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EU economic reform plan too timid: ECB
February 22, 2011-- The European Central Bank Tuesday criticised proposed European Union economic reforms as too timid and said that countries breaking debt rules should be punished quickly and automatically.
"For the euro area, a more ambitious governance structure must be foreseen, to ensure the smooth functioning of economic and monetary union," the ECB said regarding the European Commission's proposed economic reforms.
The European Union's executive body has laid out a project aimed at warding off the kind of debt crisis now faced by Greece and Ireland, and EU leaders are expected to approve at least some of the measures at a summit in late March.
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Source: EU Business
Wrap platforms see retail ETF uptake double
February 22, 2011--Assets in iShares ETFs held on wrap platforms have more than doubled in 2010 to reach £557.9m.
The ETF issuer's overall growth of 106% across six wrap platforms includes a 373% asset growth on Ascentric and 301% on Novia.
ETFs now account for 26% of all dealing volume on Ascentric, and CEO Hugo Thorman says he expects ETF assets to continue their dramatic growth. "Advisers and discretionary fund managers are becoming increasingly interested in using ETFs in client portfolios, and regulatory changes like the RDR are accelerating interest."
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Source: IFAonline
BlackRock * New Report * ETF Landscape: United Kingdom Industry Review - Year End 2010
February 22, 2011--This report provides an overview of the United Kingdom's Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) and Exchange Traded Products (ETPs) industry, as at end year end 2010.
Assets increased 49.0% in 2010 in ETFs/ETPs with their primary listing in the United Kingdom to US$93.4 Bn, which is more than the 5.2% increase in the
FTSE 100 Index in US dollar terms over the same period.
The number of ETFs/ETPs increased 77.5% in 2010, from 293 primary listings in 2009 to 520 at year end 2010.
11 new providers listed their first ETF/ETP in the United Kingdom in 2010.
The average daily reported trading volume increased 24% in US dollar terms in 2010 for all United Kingdom listed ETFs/ETPs to US$550.4 Mn, compared to US$445.3 Mn at the end of 2009. Most ETF trades are not required to be reported in Europe as ETFs are not covered by the European Union Directive on Markets in Financial Instruments (MiFID).
The first ETF in the United Kingdom was listed on the London Stock Exchange’s Main Market in April 2000. This was followed by steady growth in the number of funds listed, but it was not until the abolition of stamp duty on ETFs incorporated overseas in February 2007, that this already flourishing market transformed into a leading European centre for ETFs.
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Source: Global ETF Research & Implementation Strategy Team, BlackRock
BTP futures hit record volumes in early 2011
February 21, 2011--The international derivatives exchange Eurex released today that its Euro-BTP Futures product suite had a very successful start into 2011. These futures are based on notional long and short-term debt instruments issued by the Republic of Italy (Buoni del Tesoro Poliennali, or BTP). The average daily volume (ADV) for the long-term Euro-BTP contract (FBTP) in January 2011 has grown about 25 percent year-on-year (y-o-y), totaling 6,800 contracts.
The ADV of the Short-term Euro-BTP futures was 2,400 in January and continues to rise. Both contracts also had daily record volumes due to Ireland’s credit downgrade, with the Euro-BTP future at 18,289 contracts on 2 February and the Short-term Euro BTP future at 6,829 contracts on 3 February 2011 (excluding daily volumes during roll period).
The open interest on the two contracts has also grown steadily. As of 17 February 2011 open interest on the FBTP is 30,175 compared to an open interest of nearly 20,000 in January 2010. This represents a growth rate of approximately 50 percent y-o-y. For the short-term BTP futures, open interest is 13,124 as of 17 February 2011.
The main users are Italian and Spanish customers as well as institutional clients (asset managers) who run European bond portfolios that are partially hedged with a mixture of German and Italian government bond futures.
Launched in September 2009, the long-term BTP future is part of Eurex’s benchmark interest rate derivatives segment and aims to offer an appropriate hedge for all non-triple A-rated European government bonds and potentially other interest rate bearing instruments (i.e. swaps). Furthermore, the futures add value to the Italian government bond market by enriching the basis and repo trading opportunities. In October 2010, Eurex introduced the short-term BTP contract to further complement its interest rate derivatives offering.
Source: Eurex
Singaporean funds available for settlement in Clearstream
First Asian funds on the Clearstream systems/ Other Asian jurisdictions to follow after regulatory approval
February 21, 2011-- Clearstream, the global liquidity provider of Deutsche Börse Group, announced today that Singaporean investment funds are eligible for order routing, settlement and custody through its existing infrastructure. The Singaporean funds are made available on the Clearstream order routing platform Vestima+ and its post-trade infrastructure for funds, the Central Facility for Funds, for settlement. Investment funds from other Asian jurisdictions will follow after regulatory approval.
