work in the context of the need to find an extra trillion euros a year to fund the digital and green transitions and to meet defence needs. Managing climate change alone calls for finding 2.6 percent of GDP per year (I4CE, 2024).
Letta's best idea, a new retail investment product that could be sold across the EU, could bring a single market for financial services much closer to reality than currently.
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Source: bruegel.org
Tabula Announces Access to Transparently Sourced Gold,
April 22, 2024--European ETF provider Tabula Investment Management Limited ("Tabula") has announced the launch of the ESG-focused physical gold ETC, the SMO Physical Gold ETC (Bloomberg: BARS LN). BARS is the first exchange-traded physical gold product to offer full traceability of gold bars from mine to vault, using a small number of named mines adhering to high ESG standards.
BARS is the only physical gold ETC in the market where:
Every ounce of gold can be traced to a carefully selected mine, accredited with
the highest responsibility standards
Each gold mine used has been independently audited and has data to
demonstrate they provide vital social, environmental and cultural support to local
communities
No gold is of Russian origin
No gold is "recycled" gold of unknown provenance
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Source: tabulaim.com
Euro area monthly balance of payments: February 2024
April 18, 2024--Current account recorded €29 billion surplus in February 2024, down from €39 billion in previous month
Current account surplus amounted to €288 billion (2.0% of euro area GDP) in the 12 months to February 2024, after a €95 billion deficit (0.7%) one year earlier
In financial account, euro area residents' net acquisitions of non-euro area portfolio investment securities totalled €443 billion and non-residents' net acquisitions of euro area portfolio investment securities totalled €614 billion in the 12 months to February 2024
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Source: ECB
Amundi and Victory Capital announce plan to establish a strategic partnership
April 16, 2024--Amundi US to combine into Victory Capital
Amundi to become a strategic shareholder of Victory Capital
Reciprocal 15-year exclusive distribution agreements
Amundi and Victory Capital (Nasdaq: VCTR) are announcing today that they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to combine Amundi US into Victory Capital, for Amundi to become a strategic shareholder of Victory Capital, and to establish long-term global distribution agreements.
The proposed transaction would create a broader US investment platform for clients of both firms, provide Amundi with access to a wider set of US-managed capabilities, and expand worldwide distribution for Victory Capital.
The proposed transaction would benefit clients of both firms with a broader range of asset classes including actively managed fixed income, equity, and multi-asset investment strategies offered through a variety of investment vehicles including separately managed accounts, ETFs, mutual funds, UCITs, collective investment trusts, and model portfolios.
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Source: amundi.com
New report sheds light on quality and use of regulatory data across EU
March 11, 2024--The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU's financial markets regulator and supervisor, is publishing today the fourth edition of its Report on the Quality and Use of Data aiming to provide transparency on how the data collected under different regulations is used systematically by authorities in the EU, and clarifying the actions taken to ensure data quality.
ESMA is bringing new developments in this edition such as connecting the dots with the overall ESMA Data strategy and technological evolution, including a greater coverage of datasets and sharing highly demanded information on data quality indicators.
The report provides details on how National Competent Authorities (NCA’s), the European Central Bank (ECB), the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB) and ESMA use the data that is collected through the year from different legislation requirements, including datasets from European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR), Securities Financing Transactions Regulation (SFTR), Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MIFIR), Securitisation Regulation, Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) and Money Market Funds Regulation(MMFR).
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Source: ESMA
Enrico Letta's Report on the Future of the Single Market
April 10, 2024--Launched 30 years ago, the Single Market is the jewel in the crown of European integration, a source of common wealth. Faced with a more conflictual, volatile and complex world, a special effort in terms of strategic rethinking is required.
The European Council of 30 June 2023 called "for an independent High-Level Report on the future of the Single Market to be presented at its meeting of March 2024 and invites the incoming presidencies of the Council and the Commission to take this work forward, in consultation with the Member States".
