FESE members deliver on their commitments to facilitate Equity Market Data Consolidation
November 8, 2010--In July 2010, FESE members committed1 to a number of key steps in order to further contribute to an industry?led efficient consolidation of equity market data. The purpose of this report is to give a
progress update and further details on the on?going work of FESE members to market participants and policy makers.
Context of FESE’s actions:
Regulated Markets (RMs) fully support the industry?led consolidation of equity market data. RMs’ data
is of excellent quality, widely available, easily consolidatable with other data, and provided to users at a
reasonable cost. According to a recent research study entitled “The cost of access to real time pre & post trade order book data in Europe,”2 the expenditure on the cost of data from exchanges accounts for 8% to 15% of total data consolidation costs. The study also shows that the cost of data charged by the largest exchanges in Europe (75 EUR a month) is about the same as the cost charged in the US (70
EUR), a market often cited as a reference point. Thus, exchanges’ user fees are not only commensurate
with the value and the quality of RMs’ data, but they also represent only a minor portion of the overall
cost of consolidation in both absolute and relative terms.
read more
Source: FESE
Background note on the alternative investment fund managers directive
November 8, 2010--Over a year in the making, the Alternative Investment Fund Managers (AIFM) directive - widely known as the "hedge funds" directive - is reaching the final stages of approval. This note answers some basic questions about what is to be regulated and why. It also explains some more technical issues to do with the "passport" system for marketing funds across the EU. Finally, it also compares the EU institutions' starting positions, and shows the final outcomes, on the most controversial issues.
What are alternative investment funds?
Put simply, "alternative investment funds" (AIF) covers a wide range of funds, none of which are covered by the Directive on Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities (UCITS) [1] . It is estimated that in 2009 AIF managers were responsible for over €1,000 billion in assets.
The best-known AIFs are hedge funds and private equity funds, but others include real estate funds, commodity funds, industrial funds and infrastructure funds.
Most AIFs are not schemes sold directly to small investors. Instead, investors in these funds tend to be institutions such as pension funds, or very wealthy individuals or families. However, their impact on the real economy and the man in the street may still be very tangible as is shown by the example of pension funds.
[1] A collective investment scheme is a way of investing money with others to participate in a wider range of investments than is feasible for most individual investors, and to share the costs and benefits of doing so.
read more
Source: European Parliament
EU Project Crawls the Web for Hidden Financial Expertise
Boerse Stuttgart is member of consortium for the EU project FIRST
November 8, 2010--The new research project FIRST, co-funded by the European Union, aims to extract relevant financial information from the vast amounts of unstructured data present in the World Wide Web – in real-time that is. Its goal is to use methods of artificial intelligence to support financial decision making. FIRST will, in a nutshell, harness the knowledge of the internet to support financial decision makers.
The FIRST project started in October 2010 and will be conducted over the course of three years. Co?funded by the European Union’s “Information and Communication Technologies” Theme of the Seventh Framework Programme, the project has an overall budget of 4.574 million Euros. The FIRST consortium consists of 8 European partners from Germany, Italy, Slovenia, and Spain. Boerse Stuttgart is a member of the consortium.
read more
Source: Boerse Stuttgart
ETF investors could distort metal prices, FSA warned
November 8, 2010--Plans to allow investors to easily own industrial metals like copper and aluminium are being scrutinised by the UK regulator, the Financial Services Authority.
The FSA has received a complaint about yet-to-be launched exchange traded funds (ETFs) that would own industrial metals, the regulator confirmed.
Investors already have access to physical metals like gold through ETFs, but the new product would give them access to non-precious metals.
read more
Source: citywire.co.uk
ECB forced to act as crisis fears rise
November 8, 2010--The European Central Bank has been forced to intervene in government bond markets for the first time in almost a month, as financial markets fret that the escalating eurozone crisis is moving into a new and more dangerous phase.
The ECB said it spent €711m ($991m) buying government debt last week, reactivating an emergency programme that had lain dormant in the previous three weeks.
read more
Source: FT.com
Eurozone joins onslaught against US Fed, weak dollar
November 8, 2010--- Europe added its voice Monday to a growing chorus of criticism of the US Federal Reserve's decision to print billions of new dollars to shore up the nation's fragile economy.
In an unusually sharp rebuke of US monetary policy, delivered on the eve of the much-awaited G20 summit, Jean-Claude Juncker, head of the group of eurozone finance ministers, said the dollar was undervalued and the Fed stimulus threatened "risks" for the world at large.
