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Netherlands to ease rules on pension provider / financial product link
June 17, 2011--Dutch social affairs minister Henk Kamp has said he intends to allow pension providers to link their financial products to their affiliated, mandatory industry-wide pension funds.
In a letter to parliament, he announced a bill that would allow providers to indicate this connection to institutional players, but would maintain the ban on mentioning the link to consumers.
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Source: IP&E
Europe Factors-Shares Set to Fall Again on Debt Woes
June 17, 2011--European stock index futures pointed to losses on Friday, with the region's benchmark indexes set to record a seventh straight weekly loss, on mounting concerns that Greece might not be able to avoid a debt default.
By 0617 GMT, futures for Euro STOXX 50 STXEc1, for Germany's DAX FDXc1 and for France's CAC FCEc1 were down 0.4-0.6 percent. Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, facing public unrest and a split in his party that could push the country closer to default, delayed announcement of a new cabinet late on Thursday in what looked like a signal he was struggling to find the right person for the key financial minister position.
Source: Reuters
Agricultural derivatives segment at Eurex hits important milestone
Threshold of 100,000 traded contracts passed in mid June
June 17, 2011--The international derivatives exchange Eurex today announced that the number of traded agricultural derivatives exceeded 100,000 contracts since their launch in July 2009. Volume has been increasing steadily, partly due to the volatile weather conditions in 2011 and 2010.
Year-to-date, the average daily volume (ADV) is above 300 contracts, or around 38,000 contracts in total. In June 2011, the ADV stands at almost 400 contracts. In 2010, the ADV was around 200 contracts.
Eurex offers six agricultural futures based on butter, European processing potatoes, hogs, London potatoes, piglets and skimmed milk powder. All futures are based on established reference prices from the respective spot markets and are settled in cash.
Eurex’s agricultural contracts are aimed at a broad group of users, including farmers and agricultural cooperatives, trading and slaughter companies and the processing industry. For them, on-exchange traded agricultural derivatives increase the price transparency while the central clearing of these contracts at Eurex Clearing mitigates the counterparty risks which are existent in OTC markets.
Source: Eurex
Decade of soaring food prices forecast
June 17, 2011--The world should prepare for a decade of high food prices, two leading organisations warned on Friday as they raised their expectations for prices on the back of sluggish production growth.
“Agricultural commodity prices in real terms are likely to remain on a higher plateau during the next decade compared to the previous decade,” the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said in their annual agricultural outlook.
The agencies predicted that cereal prices, adjusted for inflation, would be as much as 20 per cent higher on average over the next 10 years compared with the previous decade, while meat prices would be up to 30 per cent higher
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Source: FT.com
Capital requirement fears ease for UK banks
June 17, 2011--London’s banks recovered their poise in afternoon trade on Friday as worries about new international capital requirements eased as risk appetite improved on hopes a Greek rescue deal was moving closer.
Reports in the Financial Times said international regulators would meet in Switzerland next week to discuss plans for a tiered regime of additional capital requirements for about 30 of the world’s biggest banks. The group was said to include HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays. All of them fell for much of the day, as sentiment suffered at the hands of the Greek debt crisis. But as sentiment improved, the sector picked up some support. Barclays rose 0.9 per cent to 256.2p having lost almost 1 per cent earlier in the day. RBS recovered from similar losses to tick 0.1 per cent higher overall to 40.3p. Lloyds Banking Group dallied under the flatline, down 0.1 per cent at 47.9p, as did HSBC, 0.4 per cent softer at 605.6p.
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Source: FT.com
Spanish public debt hits 13-year high
June 17, 2011--Spanish public debt hit a 13-year high in the first quarter of 2011 and shattered a key European Union ceiling designed to ensure strong state finances, Bank of Spain figures showed Friday.
Spain's accumulated public debt amounted to 679.78 billion euros ($970 billion) or 63.6 percent of annual gross domestic product, at the end of March, the central bank said.
Up from just 55 percent of GDP a year earlier, the public debt ratio is now the worst since 1998 and above the key EU limit of 60 percent -- although many other member states have far surpassed that level.
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Source: EUBusiness
European pension funds steering clear of equities
June 16, 2011--Europe remains under-owned by its own citizens, as pension funds in most of Europe steer clear of equities.