Both countries and the Commission would like to find in it concrete and ambitious recommendations and asked the former Italian head of government, Enrico Letta, to write this report. The report is now available.
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Source: European Commission
ECB-Account of the monetary policy meeting of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank 6-7 March 2024
April 4, 2024-1. Review of financial, economic and monetary developments and policy options
Financial market developments
Ms Schnabel noted that, since the Governing Council's previous monetary policy meeting on 24-25 January 2024, monetary policy expectations had retracted further from the early and large interest rate cuts initially foreseen at the turn of the year.
More favourable news on the global economy and less favourable news on inflation had both been key factors in shaping financial market developments. In the case of the first factor, macroeconomic data surprises had moved into positive territory in the euro area, the United States and China for the first time since May 2023. As a result, investors attached a discernibly lower probability to the scenario of a hard landing for the global economy.
The second factor related to a reassessment of the medium-term inflation outlook. Higher than expected inflation releases in the euro area and the United States, especially for core inflation, had dented investors' hopes of rapid and smooth disinflation.
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Source: ecb.europa.eu
Spend it at home: current account surpluses in the EU
April 2, 2024--EU leadership needs to identify the factors that hold investment back and the incentives that could persuade investors to stay in Europe
The European Union faces huge investment gaps. For the climate and digital transitions alone, EU countries need to find or encourage annual investment of at least €481 billion each year, over and above what is already planned. This amount is much larger if one includes defence spending needs, the reconstruction of Ukraine, and spending to prepare for potential health crises in the future.
And yet, despite these huge investment gaps, the EU continues to send a large part of its savings outside its borders. It has huge savings but prefers to invest these abroad rather than within its own borders. The European Commission forecasts that nine EU countries will have current account imbalances in 2024. Of these, five will have current account surpluses that can be as large as 10% of GDP. The EU overall is forecast to have a surplus exceeding 2.5% of GDP by 2025.
In nominal terms, EU GDP is about €18 trillion. A surplus of 2.5% of GDP thus represents about €450 billion. If the EU could use these excess savings, it would manage to cover its climate and digital investment gaps almost in full. Solving the enormous inconsistency of having big investment gaps while running with large current account surpluses is urgent and complex.
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Source: bruegel.org
ESMA publishes latest edition of its newsletter
April 2, 2024--The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU's financial markets regulator and supervisor, has today published its latest edition of the Spotlight on Markets Newsletter.
Your one-stop-shop in the world of EU financial markets focused in February and March on EU Green Bonds and our extensive activity on the Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCA). In both cases, we invited stakeholders to send their feedback on 1. rules for External Reviewers of EU Green Bonds and 2. on the third MiCA consultation package. On the latter, ESMA is seeking input on:
Detection and reporting of suspected market abuse in crypto-assets;
Policies and procedures for crypto-asset transfer services;
Suitability requirements for certain crypto-asset services and format of the periodic statement for portfolio management; and
ICT operational resilience.
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Source: esma.europa.eu
ECB-Monetary developments in the euro area: February 2024
March 28, 2024-Annual growth rate of broad monetary aggregate M3 increased to 0.4% in February 2024 from 0.1% in January
Annual growth rate of narrower monetary aggregate M1, comprising currency in circulation and overnight deposits, was -7.7% in February, compared with -8.6% in January.
Annual growth rate of adjusted loans to households stood at 0.3% in February, unchanged from previous month
Annual growth rate of adjusted loans to non-financial corporations increased to 0.4% in February from 0.2% in January
Components of the broad monetary aggregate M3
The annual growth rate of the broad monetary aggregate M3 increased to 0.4% in February 2024 from 0.1% in January, averaging 0.2% in the three months up to February. The components of M3 showed the following developments. The annual growth rate of the narrower aggregate M1, which comprises currency in circulation and overnight deposits, was -7.7% in February, compared with-8.6% in January.
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Source: ecb.europa.eu