How Much Did Investors Take Out of Europe Last Year?
January 27, 2012--European investors fled a range of long-term investment funds in December 2011, capping a bad year for the fund management industry as a whole, research published on Thursday revealed.
Investment researchers Morningstar said long-term European investment funds lost 23 billion euros ($30.3 billion) in December alone and 119 billion euros during the year as investors became spooked by the euro zone debt crisis.
Unlike in 2008, investors didn’t simply shift assets from the stock and bond markets into currencies but instead exited the markets altogether.
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Source: CNBC
ECB Monetary developments in the euro area
January 27, 2012--The annual growth rate of the broad monetary aggregate M3 decreased to 1.6% in December 2011, from
2.0% in November 2011.1 The three-month average of the annual growth rates of M3in the period from October 2011 to December 2011 decreased to 2.1%, from 2.5% in the period from September 2011 to November 2011.
M3 components
Regarding the main components of M3, the annual growth rate of M1 decreased to 1.6% in December
2011, from 2.1% in November. The annual growth rate of short-term deposits other than overnight
deposits (M2-M1) stood at 2.1% in December, unchanged from the previous month.
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Source: ECB
.Barclays Capital Expands Fiscal Strength Weighted Index Family into Covered Bonds
January 27, 2012-Barclays Capital, publisher of leading broad market bond benchmarks, today announced the launch of a new family of Fiscal Strength Weighted Covered Bond Indices. This new suite of benchmark indices uses fundamental measures of fiscal sustainability to adjust country weights within existing Covered Bond benchmarks, thereby offering an alternative for investors beyond the existing flagship market value weighted indices.
“The global covered bond market is a growing segment of the fixed income market and an increasing part of the investment choice set for securitized, rates, and credit investors,” said Fritz Engelhard, Head of Covered Bond Strategy at Barclays Capital. “In the covered bond space, market value weighted indices tend to be rather strongly exposed to Spain and France due to the high historical covered bond issuance activity out of these countries. Performance swings in these covered bond markets, given the sovereign crisis, exceeded the risk appetite of typical covered bond investors, and the new Fiscal Strength Weighted alternative achieves a reduction in index weights of the two countries.”
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Source: Barclays Capital
Germany Poised to Woo U.K. With Transaction Tax Alternative
January 26, 2012--Germany is preparing plans for a form of European stamp duty on shares linked to tougher trading rules as an alternative to a financial-transaction tax, as it seeks to win U.K. support for a European Union-wide levy.
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats and their Free Democratic Party allies are coalescing around an FDP proposal for a Europe-wide tax along the lines of the U.K.’s levy on shares. Such a solution is a “good option” if accompanied by rules that limit “abusive excesses” in automated trading, the Free Democrats said in a paper drafted by former Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle.
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Source: Bloomberg
Industry looks on the bright side of Esma clampdown
January 26, 2012-- Providers of exchange traded funds are hopeful that a heightened focus on products from Europe’s regulators will help, not hinder, their usage.
The industry is currently waiting for the European Securities and Markets Authority to publish new guidelines for the ETF industry later this month, which the supervisory body says are necessary to help retail investors better understand the products.
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Source: FT.com
China bailing out EU pure 'media fluff'
January 26, 2012--Talk that debt-ridden Europe is counting on China to come to its rescue is just "media fluff," members of the political and business elite said Thursday at the Davos forum.
"In my own view... this is media fluff fluff," World Trade Organization chief Pascal Lamy told the World Economic Forum meeting at the Swiss ski village.
"I don't believe one second that there would be negotiations between the Chinese government and the Europeans saying 'we will buy your debt if you do this or if you do that'.
"They don't even do that with the US, they buy US debt without condition. So I don't believe that," added the WTO director-general, referring to Beijing's massive investment in US Treasury bills.
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Source: EUBusiness
EU financial transaction tax 'madness': Cameron
January 26, 2012--The European Union's plan for a financial transaction tax is "simply madness", Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron said on Thursday.
"Even to be considering this at a time when we are struggling to get our economies growing is quite simply madness," Cameron said in a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
"Of course it's right that the financial sector should pay their share. In the UK we are doing exactly that through our bank levies and stamp duty on shares. And these are options which other countries can adopt," Cameron added.
"But look at the European Commission's own original analysis. That showed a Financial Transactions Tax could reduce the GDP of the EU by 200 billion euros, cost nearly 500,000 jobs and force as much as 90 per cent of some markets away from the EU."
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Source: EUBusiness
Deutsche Boerse, NYSE Decision To Be Adopted Feb 1 Without Doubt
January 26, 2012--The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, will rule on the planned merger of exchange operators Deutsche Boerse AG (DB1.XE) and NYSE Euronext (NYX) on Feb. 1, as planned, EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said Wednesday.
A so-called "waiting reserve" that Michel Barnier, the EU's commissioner for internal market and services, Tuesday placed on the matter hasn't pushed that announcement back, Almunia said.
"I can confirm that a decision will be adopted Feb. 1 indeed, without any doubt," Almunia said at the commission's press conference.
A spokeswoman said in a statement Tuesday that Barnier, who has been on a long official travel, wanted more time to review the proposed merger, raising new hopes of garnering support for the proposed $17 billion combination that many investors and analysts have given up upon.
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Source: Dow Jones Newswire
NYSE Euronext announces new ETF on European markets
January 26, 2012--NYSE Euronext is pleased to announce that AMUNDI IS has listed 1 new ETF on NYSE Euronext's Paris market today:
Trading Name: AMUNDI ETF HR 1-3
ISIN: FR0011161215
Symbol: AA13
Reuters RIC: AA13.PA
BBG Ticker: AA13 FP
Underlying index: EuroMTS Highest-Rated Gvt 1-3Y
TER: 0,14%
NYSE Euronext has now 684 listings of 586 ETFs based on more than 400 indices.
Source: NYSE Euronext
FSA consults on changes to the Listing Rules
January 26, 2012--The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has today proposed a number of changes to the Listing Rules that set out the requirements for companies listed in the UK. The changes are updates to the rules to take account of market developments.
The Listing Rules are the responsibility of the United Kingdom Listing Authority (UKLA), operating under the FSA. The Consultation Paper (CP) also sets out some wider issues in relation to the premium listing standard on which comment is sought.
The Listing Rules have been reviewed on a regular basis since their introduction in 2000. The last review in 2008-10 introduced the premium and standard segments in order to provide greater clarity for investors. Today’s proposals, the majority of which are technical in nature, fall under a number of different headings:
Reverse Takeovers
The proposed changes will ensure that reverse takeovers cannot be used as a ‘back-door’ route to listing for companies that would otherwise be ineligible. There are currently exemptions that remove some acquisitions from the reverse takeover requirements. These proposed changes will narrow these exemptions.
Sponsor Regime
Sponsors play an important role in the regime for premium listed companies by ensuring that such companies understand the regulatory framework and by providing assurance to the UKLA that companies are meeting the requirements. Today’s proposals are intended to clarify UKLA’s expectations of sponsors – for example by adding a rule that that the FSA can require a sponsor to confirm to the FSA that its client is complying with the Listing Rules.
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Source: FSA.gov.uk
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