While companies are in good shape and global M&A trends are strong, European investor equity exposure remains at all-time lows, according to Allianz Global Investors (AllianzGI).
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Source: IP&E
SIX Swiss Exchange Extends Contract With NASDAQ OMX and Upgrades to New Trading Platform
X-stream INET Platform From NASDAQ OMX Delivers World-Class Latency and Throughput Capabilities
June 16, 2011--The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:NDAQ) announces that SIX Swiss Exchange has extended its contract with NASDAQ OMX and will upgrade its existing SWXess equities trading platform with NASDAQ OMX's X-stream INET technology. The system upgrade is scheduled to be in effect in Q1 2012, and will enable significant latency and throughput advantages for SIX Swiss Exchange and its trading members in all asset classes.
Christian Katz, CEO at SIX Swiss Exchange said: "Our upgrade to X-stream INET for the trading of all asset classes will be a global first. It allows us to leverage the most advanced trading technology in the world, provided by our technology partner NASDAQ OMX, into our unique market structure with minimal adjustments for our clients. We have always believed that a high-performance and multi-functional trading platform remains a key differentiator in order to attract new liquidity and through this upgrade to X-stream INET we are setting a new standard."
Lars Ottersgard, Senior Vice President NASDAQ OMX Market Technology commented: "SIX Swiss Exchange will be the first exchange to implement X-stream INET, a system that utilizes the advanced functionality of our proven X-stream platform in combination with INET, the world's fastest trading technology in production with sub-100 microsecond latency."
Source: NASDAQ OMX
Istanbul Stock Exchange celebrated 20th anniversary of the Bonds and Bills Market
June 16, 2011--The Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE) celebrated the twentieth anniversary of its Bonds and Bills Market with the participation of the officials of capital markets institutions, ISE members and staff as well as the representatives of data vendors and media. The Bonds and Bills Market was established on June 17, 1991.
Among the participants of the celebration held at the ISE were, Prof. Vedat Akgiray, Chairman of the Capital Markets Board of Turkey; Mr. Mehmet Yörükoğlu, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Turkey; Mr. Coşkun Cangöz, Director General of Public Finance, Turkish Treasury; and Mr. Murat Ulus, General Manager of ISE Settlement and Custody Bank (Takasbank), as well as Mr. Yaman Törüner, former ISE Chairman, and Mr. Abdullah Akyüz, former Vice Chairman of the ISE, who played leading roles in establishment of the Bonds and Bills Market.
In his opening speech, Mr. Hüseyin Erkan, ISE Chairman & CEO, stated that the importance of organized markets was emphasized with the break-out of the global crisis in 2008, he said, “ISE envisaged the importance of an organized Bonds and Bills Market twenty years ago, and launched the Market. Today, the ISE Bonds and Bills Market sets an example for the world markets, and our experience is consulted on the international platform, from which we take great pride”.
RANKING EIGHTH AMONG THE WORLD MARKETS IN TWENTY YEARS
The annual total traded value of the ISE Bonds and Bills Market, which stood at US$ 312 million in 1991, reached US$ 2.3 trillion in 2010.
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Source: Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE)
Government publishes financial regulation White Paper and draft Bill
June 16, 2011--The Government has today published its financial regulation White Paper and draft Bill. These provide further detail on the Government’s proposed reforms to the financial regulatory regime within the UK.
Today’s White Paper has been extensively informed by the responses to the Government’s last round of consultation in February, and contains a number of new policy proposals which have been developed in light of stakeholder feedback, including:
a specific statutory objective governing the Prudential Regulation Authority’s responsibilities for the insurance sector;
an updated and enhanced competition regime under the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA); and
steps to strengthen the handling of cases of widespread consumer detriment, including misselling.
The publication of this White Paper marks an important stage in implementing these proposals as it sets out detailed policy plans alongside draft legislation to form a clear blueprint for reform. It also marks the beginning of the Parliamentary stages of the process: pre-legislative scrutiny of the draft Bill is due to begin shortly and, subject to the progress of pre-legislative scrutiny, the Government hopes to introduce the Bill later this year.
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Source: HM Treasury
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