Global ETF News Older than One Year
'Oil' and 'gas' become dirty words in FTSE rebranding
July 2, 2019--Oil has long been known as a dirty fuel. For investors, it is now a dirty word.
The London Stock Exchange caught many by surprise this week when a little-known rule tweak relabelled a group of oil and gas producers as "non-renewable energy".
Source: FT.com
IMF Working Paper-Long-Term Returns in Distressed Sovereign Bond Markets: How Did Investors Fare?
July 1, 2019--Summary:
Sovereign debt restructurings are perceived as inflicting large losses to bondholders. However, many bonds feature high coupons and often exhibit strong post-crisis recoveries.
To account for these aspects, we analyze the long-term returns of sovereign bonds during 32 crises since 1998, taking into account losses from bond exchanges as well as profits before and after such events. We show that the average excess return over risk-free rates in crises with debt restructuring is not significantly lower than the return on bonds in crises without restructuring. Returns differ considerably depending on the investment strategy: Investors who sell during crises fare much worse than buy-and-hold investors or investors entering the market upon signs of distress.
Source: IMF
Alternative assets under administration jump 18.8% in 2018-eVestment
July 1, 2019--Alternative assets under administration as of Dec. 31 totaled $10 trillion, up 18.8% from the prior year, according to a new survey from eVestment.
SS&C Technologies ranked first among firms with total alternative assets under administration of $1.69 trillion as of Dec. 31.
State Street Alternative Investment Solutions was second with $1.202 trillion, followed by Citco Fund Services at $1.2 trillion, and Bank of New York Mellon's alternative investment services business at $963.2 billion.
Source: pionline.com
Time to ignite all engines, BIS says in its Annual Economic Report
Monetary policy can no longer be the main engine of economic growth, and other policy drivers need to kick in to ensure the global economy achieves sustainable momentum, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) writes in its Annual Economic Report.
In its flagship economic report, the BIS calls for a better balance between monetary policy, structural reforms, fiscal policy and macroprudential measures. This would allow the global economy to move away from the debt-fuelled growth model that risks turbulence ahead.
view the BIS Annual Economic Report 2019
Source: BIS
Deutsche Bank Considers Up to 20,000 Job Cuts
June 28, 2019--Job losses would likely take place over more than a year, with the pain and costs spread across regions and businesses.
Deutsche Bank AG is weighing whether to cut 15,000 to 20,000 jobs, or more than one in six full-time positions globally, according to a person familiar with high-level discussions about the latest attempts to turn around the struggling financial giant.
Source: Wall Street Journal
Five Facts on Fintech
June 27, 2019--June 27, 2019--From artificial intelligence to mobile applications, technology helps to increase your access to secure and efficient financial products and services.
Since fintech offers the chance to boost economic growth and expand financial inclusion in all countries, the IMF and World Bank surveyed central banks, finance ministries, and other relevant agencies in 189 countries on a range of topics and received 96 responses.
A new paper details the results of the survey alongside findings from other regional studies, and also identifies areas for international cooperation-including roles for the IMF and World Bank-and in which further work is needed by governments, international organizations, and standard-setting bodies.
view the IMF Policy Paper-Fintech : The Experience So Far
Source: IMF
Basel Committee finalises revisions to leverage ratio treatment of client cleared derivatives and disclosure requirements to address window-dressing
June 26, 2019--The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision today released a revised treatment of client cleared derivatives for purposes of the leverage ratio. The Basel Committee also issued a revision to the leverage ratio disclosure requirements with the aim of reducing excessive volatility in banks' exposures around key reference dates.
The publication Leverage ratio treatment of client cleared derivatives sets out a targeted revision of the leverage ratio measurement of client cleared derivatives to align it with the standardised approach to measuring counterparty credit risk exposures (SA-CCR). This treatment permits both cash and non-cash forms of segregated initial margin and cash and non-cash variation margin received from a client to offset the replacement cost and potential future exposure for client cleared derivatives only.
Source: BIS
Literature review on the costs and benefits of bank capital published by the Basel Committee
June 24, 2019--As part of its work programme for evaluating the impact of its post-crisis reforms, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision today published a working paper reviewing the literature on the costs and benefits of bank capital. The Committee published an earlier assessment of the long-term economic impact (LEI) of stronger capital and liquidity requirements in 2010.
Today's paper considers this assessment in light of estimates from later studies of the macroeconomic benefits and costs of higher capital requirements.
Source: BIS
Big tech in finance: opportunities and risks
June 23, 2019--The entry of large technology firms ("big techs") such as Alibaba, Amazon, Facebook, Google and Tencent into financial services, including payments, savings and credit, could make the sector more efficient and increase access to these services, but also introduces new risks, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) writes in its Annual Economic Report.
In a special chapter on big tech in finance, the BIS notes that these companies offer many potential benefits, including enhanced efficiency of financial services provision, facilitating financial inclusion and promoting associated gains in economic activity.
view the III. Big tech in finance: opportunities and risks
Source: BIS
Vanguard has held early-stage talks with prospective partners as it weighs whether to offer more alternative investments
June 23, 2019--Vanguard Group has had discussions with a handful of private-equity firms as the indexing giant weighs whether to push further into alternative investments.
The firm held exploratory talks with Boston firm HarbourVest Partners, London-based Pantheon and at least one other firm, said people familiar with the matter. Those talks took place in the past year. Vanguard is evaluating partnerships to make a mix of private-equity funds available to Vanguard clients, the people said.
Source: Wall Street Journal