Philippe Seyll, Member of the Executive Board of Clearstream and Head of Investment Funds Services, said: “We are happy to include the first Asian funds on our systems and to allow international investors easy access to these financial instruments. Through our order routing platform Vestima+, we bring more than 82,000 investment funds to investors around the globe. We observe a tremendous appetite by Asian investors for investing into the funds that we hold on our platform.”
Clearstream and the Deutsche Börse cash market Xetra recently launched the trading of mutual funds via stock exchange. The new service is especially interesting for investors in non-European timezones as stock exchange execution will allow individual funds units to be priced and monetized immediately and not, as currently the case, the next business day once the net asset value of a funds share has been calculated. Once traded on stock exchange and pooled in the Clearstream systems, funds can also be re-used as collateral.
Clearstream has its headquarters in Luxembourg. With more than €2,200 billion (December 2010) of assets under management, Luxembourg is the second-largest funds market in the world after the US. There are more than 3,500 collective investment schemes administered and distributed globally out of the Grand Duchy. The average daily net inflows into Luxembourg funds reached approximately €1 billion in 2010.
Source: Clearstream
Risk aversion hits the euro
February 21, 2011--Euro bulls were disappointed after early gains for the single currency were pared as tumbling European markets reflected heightened risk aversion to political unrest across north Africa and the Middle East.
The single currency had moved higher on mounting speculation that the European Central Bank might raise interest rates sooner than expected due to rising inflationary pressures.
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Source: FT.com
Eurozone manufacturing and service activity in February hit levels last seen in July 2006 but inflation, an increasing concern, also jumped sharply, a closely watched survey showed on Monday.
February 21, 2011--Eurozone manufacturing and service activity in February hit levels last seen in July 2006 but inflation, an increasing concern, also jumped sharply, a closely watched survey showed on Monday.
The Eurozone composite output index compiled by the Markit research firm rose 1.4 points from January to 58.4 points in February.
It said the latest reading "signalled the strongest monthly expansion since July 2006 and one of the strongest growth rates in the near 13-year history of the survey."
Service business activity alone rose to 57.2 points from 55.9 points in January, with manufacturing output at 61.1 points, up from 59.4 points for a 10-month high, Markit said in a statement.
The eurozone manufacturing sector purchasing managers index, a forward looking measure, hit 59 points, its highest since June 2000, up from from 57.3 points.
A reading above 50 indicates activity is expanding.
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Source: EUbusiness
Europe to unveil new bank stress tests in March
February 21, 2011--The European Union will announce a new round of bank tests to determine their financial health on March 2 after last year's results were criticised for failing to spot a huge black hole at Irish lenders.
EU financial services commissioner Michel Barnier gave the date on Monday having previously said the tests -- seen as vital to gauge potential bank weakness in other weak EU countries such as Spain -- would be conducted as early as this month.
He said the delay was due to the "very complex" nature of testing required if the 2011 edition was to produce "credible" results.
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Source: EUbusiness
STOXX 4 Global Index family launch and rebranding
February 21, 2011--STOXX Limited, the market-moving provider of innovative, substantial and global index concepts, today introduced the STOXX Global Index family with the launch of more than 1,200 indices covering the global equity markets. Effective today, a new index classification system will also be used to further define the different levels of index services offered by STOXX.
STOXX has also introduced a new corporate design that visually reinforces these changes and reflects the firm’s prominence as a leading global index provider.
“The launch of the STOXX Global Index family and new corporate design marks the next era for STOXX as we continue expanding our global business. The differentiating factor in our new global index series compared to its peers is that it includes both traditional equity indices as well as strategy indices designed for more sophisticated investment approaches,” said Hartmut Graf, chief executive officer, STOXX Limited. “Our goal is really to offer our clients the greatest possible choice and flexibility. To that end, we introduced four different levels of STOXX index classification to further enhance our customer focus and aspiration to bring transparency to the index market.”
The STOXX Global Index family consists of total market, broad and blue-chip indices for the regions Americas, Europe, Asia, and Pacific, and sub-regions Latin America and BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China), as well as global markets. Furthermore, all broad regional indices can also be broken down into a comprehensive set of supersector indices that follow the Industry Classification Benchmark (ICB). Blue-chip indices are also available for individual countries.
To complement the new global index family, a set of innovative strategy indices will be launched for all regional and country blue-chip indices, including risk control indices, and several short and leverage indices.
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Source: STOXX
FSB Report on Progress in the Implementation of the G20 Recommendations for Strengthening Financial Stability.
February 19, 2011--The FSB published on 19 February its progress report FSB Report to G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors on implementation of regulatory reforms for strengthening financial stability.
The report focuses on international policy development and implementation that has taken place since the G20 Seoul Summit in November 2010.
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