EU opens consultation on double taxation
April 27, 2010--The European Commission launched today an online public consultation to ask individuals, companies and tax advisers for information on double taxation problems that they have encountered when operating across borders within the EU.
“Double taxation can deter cross-border activity in the EU and the functioning of the Internal Market. I am determined to tackle this obstacle. This consultation will help us to assess the real scale and financial impact of double taxation for citizens and businesses. I will then work towards finding the most appropriate and effective solutions," said EU Commissioner for Taxation and Customs Union.
The aim of the public consultation is to clearly identify the nature of the problems that EU taxpayers are facing and the extend to which many individuals and companies are encountering the problem of being taxed on the same income or profits in two or more different Member States.
View Questionaire
Source: EUbusiness
US 'not very helpful' on climate: European Parliament president
April 27, 2010- The United States is "not very helpful" when it comes to fighting climate change, EU parliament president Jerzy Buzek said Tuesday during a visit to the US Capitol.
"In climate issue, Europe is a leader and we would like to save our planet," he said before talks with Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. "We think it (climate change) is very dangerous. And Americans are not very helpful."
Buzek, a former Polish prime minister, said Washington thinks "Europe is not very supportive" on issues of "global stability, non-proliferation or problems with Afghanistan, Iran, North Korea."
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Source: EUBuisness
ETNs take off on London Stock Exchange
- 28 new products from two separate issuers in one day
April 27, 2010--The London Stock Exchange today welcomes 28 new Exchange Traded Notes (ETNs) to its markets. Société Générale has admitted 16 ETNs to trading while Barclays iPath has admitted 12. The products offer simple, real-time exposure to commodities and futures indices and join one existing ETN, tracking gold, issued by Lyxor in March 2009.
Pietro Poletto, Head of Exchange Traded Products at London Stock Exchange Group, said:
“Today’s listings create a strong base of instruments from a range of issuers for investors accessing the London markets. We look forward to leading further European growth in this product type in the coming months and years.”
Today’s admissions further expand the Exchange’s extensive range of Exchange Traded Products (ETPs). As of today there are:
o 243 Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), offering exposure to major indices such as the FTSE 100, as well as those tracking companies in emerging markets, cleantech businesses and Shariah compliant firms.
o 200 Exchange Traded Commodities (ETCs), offering exposure to commodities including natural resources and agriculture.
o 18 Exchange Traded Currencies (Currency ETCs), offering long and short exposure to G10 currencies against the US Dollar.
o 29 ETNs, offering exposure to commodities such as precious metals and short term futures indices.
Trading activity in ETPs has seen consistent growth since their launch ten years ago this week. In the first quarter of 2010, there was £10.4 billion worth of trading in the products on the London Stock Exchange, a 13.4 per cent increase on the same period last year.
The full list of products admitted to trading today is as follows:
Issuer Name |
Description |
|
|
Société Générale |
ETN on SPGS Crude Oil ER |
Société Générale |
ETN on SPGS NatGas ER |
Société Générale |
ETN on SPGS Aluminium ER |
Société Générale |
ETN on SPGS Zinc ER |
Société Générale |
ETN on SPGS Nickel ER |
Société Générale |
ETN on SPGS Copper ER |
Société Générale |
ETN on SPGS Corn ER |
Société Générale |
ETN on SPGS Wheat ER |
Société Générale |
ETN on SPGS Soybeans ER |
Société Générale |
ETN on SPGS Agricultural ER |
Société Générale |
ETN on Platinum Spot |
Société Générale |
ETN on Silver Spot |
Société Générale |
ETN on Gold Spot |
Société Générale |
ETN on DJ EUROSTOXX50 Total Return Index |
Société Générale |
ETN on MSCI JAPAN Total Return Index |
Société Générale |
ETN on S&P 500 Total Return Index |
Barclays Bank PLC |
iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN |
Barclays Bank PLC |
iPath S&P 500 VIX Mid-Term Futures ETN |
Barclays Bank PLC |
iPath DJ-UBS Commodity IndexSM TR ETN |
Barclays Bank PLC |
iPath S&P GSCI Index TR ETN |
Barclays Bank PLC |
iPath S&P GSCI Agriculture Index TR ETN |
Barclays Bank PLC |
iPath S&P GSCI Energy Index TR ETN |
Barclays Bank PLC |
iPath S&P GSCI Grains Index TR ETN |
Barclays Bank PLC |
iPath S&P GSCI Softs Index TR ETN |
Barclays Bank PLC |
iPath S&P GSCI Ind Metals Idx TR ETN |
Barclays Bank PLC |
iPath S&P GSCI Prec Metals Idx TR ETN |
Barclays Bank PLC |
iPath S&P GSCI Livestock Index TR ETN |
Barclays Bank PLC |
iPath VSTOXX Short Term Futures ETN |
FTSE names new director of responsible investment
David Harris steps up to top RI spot at the index group.
