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CESR publishes responses to three consultations on the MiFID review
June 8, 2010--CESR publishes today the responses to the consultations on Investor protection and intermediaries, transaction reporting and secondary markets.
view responses
IMF Urges Swift Action to Restore Confidence and Growth in Euro Area
Pace of fiscal consolidation should be tailored to each country's needs
Spurring euro area growth is essential
Restructuring of Europe's financial system should be accelerated
June 7, 2010--The current euro area crisis results from fiscally unsustainable policies in some countries, delayed repair of the financial system, insufficient progress in establishing the discipline and flexibility needed for a smooth functioning of monetary union, and deficient governance of the euro area, according to the IMF’s annual review of euro area policies, released on June 7.
European policymakers need to take decisive action to complete their project of monetary union, said the IMF.
While recognizing that the immediate crisis response has been bold, demonstrating the euro-zone’s capability to act together when pushed, the IMF analysis said it will be imperative to quickly secure the operation of the European Financial Stability Facility. The IMF added that crisis management is not an alternative to the corrective policy actions and fundamental reforms needed to reinforce the foundation of the European Monetary Union.
Following the conclusion of the IMF’s annual analysis of the euro area economy, Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn emphasized the importance of fiscal responses being adapted to the individual circumstances of each country. “Fiscal sustainability is certainly an important aim that countries all around the world, not only in Europe, but including in Europe, have to take into account. But you have to differentiate those policies depending on the fiscal room that the different countries may have, and taking into account the balance between the fact that you have to go back on a sustainable track on the fiscal side and the fact that you need to maintain the highest possible level of growth. So it leads to different actions in different countries,” he told reporters following a June 7 meeting of the Eurogroup finance ministers in Luxembourg.
Restoring confidence
The IMF’s annual review noted that a one-size-fits-all fiscal adjustment strategy should be avoided, with the response being adapted to the individual characteristics of each of the euro area’s 16 member countries. At the same time, the IMF said that countries facing market pressures have no choice but to go ahead with forceful fiscal adjustment.
Asset management grandee slams funds industry, says giant asset owners should take back control
June 7, 2010--The world’s largest asset owners should carry out a wholesale review of how they invest and take back control of their investment strategies from asset managers in order to promote long-term economic growth and financial markets stability, according to one of the City of London’s fund management grandees. In a withering attack on the asset management industry – which has so far escaped much criticism over the credit crisis – Paul Woolley, who founded the London arm of GMO, the US fund management group – said institutional asset owners had “unwittingly become complicit in the creation of a vast unstable monster of finance”, which he said had “cost them dearly”.
Woolley is investing £4m of his personal fortune into the Paul Woolley Centre for the Study of Capital Market Dysfunctionality at the London School of Economics (LSE) and Toulouse University. His controversial research has already underpinned comments including the “socially useless” critique of some banking activities by Lord Turner, chairman of the Financial Services Authority. Woolley is also a former banker and IMF economist.
In a recent presentation at LSE, titled: ‘A manifesto for giant funds: resolving the dysfunctionality of finance’, Woolley said giant asset owners, including sovereign wealth investors, large pension funds and foundations had allowed themselves to be “deluded” by complex products put forward by asset managers. Many of these products, he said, were based on the increasingly discredited efficient markets hypothesis (EMH) that available information will bring prices back to fair value.
ICMA releases survey of corporate bond market
June 7, 2010--The International Capital Market Association has released the results of a survey on
transparency and liquidity in the European corporate bond market. The survey was carried out in
the context of the current review of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) which
focuses on transparency in non-equity markets.
The members of the association including buy side, sell side and repo market participants, were
asked for their views on post trade transparency ie the availability of prices on trades in corporate
bonds that have been done between two counterparties directly rather than on an exchange. Asked
at what point, post trade, prices should be published, respondents indicated strongly (57%) that end
of day pricing was ideal with a strong preference for high/low/median end of day prices rather than
actual or aggregate trade prices. Most respondents (77%) also indicated that while trading volume
should be published, they favoured end of day publication.
Kuveyt Türk B Type Gold ETF applied for listing on the Istanbul STock Exchange
June 7, 2010--Kuveyt Türk B Type Gold ETF applied for listing on the Instanbule STock Exchange (ISE).
Name of the Fund:Kuveyt Türk Kat?l?m Bankas? A.?.
Info: B Tipi Alt?n Borsa Yat?r?m Fonu-(http://www.kuveytturk.com.tr)
Application Date 04.06.2010
Fund amount 50.000.000 TL
EEX trading results for Natural Gas and CO2 Emission Rights in May 2010
June 7, 2010--In May, the trading volume on the EEX Spot Market for Natural Gas amounted to 795,499 MWh (GASPOOL and NCG market areas) compared to 58,560 MWh in May 2009. The volume included 201,019 MWh traded in the Within-Day Gas product which was launched on 1 March 2010. The Spot Market price for theday-ahead delivery of Natural Gas ranged between EUR 14.70 per MWh and EUR 20.50 per MWh.
