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Sarkozy Pushes Financial Transaction Tax While Seeing Risk of Going Solo
January 10, 2012--France will lead the way on taxing financial transactions in an effort to spur other countries into joining, President Nicolas Sarkozy said.
“If France waits for others to tax finance, then finance will never be taxed,” Sarkozy said today in a speech in the eastern French city of Mulhouse.
A unilateral levy is opposed by France’s financial community and its feasibility was questioned today by one of Sarkozy’s own ministers. It has become a political challenge for the president, who faces elections in a two-round vote in April and May this year and wants to make good on a pledge he made to impose such a tax when France last year held the presidency of both the G-8 and G-20 group of countries.
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Source: Bloomberg
Ex BlackRock ETF guru Fuhr not joining BoAML as role axed
January 10, 2012--Ex BlackRock ETF guru Fuhr not joining BoAML as role axed
Former BlackRock ETF expert Deborah Fuhr will not be joining Bank of America Merrill Lynch, as the role of head of global delta one strategy has been axed.
Fuhr, who was previously global head of ETF research and implementation strategy at BlackRock, was set to join BoAML in the third quarter of last year.
A spokesperson for BoAML said: 'Due to organisational changes the role of head of global delta one strategy will no longer exist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
'As such it has been mutually agreed that Deborah Fuhr will not join the bank. We wish her every success in her endeavours.'
Fuhr left BlackRock in July, and her departure was followed by that of her deputy, Shane Kelly, who has joined BoAML.
In her new role, she was due to report to Pier Butler, who is head of the EMEA global equity, macro and events group.
Rather than heading up ETF research, as Fuhr did in her previous roles, she was set to work on other aspects of ETF development and trading, as well as other delta one products.
Both Fuhr and Kelly worked at BlackRock since it acquired Barclays Global Investors in 2009. The duo joined BGI in 2008, having previously worked at Morgan Stanley.
Source: Citywire
Pendulum swings firmly in favour of Eurozone financial transaction tax
January 9, 2012--A very broad agreement in favour of an EU financial transaction tax emerged on Monday, at the start of the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee's work on the legislative proposal. Spokespersons for Parliament's various political groups all advocated such a tax, at least throughout the Eurozone, and many deplored France's weekend hint that it could go it alone.
Various MEPs said that in recent months they had shifted their position in favour of a financial transaction tax. Wolf Klinz (ALDE, DE) explained that this was "because the financial sector has not learnt the lessons from the crisis".
The shift suggests that more MEPs may favour the proposal than was the case some months ago. Only the ECR spokesperson, Czech MEP Ivo Strejček, stood by his group's fundamental opposition to the tax.
Parliament an early mover in calls to tax financial transactions
By narrow margins, Parliament had already pronounced itself in favour of a financial transaction tax towards the end of 2010 and more specifically in March 2011. The Commission tabled its legislative proposal late in 2011.
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Source: European Parliament
First commodity ETF launched
January 9, 2012--Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM) and Source are pleased to announce the launch of the LGIM Commodity Composite Source ETF. The fund, which tracks the LGIM Commodity Composite Index, is designed to offer high quality, diversified exposure to commodities in a UCITS-compliant ETF.
The LGIM Commodity Composite Index aims to be a new kind of benchmark for broad-based commodity exposure. Using LGIM’s expertise as an index manager, and an in-depth quantitative and qualitative screening process, it offers exposure to a selection of ‘best of breed’ commodity indices.
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Source: Source
ESMA Publishes A Q&A On MAD Regarding Definition Of Inside Information On Dividends
January 9, 2012--ESMA publishes today a Q&A on the definition of inside information of the Market Abuse Directive (MAD), with regards to information relating to dividends by an issuer of financial instruments
that would be likely to have a significant effect on the prices of related derivative financial instruments.
view Q&A on MAD regarding definition of inside information on dividends
Source: ESMA
Gold holdings at a record level in 2011
Xetra-Gold reserve with a value of around €2.1 billion in central vault
January 9, 2012--The value of gold stored by Deutsche Börse Commodities rose by around 32% in 2011 to €2.1 billion (as at 31 December 2011), thus achieving a new record level. The gold in the central vault well crossed the 50 ton mark in the course of the year. The highest demand for Xetra-Gold was in July and August.
“Investors showed an increased interest in gold during the turbulent phases of the market. Xetra-Gold gave them the opportunity to invest simply and flexibly in physical gold and to trade it economically like a share. The bid/ask spread is generally only around 0.1 percent. Every security has a value equivalent to exactly one gram of physical gold. The gold is in safe custody in our central vault and can be delivered at any time,” said Martina Gruber, managing director at Deutsche Börse Commodities GmbH.
Since Xetra-Gold launched in 2007, investors have already made use of this physical backing 643 times – a total of 3.4 tons has been delivered from the central vault in Frankfurt to investors' own banks. This only involves fees for packaging, transport and insurance which differ according to the quantity delivered. Delivery normally takes around two weeks. The smallest amount that has been delivered so far was 10 grams, the largest 213 kilograms.
