Clearstream launches market approach for supporting the internationalisation of the Renminbi currency
Renminbi currency has potential to become next major international currency/Clearstream launches Renminbi approach as part of its Asia strategy/Clearstream's Philip Brown: "Our market approach is to bring together partners from across the market to collectively contribute to building a truly international offshore Renminbi market"
February 24, 2014--Clearstream, the financial market infrastructure already active in Asia since 1990, this week sets out its market approach to developing and delivering solutions to help support the internationalisation of the Renminbi (RMB).
The market approach involves bringing together market providers and participants from across the finance community to collectively enable foreign investors to further invest in the Chinese currency, help develop solutions to increase offshore RMB liquidity, enhance the depth and breadth of RMB products and services and facilitate both growth and maturity in the offshore RMB bond markets.
To deliver this market approach, Clearstream is actively seeking partners to join in building and implementing the components that will help establish and facilitate an international offshore RMB market. As part of its market approach, Clearstream also itself intends to leverage its international infrastructure to act as a reciprocal gateway between Chinese and non-Chinese investors and issuers and other market participants.
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Source: Clearstream
Amundi on smart beta push
February 24, 2014--Amundi plans to roll out a new range of smart beta passive investment solutions after agreeing a strategic partnership with index provider ERI Scientific Beta.
The deal will see Amundi granted access to ERI Scientific Beta's range of smart beta indices in order to develop a suite of smart beta index and exchange traded funds.
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Source: FT.com
Political infighting delays benchmark regulation
February 23, 2014--Investor groups have raised concerns that regulations aimed at setting tougher standards for benchmarks such as Euribor and improving investor protection have been delayed by political infighting in Brussels.
Europe's economic and monetary affairs committee was last week expected to vote on benchmark proposals pulled together ...
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Source: FT.com
ESMA sets out CRA supervision focus for 2014
January 20, 2014--The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published its Annual Report 2013 (Report) on credit rating agencies (CRAs) in the European Union (EU). The Report also outlines ESMA's supervisory work plan for this year
ESMA has found that CRAs continue to progress in how they comply with the CRA Regulation, including improved internal transparency and disclosure to the market on credit rating activities as well as empowerment of the compliance function. However, ESMA considers that improvements are still necessary, notably in the following areas:
validation of rating methodologies, to ensure that a credit rating assessment is a comprehensive risk assessment leading to high quality ratings;
internal governance, ensuring the full independence of the internal review function and thereby reducing the risk of potential conflict of interest; and
robust IT systems to support the rating process, including information security controls and protection of confidential rating information.
view the Credit Rating Agencies-Annual Report 2013
Source: ESMA
ESMA-EBA: Euribor makes significant progress with reforms
January 20, 2014--The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and the European Banking Authority (EBA) have today published the results of their joint review of the Euribor-EBF.
The review found that Euribor-EBF has made significant progress in implementing the ESMA-EBA Recommendations addressing weaknesses and shortcomings in its governance and technical framework. This progress provides the basis for improved transparency of the benchmark-setting process, enhanced governance of the benchmark, and improved quality of the resulting index.
Benchmark reforms must continue
The Authorities reviewed the progress made by Euribor-EBF in implementing the ESMA-EBA Recommendations of 11 January 2013 in the context of the on-going Euribor reform. The review found that Euribor-EBF has undertaken reform measures across all affected areas, with four Recommendations fully implemented and a further six Recommendations partially implemented.
view the Review of the Implementation of EBA-ESMA Recommendations to Euribor-EBF report
Source: ESMA
Spain: Financial Sector Reform-Final Progress Report
February 20, 2014--Summary: Spain's ESM-supported program of financial sector reform aimed to assist economic recovery by promoting financial stability. The program was adopted in mid-2012. At the time, Spain's real-estate bust and the euro-area debt crisis had combined to fuel a vicious cycle of failing banks, unsustainable fiscal deficits, rising borrowing costs, contracting output, rapid job loss, and severe financial market turmoil.
The program aimed to stem the financial sector's contribution to these forces by requiring weak banks to more decisively clean their balance sheets and by reforming the sector's policy framework. These efforts aimed in turn to support economic recovery by improving banks' access to market funding and by avoiding a disruptive and disorderly unwinding of a significant part of the sector. The program's strategy built on reforms that the authorities had already undertaken during the crisis (e.g., stronger provisioning requirements) and was developed in consultation with Spain's European partners, was supported by ESM financing, and was consistent with the main recommendations from IMF staff's June 2012 Financial Stability Assessment Program (FSAP) and Article IV consultation.
view the Spain: Financial Sector Reform-Final Progress Report
Source: IMF
State Street Global Exchange Transforms European ETF Market with First Online ETF Trading Platform
February 20, 2014--State Street Global Exchange announced today that it has launched the first online multi-sponsor Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) platform for Authorised Participants (AP's) in Europe.
FundConnect(R) enables AP's to trade multiple products through a secure, online interface. The platform revolutionises the European ETF order-taking process from one that traditionally relies on faxes to a real-time electronic platform that creates significant efficiencies and reduces risks.
SPDR ETFs is the first provider to go live on FundConnect. Alexis Marinof, head of SPDR ETF in Europe, Middle East and Africa commented "FundConnect enhances the speed and efficiency with which Authorised Participants can create and redeem units in our ETFs, a mechanism that SPDR ETF takes seriously because it plays such a vital role in supporting the liquidity needs of our clients. We believe developments like FundConnect, that help support liquidity providers across Europe, will play an important role in enabling the ETF industry to grow."
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Source: State Street Corporation
MiFID II forces firms to disclose total investment cost to clients
February 20, 2014--The passing of the revised Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) into law has made it compulsory for UK investment firms to disclose the total cost of their investments to their clients.
The new rule is part of a raft of changes in the directive made public yesterday that will affect investment managers, discretionary managers, private client wealth managers, platforms, financial advisers and all other financial intermediaries.
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Source: Investment Week
According to ETFGI: ETFs and ETPs listed in Europe received net inflows of US$5.4 billion in January 2014
February 20, 2014--ETFs and ETPs listed in Europe received net inflows of US$5.4 billion in January 2014, according to findings from ETFGI’s January 2014 Global ETF and ETP industry insights report.
The pattern for net flows in January was very different for ETFs and ETPs listed in the United States which suffered net outflows of US$15.5 billion with Equity ETFs/ETPs having the largest net outflows of US$15.9 Bn, followed by commodity ETF/ETP net outflows of US$1.2 Bn, while fixed income ETFs/ETPs gathered net inflows with US$566 Mn.
European listed ETFs and ETPs net inflows of US$5.4 billion in January were composed of Equity ETFs/ETPs gathering net inflows of US$4.0 Bn, followed by fixed income ETFs/ETPs with net inflows of US$2.1 Bn, while commodity ETFs/ETPs experienced net outflows of US$705 Mn.
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Source: ETFGI
The World's First Exchange Platform Taking Card Payments for Digital Currencies Launches
February 20, 2014--The world's first exchange platform taking card payments for digital currencies including Bitcoin launches in the UK today.
In a move promising to revolutionise how digital currency is acquired and used, BinaryFund will also dramatically change how the nation's online retailers, investors and finance professionals take payments, approach currency exchange, and debit customer accounts. It will also smooth the path to widespread digital currency adoption at economic level.
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Source: Dakota Digital
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