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Government publishes proposals to enhance UK attractiveness to multinationals
January 26, 2010--The Government today published a discussion document on proposals for reforming the UK tax treatment of controlled foreign companies (CFCs).
The proposals set out in the discussion document are intended to enhance the competitiveness of the UK, while providing adequate protection of the UK tax base. The discussion document sets out the overarching framework of the new rules and proposals for how monetary assets and intellectual property could be treated.
Financial Secretary to the Treasury Stephen Timms said:
“Modernising these rules is crucially important to maintaining and enhancing the UK’s attractiveness as a base for global business. This report, drawing on our discussions with businesses, is a key step in designing a system that better recognises the way multinationals operate today, while protecting our tax base.”
The controlled foreign company rules exist to protect the UK corporation tax base and apply in situations where UK groups move profits into low tax jurisdictions to avoid UK tax. This reform forms the second part of the foreign profits package. The first part was introduced in Finance Act 2009 and included an exemption for foreign dividends and an interest restriction measure.
view the discussion document-Proposals for controlled foreign companies (CFC) reform: discussion document
Source: HM Treasury
iShares has launched four ETFs on the London Stock Exchange.
January 26, 2010--Three are single country, core building block funds in both developed and emerging equity markets, while the fourth is an accumulating version of the iShares DJ Euro Stoxx 50.
The new iShares MSCI Australia, iShares MSCI Canada and iShares MSCI South Africa ETFs provide exposure to companies in predominantly the financial and commodities sectors and complement iShares' existing single country range of ETFs.
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Source: ETF Express
New MiFID requirements for the reporting of Exchange Traded Derivatives (ETD) and other complex derivatives
January 26, 2010--Since November last year, firms have been required to submit defined transaction reports to a Competent Authority (regulator), therefore, firms have been reporting transactions with an ISIN (International Securities Identification Number) and Over the Counter (OTC) transactions through Approved Reporting Mechanisms (ARMs) to Competent Authorities.
While ISIN codes are recognised as the international standard for identifying securities, there are problems when ISIN codes are used to identify derivatives on certain markets.
As a result, the Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) decided that in addition to ISIN codes, Alternative Instrument Identifier (AII) codes would be introduced as a way of identifying transactions in derivatives on certain markets. The obligation to report transactions in Exchange Traded Derivatives that could not be described using ISIN codes was waived by CESR pending further discussion and development.
CESR stipulated in paper CESR/07¬627b that the AII code will be composed of six mandatory elements:
Exchange Code – Four character ISO 10383 MIC code of the regulated market that admits the derivative to trading
Exchange Product Code –Code maintained by the derivative exchanges. It is between one and 12 characters long and is uniquely associated with a particular underlying instrument and settlement type, and other characteristics of the contract
Derivative Type – Single character field identifying whether the instrument is an option or a future
Put/Call Identifier – Single character field identifying whether the derivative is a Put or a Call Option
Expiry/Delivery/Prompt Date – Exercise date/maturity date of a derivative contract. ISO 8601 YYYY-MM-DD standard
Strike Price – The strike price of an option or other financial instrument. There is no strike price for futures.
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Source: Xtrakter
New ComStage Bond Index ETF Launched on Xetra
January 25, 2010--An additional ComStage bond index fund from Commerzbank’s ETF offering has been tradable on Xetra® since Monday.
ETF name: ComStage ETF iBoxx € Sovereigns Inflation-Linked Euro-Inflation TR
Asset class: bond index ETF
ISIN: LU0444607187
Management fee: 0.17 percent
Distribution policy: non-distributing
Benchmark: Markit iBoxx € Sovereigns Inflation-Linked Euro-Inflation Total Return Index
This new ComStage ETF gives investors a further opportunity to invest in the performance of government bonds. The underlying index tracks the performance of inflation-linked government bonds with a residual maturity of at least one year which are denominated either in euros or a former currency of the euro zone.
The product offering in Deutsche Börse’s XTF segment currently contains a total of 555 exchange-listed index funds, making it the largest offering of all European stock exchanges. This selection, together with an average monthly trading volume of 11 billion euros, makes Xetra Europe’s leading trading venue for ETFs.
Source: Deutsche Börse
Each outlines CCP risk management recommendations
January 25, 2010--This document is the result of work undertaken by EACH risk experts since the finalisation of the ESCB-CESR Recommendations and provides further guidance concerning voluntary enhancements to CCPs' risk management.
The preparing of these Recommendations demonstrates EACH's strong commitment to improving risk standards and contribute to the regulatory process at this crucial time. EACH produced the first set of agreed Risk standards in 2001, pre-dating both the CPSS-IOSCO and ESCB-CESR documents, and this text continues that leading role. Not all of these Recommendations may be relevant to all CCPs.