April 27, 2010--FTSE, the global index company, has named David Harris as its new director of responsible investment (RI), replacing departing director, Will Oulton.
Responsible-Investor.com revealed last week that Oulton was leaving FTSE to join Mercer, the global investment consultant, as its new European head of responsible investment. Harris will step up from his current position as head of responsible investment at FTSE to the top RI spot at the end of May when Oulton moves across to Mercer.
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Source: Responsible Investor
Deutsche Börse launches new products with historical data for Eurex and Xetra
April 27, 2010--Un-netted market data for the optimization of algorithmic trading
strategies Deutsche Börse’s Market Data & Analytics segment has launched the new data products “EnBSol Historical Data Eurex” and “EnBSol Historical Data Xetra”.
These products deliver historical order book information from the Eurex and
Xetra trading platforms to market participants. Un-netted market data
serves as
an input to develop algorithms and verify and optimize existing strategies.
The historical data comprises complete order book information up to an order book depth of 20 in the original format of the Enhanced Broadcast Solution (EnBSol) of the respective trading platform. The Enhanced Broadcast Solution is a high-performance, market information broadcast interface available to trading members. Thus, the integration of the historical data into their own models is particularly easy for participants of both trading platforms.
“The EnBSol Historical Data products are tailored to the needs of algorithmic traders. Comprehensive market data of the highest quality is a key input needed for the development and optimization of automated trading strategies”, said Georg Gross, Head of Front Office Data & Analytics at Deutsche Börse.
All trades and quotes are marked with original time stamps in milliseconds. Complete order book situations can be efficiently generated with the unnetted EnBSol Historical Data. The historical data is available for the period starting 1 January 2010 and can be subscribed to on a monthly or calendar year basis. The data is delivered on hard disk.
Additional information is available at deutsche-boerse.com/mda_e.
Source: Deutsche Börse
STOXX LTD. Launches Faith-Based Christian Index For The European Region
April 26, 2010--TOXX Limited, a global index provider and creator of the leading European equity indices, today announced the launch of the STOXX Europe Christian Index. The new index measures the performance of companies selected from the STOXX Europe 600 Index according to the values and principles of the Christian religion.
The STOXX Europe Christian Index is designed to act as a proper benchmark for actively managed funds, or to underlie exchange-traded funds and other investable products that enable investors to participate in the performance of European companies which are compliant with Christian moral and social doctrines.
“With the launch of the STOXX Europe Christian Index, STOXX acknowledges the growing number of Christian market participants who wish to invest in accordance with their religious beliefs,” said Hartmut Graf, chief executive officer, STOXX Ltd. “The new index provides a broad representation of European companies who act responsibly on an ethical, environmental, social and economical level; and are therefore in-line with Christian values.”
To ensure the quality of the index and the integrity of the underlying index methodology, an independent committee has been established to define, build and implement the screening criteria. It is made up from members of Christian Brothers Investment Services, Inc. (CBIS), the Vatican, Missionary International Service News Agency (MISNA), as well as members of the academic and investment community.