"The dollar in relation to the euro is not at the level it should be," Juncker said at a hearing before a European parliamentary committee.
read more
Source: EUbusiness
Juncker urges caution on banks' role in rescue fund
November 8, 2010--The head of the eurozone finance ministers voiced scepticism Monday over a proposal backed by France and Germany to make banks absorb losses in any future rescue of a country in trouble.
"I would not want us to chase investors out of the eurozone and so I hope for a wise approach," Jean-Claude Juncker, prime minister of Luxembourg, told a European parliament committee.
EU leaders argued at a two-day summit last month over the role of the private sector in assuming losses under a future permanent fund aimed at preventing a new debt crisis in the single currency area.
read more
Source: EUbusiness
Green and ethical themed funds recover after poor year of inflows
November 8, 2010--Green themed and norms-based European RI retail funds reversed a largely disappointing year so far for asset inflows with sales of €212.9m during August, according to the latest available figures compiled for Responsible Investor by Lipper FMI, the investment data group. The fund class, labelled by Lipper FMI as ‘RI Extended’, includes those with multiple ethical exclusions, those following a norms-based strategy and themed climate change and microfinance funds. The RI Extended asset sector had mostly recorded outflows for previous months this year.
The best seller during August was that of French fund manager, Ofivalmo, whose cash fund, OFI Trésor ISR, pulled in €174.4m. Second biggest grosser was Swedish fund manager Carnegie’s Luxembourg-domiciled, Carnegie Fund – Worldwide Ethical, with €123.7m. Third was Austria’s Sparkassen Eurobond fund, Espa Bond Euro-Mundelrent, which increased assets by €10.6m. The largest fund in the RI Extended sector is Pictet’s Water fund with assets of €2.3bn.
read more
Source: Responsible Investor
State Street Global Advisors is New ETF Issuer on Xetra
New SPDR ETFs on Xetra cover MSCI Europe Index sectors/ XTF segment comprises over 750 exchange traded index funds
November 8, 2010-- ETFs issued by State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) have been tradable on Xetra for the first time since Monday. The 12 new SPDR ETFs bring the offering in Deutsche Börse’s XTF segment up to 751 exchange-listed index funds.
“Deutsche Börse continues to expand its offering on Europe’s largest ETF trading platform. Through Xetra, institutional and private investors from Germany and the rest of Europe can now diversify their portfolios with products from State Street Global Advisors, one of the largest ETF providers worldwide,” said Rainer Riess, Managing Director of Xetra Market Development at Deutsche Börse.
Ten of the twelve new SPDR ETFs on Xetra comprise the following super sectors of the MSCI Europe Index: Consumer Discretionary, Consumer Staples, Energy, Financials, Health Care, Industrials, Information Technology, Materials, Telecommunication Services and Utilities. Investors can also invest in the MSCI Europe Index, which tracks the performance of the equities markets in the following 16 industrialized nations: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. The SPDR ETF on the MSCI Europe Small Cap Index comprises small and mid-cap companies based in Europe.
view list of new SPDR ETFs tradable on Xetra since 8 November including ISIN and management fee
Source: Deutsche Börse
First Exchange Traded Products (ETPs) listed on SIX Swiss Exchange
Source Ltd and Deutsche Bank db ETC AG list the first products in SIX Swiss Exchange's new ETP segment
November 8, 2010--Exchange Traded Products (ETPs) include collateralized Exchange Traded Commodities (ETCs) and Exchange Traded Notes (ETNs). The collateral comprises mainly securities, precious metals or cash that must at least cover the ETP's outstanding amount and be held in custody by a third party independent of the issuer.
ETPs track the price movement of an underlying asset either with or without leverage. Their payoff profile is symmetrical, i.e. the product's performance mirrors that of the underlying asset. From a regulatory perspective, ETPs are collateralized, non-interest-bearing bearer debt securities. As such, ETPs are not investment funds and are not governed by the Swiss Federal Collective Investment Schemes Act (CISA). They must, however, go through a listing procedure with SIX Exchange Regulation, SIX Group's independent supervisory authority; the rules on their admission and on maintaining their listing were approved by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA.
Source Ltd is launching 15 products, of which 14 ETPs replicate various commodities indices and one tracks the price of physical gold. db ETC is launching 14 new ETPs, of which ten also replicate various commodities indices and four reflect the price movements of precious metals.
read more
Source: SIX Swiss Exchange
If you are looking for a particuliar article and can not find it, please feel free to contact us for assistace.