EACH and its members will continue to work closely with the European Commission, ESCB-CESR, CPSS-IOSCO and supervisory authorities to further refine and develop international standards and contribute to legislative proposals.
view the Supplementary Risk Recommendations
Source: EACH
New structure for SIX Swiss Exchange website
January 25, 2010--The updated SIX Swiss Exchange website, featuring a new
structure, will go live on 25 January 2010. Exchange participants,
issuers and investors can now access the content relevant to them
directly from the home page.
SIX Swiss Exchange are also easier to
find, with both accessible from the main menu.
The SIX Swiss Exchange website, www.six-swiss-exchange.com, is used by more than 30,000 people every day. The new navigation structure channels the website according to visitors’ differing needs right on the home page. To this end, new sections have been created that allow participants/traders, investors and issuers to call up information tailored specifically to them in a concise form.
The website update has also increased the range of information available
for issuers. Current and prospective issuers alike can find information on
the Swiss financial market and on listing, for example. The main menu
also gives investors access not only to the statistics section, but also to a
new index section that provides an overview of the approximately 1,400
SIX Swiss Exchange indices.
Source: SIX Swiss Exchange
Brief opening comments to financial services seminar
January 25, 2010--Welcome to Downing Street. I would like to express to you my utmost gratitude for coming to this discussion today - academics, country officials, international and UK policy makers.
Over the last two years, the world experienced the most severe economic crisis seen in recent history.
The financial sector was at the heart of this crisis and the existences of many banks across the world were threatened. Governments were forced to step in and use taxpayer money to prevent a complete financial meltdown and thus a much deeper crisis.
Going forward it is important that any costs that governments incur for interventions in the financial sector are distributed more fairly. There is clearly a strong rationale to charge for the externality caused by the financial sector and financial institutions should shoulder the responsibilities for losses they may face.
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Source: HM Treasury
German rebound boosts eurozone industrial orders
January 25, 2010--New industrial orders shot up by 2.7 percent in November across the 16 countries that share the euro, thanks to a German rebound, massively revised figures showed on Monday.
The European Union originally issued a figure of 1.6 percent on Friday, but published new numbers on Monday after "corrected German data" was received, underlining a huge turnaround from October's 2.1 percent fall -- also upwardly revised.
"The even healthier than previously reported pick up... bodes well for production in the near term at least and gives a welcome boost to eurozone growth prospects for the first quarter of 2010," said IHS Global Insight analyst Howard Archer.
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Source: EU Business
Life settlements make their way in the UK
January 22, 2010--US life settlements, the business of buying life assurance policies from individuals and collecting a pay-out when they die, is becoming an increasingly talked-about asset class in the UK.
Evans Randall, the property-focused private equity group, is the latest in a small group of UK investment managers to offer a product for retail investors with the launch of what it calls the only US Life Settlements fund approved by the Financial Services Authority. The US life settlement market has grown rapidly in recent years and has attracted interest during the financial crisis as an asset whose performance is not correlated with changes in other markets or economic conditions.
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Source: FT.com
Second estimate for the third quarter of 2009-EU27 current account deficit 27.7 bn euro
16.7 bn euro surplus on trade in services
January 22, 2010--According to the latest revisions1, the EU272 external current account3 recorded a deficit of 27.7 billion euro in the third quarter of 2009, compared with a deficit of 73.5 bn in the third quarter of 2008 and a deficit of 49.0 bn in the second quarter of 2009.
In the third quarter of 2009, compared with the third quarter of 2008, the deficit of the goods account decreased (-19.1 bn euro compared with -64.9 bn), as did the deficit of the income account (-8.6 bn compared with -14.2 bn). The surplus of the services account fell (+16.7 bn compared with +19.3 bn) and the deficit of the current transfers account increased (-16.7 bn compared with -13.7 bn).
The surplus recorded in the services account (+16.7 bn euro) is mainly the result of surpluses in "other business services", which includes miscellaneous business, professional and technical services (+8.9 bn), financial services (+5.7 bn), transportation (+5.4 bn) and computer & information services (+4.1 bn), partially offset by deficits in travel (-5.6 bn) and royalties & licence fees (-3.9 bn).
In the third quarter of 2009, the EU27 external current account recorded a surplus with the USA (+12.5 bn euro), Switzerland (+6.0 bn), Canada (+2.4 bn), Hong Kong (+2.1 bn), Brazil (+1.6 bn) and India (+1.1 bn), and a deficit with China (-29.3 bn), Russia (-8.4 bn) and Japan (-8.0 bn).
Financial Account
In the third quarter of 2009, the EU27 made direct investments abroad for 56.2 bn, compared with 75.7 bn in the same quarter of 2008, while foreign direct investors made investments in the EU27 for 26.9 bn, compared with investments for 64.5 bn in the same quarter of 2008. Portfolio investments recorded a net inflow of 100.8 bn, compared with 153.2 bn in the third quarter of 2008.
These provisional data, issued by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, are based on the information available at the time of publication and subject to revision.
view the report
Source: Eurostat
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