The index universe for the STOXX Europe Christian Index is defined as all stocks in the STOXX Europe 600 Index. To be included in the index, stocks must pass a set of screens for compliance with Christian values and principles, which are conducted by the Independent Committee led by CBIS. Excluded from the index are companies which do not meet predetermined tolerance levels for certain areas of activity, such as for example pornography, strategic and non-strategic weapons, birth control and gambling.
The STOXX Europe Christian Index is weighted by free-float adjusted market capitalization, and each component's weight is capped at 20% of the index's total free-float market capitalization. It is reviewed semi-annually in June and December. Daily history is available back to December 31, 2004. The STOXX Europe Christian Index is available in price and net return versions, and is calculated in Euro and U.S. Dollar (USD).
Further information on the STOXX Europe Christian Index is available at www.stoxx.com.
Source: STOXX
On April 28th 2010, 7 new ETFs issued by db x-trackers will be listed on the ETFplus market.
April 26, 2010--Borsa Italiana welcomes on the ETFplus market 7 new ETFs issued by db x-trackers, the new offer is composed as follow:
- 4 structured long ETFs on developed markets: db x-trackers LevDAX Daily ETF, db x- trackers FTSE100 Leveraged Daily ETF
db x-trackers S&P 500 2x Leveraged Index Daily ETF, db x- trackers EURO STOXX 50 Leveraged ETF.
- 3 structured short ETFs on developed markets: db x-trackers ShortDAX x2 Daily ETF, db x-trackers S&P 500 2x Inverse Index Daily ETF, db x- trackers EURO STOXX 50 Double Short Daily ETF.
Source: ETF Plus Market-Borsa Italiana
New trading system at derivatives market
April 26, 2010--Wiener Börse announced today that it converted its trading system for the derivatives market from the USbased
NASDAQ-OMX’s OM-Click to the Eurex system. The Eurex trading and clearing platform is an
extremely stable and reliable infrastructure used around the world, currently by more than 410 Eurex
customers in 25 countries on four continents. In converting to the Eurex system, Wiener Börse expects to see
increased liquidity on its derivatives market.
The majority of Wiener Börse’s cash market participants already use the Eurex infrastructure to trade
derivatives on other marketplaces. In the future, these participants can also use the new Eurex infrastructure
to trade on Wiener Börse‘s derivatives market without any significant technical investment. This will make the
addition of new trading participants for the derivatives market much easier. The conversion to the Eurex
system will also give trading members of the Austrian derivatives market access to a much larger group of
potential General Clearing providers.
The system conversion will not result in any changes for private investors on Wiener Börse.
Wiener Börse has been cooperating with Deutsche Börse on the cash market since 1999, when it also began
to use the Xetra electronic trading system for its equities market; since December 2009 also for the spot
market of the CEGH Gas Exchange. The conversion to the Eurex system on the derivatives market and the
associated expansion of the partnership serve to underscore the success of the cooperation.
Source: Eurex
FSA consults on use of certain new powers granted by the Financial Services Act 2010
April 26, 2010--The consultation paper includes proposed Handbook changes in relation to the following areas:
•To redraft the provisions requiring disclosure of short-selling positions and place them in a new part of the Handbook covering financial stability and market confidence;
•The imposition of financial penalties or censure on those who breach short-selling rules;
•The power to suspend firms or individuals by stopping them undertaking some or all of the activities which they are permitted to carry on for a period of time, and to use this new power in conjunction with other enforcement tools;
•The power to impose financial penalties on individuals who have carried out controlled functions without the necessary approval from the FSA;
•The ability to gather information in relation to financial stability from both authorised and unauthorised persons to help identify potential threats to the UK financial market;
read Implementing aspects of the Financial Services Act 2010 paper
Source: FSA.gov.uk
CB raises reserve requirement for foreign currency
April 26, 2010--The Turkish Central Bank has increased the reserve requirement for foreign currency deposits from 9 to 9.5 percent, in a statement published in Monday’s Official Gazette and effective as of April 30.
The bank did not change the reserve requirement for Turkish currency, which remains at 5 percent. The Central Bank had announced on April 14 in its blueprint strategy to ease its crisis measures that it would gradually increase the reserve requirement for foreign currency deposits.
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Source: Todays Zaman
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