The volumes on the Derivatives Market for Natural Gas (GASPOOL and NCG market
areas) amounted to 3,803,538 MWh (May 2009: 356,454 MWh). On 31 May 2010, the
open interest was 14,488,653 MWh. On 31 May 2010 Natural Gas prices for delivery in
2011 were fixed at EUR 19.70 per MWh (GASPOOL) and EUR 19.75 per MWh (NCG),
respectively.
On the EEX Spot Market for CO2 Emission Allowances (EUA) a total of 1,291,000 EUA was traded in May. The volume included 91,000 EUA traded on the secondary Spot Market (May 2009: 735,295 EUA). During the month, the Carbix (Carbon Index) ranged between EUR 14.42 per EUA and EUR 16.16 per EUA.
The total volume on the EEX Derivatives Market for CO2 Emission Allowances amounted to 2,985,000 EUA. The volume included 705,000 EUA traded on the secondary derivatives market (May 2009: 1,373,000 EUA). The 2010 MidDec future contract settled at EUR 15.14 per EUA on 31 May 2010, and the 2011 future contract at EUR 15.50 per EUA.
36 per cent increase in daily equity value traded in May
June 7, 2010--- Strong month for Equities and Derivatives across the Group
In May, 23 million equity trades were carried out across the London Stock Exchange Group’s electronic order books, with a combined value of £219.0 billion (€255.5 billion). The average daily value traded across Group’s equity markets was £11.1 billion (€12.9 billion), an increase of 36 per cent on May last year while the average daily number of trades was 1,176 912, up 14 per cent.
UK Cash Equities
The average daily value traded on the UK equity order book was £5.9 billion (€6.9 billion) an increase of 34 per cent year on year, while the average daily number of trades was up 13 per cent at 767,427.
Italian Cash Equities
During May, the average daily number of trades in Italian equities was 336,193, a record high and a 12 per cent increase on the same month last year. The average daily value traded during the month was up 32 per cent at €4.9 billion (£4.2 billion).
International Cash Equities
The total value traded in international equities increased 70 per cent on May 2009 to £17.7 billion, while the average daily value traded was also up 70 per cent year on year, totalling £921 million (€1.1 billion). The average daily number of trades was 73,292 up 37 per cent on last May.
ETFs and ETCs
May recorded the highest value traded and highest number of trades in ETFs and ETCs on the Group’s markets at £13.2 billion (€15.4 billion) and 469,537 respectively. The average daily number of trades was up 68 per cent year on year, totalling 22,806, whilst the average daily value traded was up 76 per cent to £654 million (€763 million).
EPEX Spot / EEX Power Derivatives: Power Trading Results in May
June 7, 2010--In the framework of their cooperation, the European Energy Exchange AG (EEX) and the French Powernext SA integrated their Power Spot
and Derivatives Markets in 2009.
In May 2010, a total volume of 151.5 TWh was traded on the joint subsidiaries EPEX
Spot SE and EEX Power Derivatives.
In May, a total of 966,374 MWh was traded on the Intraday market:
Germany 893,431 MWh, same month of the previous year 382,093 MWh
France 72,943 MWh, same month of the previous year 62,278 MWh
Euro finance chiefs 'sign' deal for bailout fund
June 7, 2010-- Euro finance ministers fixed an unprecedented 440-billion-euro fund to dig debt-laden partners out of the mire, pressured by a dizzying fall for the single currency on Monday.
"We signed a few moments ago," said Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, after world stocks plummeted on market anxiety that non-euro Hungary was entering a Greece-style meltdown in its public finances.
Juncker, who chairs the Eurogroup of finance ministers, said "some member states," namely Belgium and Slovakia, had still to ratify but a diplomat stressed that Germany had put pen to paper on the facility worth 525 billion dollars.
EU agrees to create new budget sanctions
June 7, 2010-- EU finance ministers agreed on Monday to design new sanctions that will allow partners to intervene before countries become too laden down by debt, EU president Herman Van Rompuy said.
In the first conclusions of a task force set up by all 27 national leaders to coordinate better economic governance across the world's biggest trading bloc, they also agreed to the principle that national budgets should be shown to European partners before they are fixed back home.
The move stems from concerns over Europe's debt crisis, which has forced eurozone governments and even EU partners, albeit to a much lesser extent, to cough up funds to bail out first Greece and now all struggling eurozone nations.
