Strong demand for bonds of EU bailout fund
April 24, 2012--The EU's bailout fund, the EFSF, said it attracted strong demand on Tuesday in its first auction of seven-year debt, with strong demand from Asia, central banks and sovereign wealth funds.
The bonds were sold at a rate of 2.654 percent, the European Financial Stability Facility said in a statement.
The EFSF borrows money from the markets at low rates and lends it to countries having difficulty in raising their own financing, such as Greece, Ireland and Portugal.
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Source: EUbusiness
EU's Barnier voices concern on U.S. derivatives rules
EU regulation chief warns rules could confuse EU banks
Barnier writes to Washington asking for delay
April 23, 2012--The European Commission has urged regulators in Washington to delay elements of new derivatives regulation, fearing that confusion surrounding some of the rules will harm EU banks operating in the United States.
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) finalised rules last week that will determine which firms involved in trading swaps must register with regulators and back up trades with more capital and collateral.
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Source: Reuters
FSA-Fact Sheet for ETFs
April 23, 2012--FSA has published the FSA Fact Sheet for Investment Advisers-ETPs. This factsheet is for any firm or adviser who:
currently includes ETPs as part of their advice offering; or
is considering including ETPs in their advice offering.<
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The retail market for ETPs is small, but is expected to grow. We have reviewed the risks posed by ETPs,
and completed a number of visits to providers who account for over 70% of the EU market. Our work
leads us to believe that there are a number of competing views on the risks consumers face if they
choose to invest in an ETP.
view FSA fact sheet
Source: FSA.gov.uk
SIX Swiss Exchange Upgrades Equity Trading Platform And Successfully Rolls Out Co-Location Service To Participants
April 23, 2012--SIX Swiss Exchange has successfully completed the upgrade of its trading platform. The upgrade was developed in collaboration with NASDAQ OMX.
At the same time, SIX Swiss Exchange is launching a co-location service
for the new platform in association with Equinix. Starting today, SIX Swiss
Exchange offers participants the most modern trading technology in the
world.
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Source: SIX Swiss Exchange
Russian firm enters Europe with double Ucits launch
April 23, 2012--Russian firm Troika Dialog Asset Management has launched two Ucits-compliant funds to enable international investors to gain access to Russian equity and fixed income opportunities.
The dual fund launch comes as the company, which is a subsidiary of one of the largest and oldest investment banks in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), establishes a Luxembourg-based Ucits umbrella.
The firm said the two funds are based on domestic fund strategies which were launched around 15 years ago.
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Source: CityWire
Industry calls for consolidated ETF tape in Europe
April 23, 2012--With about two thirds of European ETF trading still conducted over-the-counter, providers are calling for comprehensive reporting of ETF trading to reduce fragmentation and cost and improve transparency and liquidity.
According to figures from BlackRock, European average daily volumes of ETFs at the end of 2011 were $2.96bn. Reported OTC trades represented around 16% of this at $462m. It is widely believed by market participants that OTC trading of ETFs in Europe constitutes two thirds of total ETF liquidity.
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Source: Financial News
Nine new Lyxor ETFs launched on Xetra
April 23, 2012--Nine new ETFs issued by Lyxor International Asset Management have been tradable in Deutsche Börse's XTF segment since Monday.
The nine new Lyxor ETFs based on the S&P 500 Select Sector Capped 20% Indices enable investors for the first time to participate in the performance of American companies from the following sectors: consumer discretionary, consumer staples, energy, financials, health care, industrials, materials, technology and utilities.
The S&P 500 Select Sector Capped 20% index series only includes companies from the S&P 500. The weight of each stock is based on its float-adjusted market capitalisation and limited to 20% of the index.
The product offering in Deutsche Börse’s XTF segment currently comprises a total of 965 exchange-listed index funds, making it the largest offering of all European stock exchanges.
view new Lyxor equity index ETFs
Source: Xetra
IMF Working paper-Bank credit, asset prices and financial stability: Evidence from French banks
April 23, 2012--Summary: This paper analyses the effect of asset prices on credit growth in France and tries to disentangle credit demand and supply factors, both for the whole 1993-2010 period and during periods of financial instability.
Using bank-level panel data at a quarterly frequency, stock price growth is shown to have a significant effect on lending growth over the whole period, but without credit supply factors being singled out. By contrast, housing price growth has a significant effect during periods of financial instability only, even after controlling for credit demand effects. These results show that credit demand factors do play a large role but also provide evidence of tighter credit constraints on households in financial instability periods.
view the IMF Working paper-Bank credit, asset prices and financial stability: Evidence from French banks
Source: IMF
Government is on track to cut cost of delivering infrastructure
April 23, 2012--The Government has today published the first annual report of the three year Infrastructure Cost Review programme launched in March 2011 and led by Infrastructure UK.
The Cost Review set out plans to reduce the cost of delivering infrastructure in the UK by £2 to £3 billion a year by 2015. Today’s report confirms that the programme is on track to deliver these savings, with the first annual report having already identified projected savings of up to £1.5 billion through changed behaviours and practice, consistent with the Cost Review principles.
view the Infrastructure Cost Review: Main Report
Source: HM Treasury
Spanish economy 'back in recession'
April 23, 2012--Spain's economy has contracted 0.4% in the first quarter of the year and the country is now in a technical recession, latest figures show.
The drop, published in a Bank of Spain report, follows a 0.3% quarterly decline in the fourth quarter.
A technical recession is commonly defined as two consecutive quarters of economic contraction.
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Source: herald.ie
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