Xetra-Gold is by far the best-performing security among the 218 exchange traded commodities (ETCs) available on Xetra. Its annual turnover for 2011 was €3.2 billion. Its annual average share of total order book turnover in the ETC segment was 26.9 percent.
Source: Deutsche Börse Commodities
Seven new Deutsche Bank ETFs launched on Xetra
New funds track bond and credit derivative indices
Janaury 9, 2012--Seven new exchange traded funds issued by db X-trackers II, a subsidiary of Deutsche Bank, have been tradable in the XTF segment on Xetra since Monday. Four are credit derivative ETFs on iTraxx indices and three are bond index ETFs on government bonds.
The four db X-trackers II credit derivative ETFs give investors the opportunity for the first time to participate in the positive or inverse performance of the iTraxx Europe and iTraxx Crossover indices with a leverage factor of two. iTraxx Europe comprises 125 European companies with an investment-grade rating. iTraxx Crossover, on the other hand, reflects the yields of 45 European companies with a rating of Baa3/BBB minus or below.
The db X-trackers II iBoxx € Sovereigns Eurozone 1-3 Total Return Index ETF and db X-trackers II iBoxx € Sovereigns Eurozone 3-5 Total Return Index ETF give investors the opportunity to invest in the performance of euro zone government bonds with a maturity of one to three years and three to five years, respectively.
And the db X-trackers II Global Sovereign Index ETF allows investors to participate in the performance of global government bonds. The underlying index, the Deutsche Bank Global Investment Grade Government Index, currently comprises government bonds from 20 industrialised nations with an investment-grade rating.
The product offering in Deutsche Börse’s XTF segment currently comprises a total of 907 exchange-listed index funds, while average monthly trading volume stands at €16 billion.
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Source:Deutsche Börse
Basel III liquidity standard and strategy for assessing implementation of standards endorsed by Group of Governors and Heads of Supervision
January 8, 2011--The Group of Governors and Heads of Supervision (GHOS), the oversight body of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, met on 8 January 2012. The main items of discussion were the Basel Committee's proposals on the Liquidity Coverage Ratio (LCR) and its strategy for assessing implementation of the Basel regulatory framework more broadly.
The GHOS endorsed the Committee's comprehensive approach to monitoring and reviewing implementation of the Basel regulatory framework. GHOS Chairman and Governor of the Bank of England Mervyn King noted that "the focus on implementation represents a significant new direction for the Basel Committee. The level of scrutiny and transparency applied to the manner in which countries implement the rules the Committee has developed and agreed will help ensure full, timely and consistent implementation of the international minimum requirements".
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Source: BIS
Reinforced economic union: MEPs call for roadmap towards eurobonds
January 6, 2012--As the working group drafting the "international agreement on a reinforced economic union" reconvenes on 6 January, European Parliament representatives Elmar Brok (EPP, DE), Roberto Gualtieri (S&D, IT) and Guy Verhofstadt (ALDE, BE) stress in their amendments that all decisions must be based on normal EU procedure in order to ensure democratic accountability and Parliament’s legislative role are respected. They also call for a roadmap with a view to introducing eurobonds.
The European Parliament representatives' proposed changes to the draft agreement aim at reinforcing the ‘debt brake’. They call on Member States to establish a national debt reduction fund and to adopt a roadmap towards creating the conditions that will allow them to issue part of their sovereign debt in common, with joint and several liabilities. A “sustainable framework” is needed for the possible introduction of stability bonds, with the aim of enhancing economic governance and economic growth in the euro area, say the MEPs.
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Source: European Parliament
London Stock Exchange Group Monthly Market Report - December 2011
December 6, 2012--London Stock Exchange Group (LSE.L) sits at the heart of the world's financial community, offering international business unrivalled access to Europe's capital markets. In December a total of 24.4 million trades were carried out across the Group's electronic equity order books with a combined value of £128.1 billion (€151.8 billion), down 11 per cent on December 2010 (£143.8 billion).
UK Equities Order Book
During the month, the average daily value traded on the UK order book was £3.5 billion (€4.2 billion), down 5 per cent year on year. The average daily number of trades increased 25 per cent to 584,371.
The LSE's share of trading in the total UK order book for December was 61.7 per cent.
Italian Equities Order Book
On the Italian order book, the average daily number of trades was 200,582, down 13.4 per cent on the same month last year, whilst the average daily value traded on the order book decreased 33 per cent year on year to €1.8 billion (£1.5 billion).
Derivatives
On the Group's derivatives platforms, the total number of contracts traded was 5,346,435, down 12 per cent compared with December 2010.
Exchange Traded Products
Total value traded in Exchange Traded Products across the Group's order books in December was down 14 per cent year on year to £8.0 billion (€9.5 billion). The total number of trades was also down 21 per cent at 281,496.
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Source: London Stock Exchange Group
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