European ETF market hits record high
August 8, 2012--Assets under management in the European exchange-traded fund market have reached an all-time high after strong inflows as investor confidence starts to return.
The data, put out by European ETF provider Lyxor, shows that total AUM reached €255bn at the end of July, up 3% on the previous record in February of €248bn.
The results have been driven by market gains which boosted the underlying index performance, as well as fresh inflows over the last three months.
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Source: Financial News
Eurozone GDP to fall by 0.3% this year
August 8, 2012--The eurozone economy will contract by 0.3% in 2012 before recovering more slowly than expected next year to expand by 0.6%, a poll conducted by the European Central Bank (ECB) revealed on Thursday.
The data came from the Survey of Professional Forecasters which the ECB carries out on a quarterly basis. It was published in the Frankfurt-based bank‘s monthly bulletin. The previous SPF survey predicted a 0.2% contraction for eurozone gross domestic product (GDP) this year and a 1-per-cent expansion in 2013.
Source: Online News
ESMA publishes update on MiFID waivers from pre-trade transparency
August 8, 2012--ESMA published todays a revision of its waiver document (ESMA/2011/241) which provides information on the pre-trade transparency of trading systems already set up in the European Union and informs on the compliance of such systems with MiFID, the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive.
Pre-trade transparency waivers are an integral feature of MiFID.
However, in order to ensure the liquidity and efficiency of equity markets, waivers allow in a limited number of cases to deviate from MiFID’s trade transparency requirements.
view moreview the ESMA Waivers from Pre-trade Transparency-CESR positions and ESMA opinions
Source: ESMA
Fund launches hit five-year Q2 low
August 7, 2012--The number of newly-launched funds in Europe hit their lowest number for second quarter results in the last five years, according to the latest Lipper data.
The Fund Market Insight report revealed new launches dropped by 50% in Q2 compared to the same period last year, with 411 funds launched in 2012 compared to 838 for 2011.
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Source: CityWire
S&P revises Greece's outlook to negative
August 7, 2012--Overview
Following delays in implementing budgetary consolidation measures and a worsening Greek economy, we believe Greece is likely to require additional financing for 2012 under the EU/International Monetary Fund (IMF) program (EU/IMF Program).
We consider the Greek government will find it difficult to make further cuts to meet the conditions to secure the next disbursement of the next tranche of funding from the EU/IMF Program.
We are revising the outlook on the long-term ratings on Greece to negative, reflecting the possibility of a downgrade if Greece fails to secure the next disbursement of the EU/IMF Program.
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Source: Reuters
Spanish Trading Disrupted by Glitch
August 6, 2012--Trading in Spanish equities was disrupted for more than four hours Monday as a technical glitch hit the systems of stock-market operator Bolsas y Mercados Espanoles SA.
The outage, which began after the first hour of trading, came as local stock prices were rising on hopes that the European Central Bank may purchase soverign bonds in secondary markets to bring down borrowing costs of the debt-laden country along with those of Italy.
A spokesman for BME in Madrid said technicians were studying the systems to get a better picture of what caused the shutdown but couldn't comment further on the disruption.
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Source: Wall Street Journal
Esma bowls ETF market a googly
August 6, 2012--The fund management industry was knocked for six on July 25 when the European Securities and Markets Authority,
one of the region’s main financial regulators, launched the final version of its guidelines on exchange-traded funds and Ucits.
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Source: Financial News
Retrocession ban still on the cards
August 5, 2012--An EU-wide ban on inducements for some intermediaries is still expected even if it is ruled out of the upcoming Mifid II directive, according to some industry commentators.
The European Commission’s move to ban retrocession fees is widely expected to be absent from Mifid II, after an influential European Parliament committee opposed the proposal.
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Source: FT.com
Global fund pool shrinks as launches on the wane
August 5, 2012--The European investment industry's seemingly endless roll-out of new funds is slowing dramatically as banks focus on building deposits rather than selling funds and investors become more selective in their fund choices in an uncertain economic environment.
Closures and mergers of mutual funds and exchange traded funds outweighed launches in the first six months of the year with 1,620 shutting down compared to 1,104 launches, reinforcing the trend at the end of 2011, according to data from Lipper.
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Source: FT.com
UK Official holdings of international reserves July 2012
August 3, 2012--This monthly press notice shows details of movements in July in the UK's official holdings of international reserves, which consist of gold, foreign currency assets and International Monetary Fund assets.
These reserves are maintained primarily so that the UK Government’s reserves could be used to intervene to support Sterling, or the Bank of England’s reserves could be used to support the Bank’s monetary policy objectives. If such interventions were to occur, then they would be shown and explained in this release. The Background note at the end of this release explains more about the reserves, and about these statistics.
In summary this month’s release shows that, in July 2012:
No intervention operations were undertaken.
view the UK Official holdings of international reserves
July 2012
Source: HM Treasury
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