Exchanges maturing in ESG leadership as nine-in-ten embrace sustainability-new WFE survey out today
May 15, 2018--The World Federation of Exchanges ("The WFE"), the global industry group for exchanges and CCPs, today published its fourth annual Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) survey of members, which shows nearly 90% of member exchanges are embracing sustainability initiatives.
The WFE survey captured the nature and engagement with ESG issues by member exchanges in both developed and emerging markets.
Overall, member exchanges continue to leverage their position to adopt more sustainability initiatives in their respective markets. Exchanges are prioritising the long-term sustainability of the financial system to educate more market participants, proactively drive ESG disclosures, and increase the number of sustainability products offered in their markets. Some exchanges said a lack of resources has hindered the adoption of ESG initiatives, as has insufficient demand, and there are reservations about the potential impact of these initiatives.
Morningstar Passive Sustainable Funds: The Global Landscape
May 15, 2018--In this report, we provide an overview of the global landscape of index-tracking sustainable funds, ,looking at trends in asset growth, asset flows, and product development.
We focus on the two regions where these funds have seen the greatest adoption, Europe and the United States. We also examine the broad range of approaches that aim to address various sustainability and investment objectives. We finish by providing a list of key criteria investors should consider when choosing among these funds.
IMF Working Papers-Evolution of the Global Financial Network and Contagion: A New Approach
May 15, 2018--Summary:
This paper studies the interconnectedness of the global financial system and its susceptibility to shocks. A novel multilayer network framework is applied to link debt and equity exposures across countries.
Use of this approach-that examines simultaneously multiple channels of transmission and their important higher order effects-shows that ignoring the heterogeneity of financial exposures, and simply aggregating all claims, as often done in other studies, can underestimate the extent and effects of financial contagion. The structure of the global financial network has changed since the global financial crisis, impacted by European bank’s deleveraging and higher corporate debt issuance. Still, we find that the structure of the system and contagion remain similar in that network is highly susceptible to shocks from central countries and those with large financial systems (e.g., the USA and the UK). While, individual European countries (excluding the UK) have relatively low impact on shock propagation, the network is highly susceptible to the shocks from the entire euro area. Another important development is the rising role of the Asian countries and the noticeable increase in network susceptibility to shocks from China and Hong Kong SAR economies.
view the IMF Working Papers-Evolution of the Global Financial Network and Contagion: A New Approach
The OECD Risks That Matter Survey 2018
May 15, 2018-To find out more about people's perceptions of social and economic risks and how well they think their government reacts to those risks, the OECD recently launched a brand-new cross-national survey-the OECD Risks That Matter Survey.
From March to April 2018, the OECD spoke to a sample of 20 000 adults from 19 countries. People were asked about their top social and economic concerns, how well they think the government responds to their needs and expectations, and what policies they would like to see put in place in future.
The Eurekahedge Report May 2018
May 15, 2018--Highlights from this month's report
Hedge funds bounced back to positive territory in April, up 0.55% with the underlying markets, as represented by the MSCI AC World Index (Local) up 1.18% over the same period. On a year-to-date basis, managers gained 0.23% with 10% of them posting returns in excess of 5%.
Total hedge fund assets grew by US$31.9 billion over the past four months, with US$36.2 billion attributed to investor inflows while managers posted performance-based losses of US$4.4 billion. Investors have been selective in their allocations across strategies with long/short equities and macro hedge funds seeing stronger subscriptions year-to-date.
CTA/managed futures managers posted their third consecutive month of investor redemptions, totalling US$5.9 billion, bringing its year-to-date outflows to US$2.8 billion. Managers have posted performance-based losses of US$11.7 billion as of April 2018 year-to-date, the highest performance-based losses among all strategic mandates.
ETFGI reports ETFs and ETPs listed globally gathered net inflows of 36.46 billion US dollars in April, marking 51 months of consecutive of net inflows
May 14, 2018--ETFGI, a leading independent research and consultancy firm on trends in the global ETF/ETP ecosystem, reported today that ETFs and ETPs listed globally gathered US$36.46 Bn in net inflows, marking 51 months of consecutive of net inflows.
Through the end of April, year to date 2018 net inflows are US$173.57 Bn, according to ETFGI's April 2018 Global ETF and ETP industry landscape insights report, an annual paid-for research subscription service. (All dollar values in USD unless otherwise noted.)
Highlights
Net new assets gathered by ETFs/ETPs listed globally were $36.46 Bn
April 2018 marked the 51st consecutive month of net inflows into ETFs/ETPs listed globally
In April 2018, 46 new ETFs/ETPs were launched by 28 providers and 68 ETFs/ETPs closed by 13 providers
Basel Committee issues capital treatment for simple, transparent and comparable short-term securitisations
May 14, 2018--The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision today issued the Capital treatment for simple, transparent and comparable short-term securitisations.
This standard supplements the Criteria for identifying simple, transparent and comparable short-term securitisations issued jointly with the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO).
The standard sets out additional guidance and requirements for the purpose of applying preferential regulatory capital treatment for banks acting as investors in or as sponsors of simple, transparent and comparable (STC) short-term securitisations, typically in asset-backed commercial paper (ABCP) structures.
BCBS and IOSCO issue criteria for identifying simple, transparent and comparable short-term securitisations
May 14, 2018--The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) and the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) today issued the Criteria for identifying simple, transparent and comparable short-term securitisations (the short-term STC criteria), which are available on the BCBS and IOSCO websites.
The short-term STC criteria aim to assist the financial industry in its development of simple, transparent and comparable short-term securitisations. The criteria maintain and build on the principles in the Criteria for identifying simple, transparent and comparable securitisations issued by BCBS-IOSCO in July 2015. The criteria published today take account of the characteristics of asset-backed commercial paper (ABCP) conduits, such as (i) the short maturity of the commercial paper issued, (ii) the different forms of programme structures and (iii) the existence of multiple forms of liquidity and credit support facilities.
Singapore Exchange (SGX) and Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) Establish Partnership to Grow Cross-Border Capital Raising Opportunities for Technology Companies
May 14, 2018--Partnership complements efforts by the exchanges to boost their respective technology sector listings
Singapore Exchange (SGX) and The Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) today announced that they have established a partnership focused on growing capital raising opportunities for companies, particularly in the technology sector.
The two exchanges will work together to support technology and healthcare companies which are looking to tap the capital markets to fund their growth plans in Asia and globally. The two exchanges will pro-actively engage with technology companies seeking to penetrate Asian markets, to list on both exchanges. This will include assisting companies during the pre-listing stage, facilitating the listing process, and providing issuers with post-listing support by leveraging the exchanges' network and platforms.
ETF Securities Weekly Flows Analysis: Geopolitical risks drove ETP flows last week
May 14, 2018--Oil ETPs see US$39.5mn outflows as investors take profit on 3.2% rise in oil price.
Gold continues to attract in an environment of heightened security risk.