Eurozone economic activity contracts
April 23, 2012--Eurozone economic activity has contracted unexpectedly sharply this month, pushing the region deeper into recession and dashing hopes that action to combat its debt crisis would soon pave the way for a gradual recovery.
Purchasing managers' indices for the 17-country bloc fell for a third consecutive month to the lowest level for five months, pointing to an intensification of the economic contraction which started in the final three months of last year, when the eurozone debt crisis was at its most intense. Economists had expected a modest improvement.
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Source: IBN Live
Behind the exchange-traded label
April 22, 2012--Investors in products bearing the exchange-traded label almost invariably assume they have invested in funds regulated under European Ucits rules.
In fact, the position is far from clear-cut. Whereas exchange-traded funds are listed funds with regulated exposures, exchange-traded notes and exchange-traded commodities lack either of these characteristics.
The most common ETN and ETC exposures are wrapped into a debt security, whose value is linked to the performance of designated investments
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Source: Financial News
MiFID threatens liquidity -and traders
April 20, 2012--As the sweeping reforms contained in the so-called MiFID II proposals creep closer to being incorporated into European regulations, bond specialists are preparing for a fundamental shift in fixed-income markets.
The reforms, which are designed to make European bonds trade more like equities, might batter liquidity levels - and slash the number of bond traders employed by banks - but could create new opportunities for exchanges and agency brokers.
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Source: Reuters
Research says lack of data consolidation is pushing buy side flow into dark pools
April 20, 2012--New research from TradeTech Pulse suggests that the lack of data consolidation and established data standards across Europe is increasingly pushing asset managers to direct flow into dark pools, as they are finding it so hard to navigate across the fragmented nature of the markets in Europe.
The research also reveals that between 30%-40% of asset managers’ trading flow is now being executed in an OTC environment, however not all asset managers trade in dark pools. And contrary to the popular assumption, avoiding high frequency traders is not the major reason that an asset manager will direct flow into a dark pool. The majority of the respondents believe they will be trading high volumes in a greater variety of dark pools in a few years’ time.
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Source: FTSE Global Markets
ESMA advises Commission on short-selling regulation
April 20, 2012--ESMA has published today its final advice on possible delegated acts concerning the Short-Selling Regulation.
ESMA's advice specifies the definition of when a natural or legal person is considered to own a financial instrument for the purposes of the definition of short sale (Article 2(2) of theRegulation).
Section II of the advice relates to the net position in shares or sovereign debt covering the concept of holding a position, the case when a person has a net short position and the method of calculation of such a position including when different entities in a group have long or short positions or for fund management activities related to separate funds (Article 3(7)).
Section III sets out the advice on the cases in which a credit default swap (CDS) transaction is considered to be hedging against a default risk or the risk of a decline of the value of the sovereign debt and the method of calculation of an uncovered position in a CDS (Article 4(2)).
Turkey-Sustained and Equitable Growth for Continued Economic Success
April 20, 2012--Synopsis
Turkey is one of the greatest success stories of the global economy based on its rapid economic growth and development over the last decade. Extreme poverty has been eliminated; the Millennium Development Goals for maternal mortality and universal primary education have been achieved; and Turkey is working towards reaching the remaining goals by 2015.
Turkey's partnership with the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) is focused on sustained and equitable growth and has delivered results on macroeconomic stabilization, the development of a clean, sustainable, and reliable energy sector, and improved health outcomes.
Challenge
Turkey is an upper middle-income country, and with a GDP of US$ 875 billion, it is the world's sixteenth-largest economy. Total population is 75 million and per capita annual income is just above US$ 10,000. Since 2001, Turkey has stabilized its economy and other countries—most notably those in the Middle East and North Africa—look to Turkey's political and economic system as a potential model to emulate. Accession to the European Union (EU), initiated in 2005, remains a firm long-term aim.
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Source: World Bank
DTCC, EFETnet Launch Global Trade Repository For Commodities Derivatives
April 19, 2012--EFETnet B.V. and The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) announced today that, following their successful pilot program launched in January as the first global repository for OTC commodity swaps, they have begun accepting trade submissions from commodity market participants into the new Global Trade Repository for Commodities (GTRfC).
DTCC and EFETnet's industry governed low-cost model provides users the ability to submit trades to a single repository in order to fulfill reporting obligations to regulators globally.
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Source: DTCC
ECB publishes the Eurosystem Oversight Report 2011
April 19, 2012--The European Central Bank (ECB) has today published the Eurosystem Oversight Report 2011, which provides information on the Eurosystem's oversight policies and main oversight activities between the late summer of 2009 and the late summer of 2011. The previous and first Eurosystem Oversight Report was published in November 2009.
The report comprises four chapters and three annexes. Chapter 1 provides an update on the Eurosystem’s oversight policies and reports on EU legal initiatives that are relevant for the Eurosystem’s oversight function. It also summarises developments in oversight standards, and reports on existing and new cooperative oversight arrangements as well as on the activities performed within these arrangements. Chapter 2 presents the Eurosystem’s main oversight activities. Chapter 3 gives an outlook for future activities, which will include, in particular, a review of the Eurosystem’s oversight policies once the new principles for financial market infrastructures being developed by the Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems (CPSS) and the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) have been finalised. Finally, Chapter 4 contains three articles, entitled “Progress in OTC derivatives market reform: a Eurosystem perspective”, “TARGET2 transactions: data and analysis” and “A survey on the role of technological service providers in retail payments in Italy and in Greece”. Annexes to the report provide details of oversight policy documents and links to Eurosystem central banks’ websites, where more information on overseen infrastructures and arrangements can be found.
view the Eurosystem Oversight Report 2011
Source: ECB
Hedge fund assets swell to new high
April 19, 2012--The global hedge fund industry has seen its assets swell to a new high, according to the latest data from a leading hedge fund database.
Hedge funds now manage an estimated $2.13tn in assets on behalf of pension funds, governments, asset managers and high net worth individuals, Hedge Fund Research said in quarterly numbers released on Thursday.
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Source: FT.com
Market volatility sparks leveraged ETF trading
April 19, 2012--Trading of leveraged exchange-traded funds soared in Europe last week after an increase in volatility produced gains for investors, pushing trading volumes up to a six-month high.
Data from European ETF provider Lyxor showed that trading of the products increased to around €2.3bn last week, up 45% on the previous week.
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Source: efinancial news
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