IMF Staff Country Report-Italy: Selected Issues
July 26, 2023--POPULATION AGING IN ITALY: ECONOMIC CHALLENGES AND OPTIONS FOR OVERCOMING THE DEMOGRAPHIC DRAG1
Italy's population is shrinking and aging rapidly. To counteract the effect of demographic decline on GDP, a coherent strategy is needed to significantly boost productivity and raise active employment. Ample scope for catchup exists on both fronts.
The Demographic Challenge
1. The Italian economy faces a daunting demographic challenge. The country's workforce is beginning to shrink due to rapid population aging, an extended period of very low fertility, and unfavorable net migration dynamics in the context of low female and youth labor participation. The outlook is set to worsen: projections by the United Nations Population Division indicate that Italy's working age population will decrease by nearly 30 percent over the next 25 years (Figure 1)2.
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Source: imf.org
New Equity ETF by HANetf on Xetra: access to companies in line with the objectives of the European Green Deal
July 25, 2023--Since Tuesday, a new exchange-traded fund issued by HANetf has been tradable on Xetra and via Börse Frankfurt.
The European Green Deal UCITS ETF offers investors a sustainable investment in around 50 equally weighted companies that can potentially benefit from the European Green Deal.
The selected companies must generate at least 20 per cent of their turnover in Europe in one or more of the four business areas: clean energy, sustainable mobility, refurbished, energy-efficient buildings or circular economy. In addition, they must have a market capitalisation of at least 500 million euros and be among the two-thirds best companies based on environmental scoring.
The European Green Deal is a concept of the European Commission with the aim of achieving climate neutrality by 2050.
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Source: Xetra
3x Tesla ETP fails to deliver promised returns in June
July 25, 2023--Leverage Shares' $320mn vehicle was unable to deliver the full three times returns on six trading days during the month
Investors have been left out of pocket by what appears to be an unprecedented technical glitch at one of Europe's largest leveraged exchange traded products
Leverage Shares' highly popular $320mn 3x Tesla ETP (TSL3), which aims to provide returns equal to three times the daily movement in the share price of the electric-vehicle manufacturer, before fees, ran into trouble last month.
For six trading days it was unable to provide the full three times leverage due to "technical issues with the margin loan provider", it said in filings to the London Stock Exchange, one of four European bourses on which it is listed.
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Source: ft.com
Assets in Ireland-domiciled ETFs top 1 Trillion Euros for first time
July 25, 2023--The total accounts for 68% of the nearly €1.5tn European market Exchange traded funds in Ireland have risen above €1tn for the first time, making up 68 per cent of the nearly €1.5tn European market.
The overall fund industry is currently seeing a secular trend towards greater ETF investment, and Ireland is seen as a global centre of excellence for the wider, global asset management industry. Assets in Irish ETFs have grown 160 per cent since the end of 2018 compared with 34 per cent for other funds in the country, causing their share of Ireland-domiciled assets to jump from 21 per cent to about a third.
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Source: ft.com
ESMA performs an analysis of the cross-border investment activity of firms
July 19, 2023--The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU's financial markets regulator and supervisor, and national competent authorities (NCAs) completed an analysis of the cross-border provision of investment services during 2022.
The increase in the cross-border provision of financial services has benefits for consumers and firms, as it fosters competition, expands the offer available to consumers and the market for firms.
However, it also requires that NCAs intensify their efforts and focus more on the supervision of cross-border activities and cooperation to tackle the issues arising from these activities.
The data collected and analysed across 29 jurisdictions allows ESMA and NCAs to shed light on various aspects of the market for retail investors that receive investment services by credit institutions and investment firms established in other Member States.
Key findings of the data collection[1] include:
A total of around 380 firms[2] provided services to retail clients on a cross-border basis in 2022. The majority of them (59%) are investment firms, while 41% are credit institutions.
Approximately 7.6 million clients in the EU/EEA received investment services from firms located in other EU/EEA Member States in 2022.
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Source:ESMA
State Street's ETF back-office dominance is a 'potential concern'
July 19, 2023--The bank acts as custodian for more than two-thirds of European ETF assets, Refinitiv Lipper data shows
State Street's dominance in servicing Europe's exchange traded fund market could be a problem for the sector, industry figures say.
The US bank acts as custodian for more than two-thirds of European ETF assets, totalling over €830bn, figures from Refinitiv Lipper show.
Manooj Mistry, chief operating officer at HANetf, a white-label ETF provider, said "one area of potential concern" was the concentration risk resulting from State Street's dominance as fund administrator.
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Source: ft.com
Official Statistics: Forecasts for the UK economy: July 2023
July 19, 2023--A comparison of independent forecasts for the UK economy in July 2023.
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Source: gov.uk
New active ETF by J.P. Morgan on Xetra: access to the Japanese market with a positive ESG profile
July 18, 2023--Since Tuesday, a new active exchange traded fund by J.P. Morgan Asset Management is tradable on Xetra.
The JPM Japan Research Enhanced Index Equity (ESG) UCITS ETF pursues an active investment strategy and mainly invests in a portfolio of Japanese companies. The titles are selected based on a fundamental bottom-up approach and those companies with the greatest potential for above-average share price development are being overweighted.
Companies involved in businesses such as tobacco, coal for power plants and controversial weapons are excluded from the ETF. In addition, the company's own ESG scoring method is used to consider ecological and social aspects in the selection of companies.
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Source: Xetra
ESMA publishes 2022 UCITS and AIFMD sanction reports
July 18, 2023--The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU securities markets regulator, today publishes its 2022 reports on the use by National Competent Authorities (NCAs) of sanctions under the Undertakings for Collective Investments in Transferable Securities (UCITS) and the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD).
The pattern evidenced by the reports throughout the years (since 2013 for AIFMD and 2016 for UCITS) shows that, besides a limited number of NCAs issuing an increasing number of sanctions, the level of sanctions issued at national level remains stable and generally low, in particular when it comes to penalties.
Some highlights from the data
UCITS sanctions: In 2022, 9 NCAs imposed a total of 38 penalties, compared with 61 penalties issued by 12 NCAs in 2021. 98% of the total amount of penalties was imposed by a single NCA. 16 NCAs did not impose any sanction during this period.
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Source: ESMA
New equity ETFs from Xtrackers on Xetra: Four factor strategies combined with climate protection and sustainability for companies from industrialised countries
July 17, 2023--Since Monday, four new exchange traded funds from Xtrackers are tradable on Xetra and via the Börse Frankfurt trading venue.
The new ETFs offer investors the opportunity to invest in large and medium-sized companies from industrialised countries that are selected and weighted according to an optimisation approach, taking into account factors like climate protection and sustainability.
Companies that have an MSCI ESG rating of BB or lower, are active in controversial business areas such as nuclear weapons, tobacco products, alcohol, gambling, fossil fuel extraction and power generation from thermal coal or do not comply with the principles of the UN Global Compact are generally excluded.
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