BIS working paper-The FinTech Opportunity
August 7, 2017--This paper assesses the potential impact of FinTech on the finance industry.
I document first that financial services remain surprisingly expensive, which explains the emergence of new entrants.
I then argue that the current regulatory approach is subject to significant political economy and coordination costs, and therefore unlikely to deliver much structural change. FinTech can improve both financial stability and access to services, but this requires significant changes in the focus of regulations.
view the BIS working paper-The FinTech Opportunity
By: Thomas Philippon Source: BIS
BIS working paper-World changes in inequality: an overview of facts, causes, consequences and policies
August 7, 2017--This paper reviews various issues linked to the rise of inequality observed particularly in developed countries over the last quarter century.
Various data on the time profile of inequality are examined, which do not always fit the common view that inequality is everywhere trending upwards. Overall, changes in inequality appear to be very country-specific. The same conclusion obtains when examining the causes of these changes. There is little doubt that common forces affected the distribution of income in most countries, but idiosyncratic factors have amplified their effects in some cases and offset them in others. Country-specificity also holds with regard to policies aimed at correcting inequality, even though globalisation imposes constraints on some key redistribution tools such as taxation and the regulation of financial markets. International coordination and, in particular, more transparency in cross-border financial operations are needed if governments are to recover some autonomy in these matters.
By: François Bourguignon Source: BIS
ULTUMUS-Global ETF Monitor-First Trust, UBS and Amundi
August 7, 2017--Americas
Market weight vs. equal weight indexing is a debate that refuses to die. But First Trust is taking sides, having filed a prospectus for an equally weighted ETF...
Europe
UBS has cross-listed an interest rate hedged corporate bond ETF into London. CUIH tracks the liquid debts of big American businesses....
Amundi has listed its American equity smart beta ETF into Milan. STMU tracks an index built up of four subindexes...
Source: ULTUMUS-Financial Data Management
ETF Securities Weekly Flows Analysis-Investors rotate into gold out of silver
August 7, 2017--Investors rotate back to gold, away from silver
Emerging market bond ETPs see highest inflows since January
Investors sell oil ETPs as price nears the top of trading range
Gold ETPs receive largest inflows since May 2017, while silver ETPs see largest outflows since July 2016. With gold holding its gains last week, investors increased their holding of the metal by US$64.7mn. A small miss in US ISM manufacturing figures and continued political volatility in the Trump Administration following the sacking of its Communications Director lent weakness to the US Dollar and support to gold.
Source: etfsecurities.com
The Robot report-Tracking the business of Robotics
August 4, 2017--The Robot report-Tracking the business of Robotics globally.
Source: The Robot Report
IMF Working paper-The Nonlinear Interaction Between Monetary Policy and Financial Stress
August 4, 2017--Summary:
This paper analyzes the nonlinear relationship between monetary policy and financial stress and its effects on the transmission of shocks to output.
Results from a Bayesian Threshold Vector Autoregression (TVAR) model show that the effects of monetary policy shocks on output growth are stronger during normal times than during times of financial stress. Monetary policy shocks are effective to ease stressed financial conditions, but have limited ability to fully contain the buildup of vulnerabilities. These results have important policy implications for central banks' countercyclical policies under different financial conditions and for "lean against the wind" policies to address financial vulnerabilities.
view the IMF Working paper-The Nonlinear Interaction Between Monetary Policy and Financial Stress
Source: IMF
ULTUMUS-Global ETF Monitor-2 New Isreali ETFs & New ETFs in Asia Pacific Region
August 4, 2017--Middle East
It's been some months since the Middle East got new ETFs. Today there are two-both in Israel.
Israel's largest issuer KSM has listed two new Index Linked Certificates- Israel's equivalent of ETFs (KSM6, KSMM205)...
Asia
Korea's ETF market grows larger every day.
Daishin Securities has listed two new industrial metals trackers in Korea, in a sign that Korean issuers are increasingly embracing commodity ETFs...
Korea's oldest bank, Shinhan Bank, has listed two new leveraged inverse ETFs for those who like to take a punt...
Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, major Chinese investment house E Fund has teamed up with Taiwanese issuer Yuanta to list a 2x leveraged ETF on the Hang Seng Index (7242), which lists the biggest H shares.
Source: ULTUMUS-Financial Data Management
IMF Working paper-Structural Reforms and External Rebalancing
August 4, 2017--Summary:
Empirical research on structural reforms has focused primarily on their impact on growth and productivity. Yet an often-invoked rationale for structural reforms is their impact on external adjustment.
This paper finds little evidence that structural reforms improve the current account in the short run, but they can increase the responsiveness and resilience of the economy to external shocks. In particular, elasticities of exports with respect to the real effective exchange rate increase with some structural indicators, suggesting that structural reforms facilitate the reallocation of resources to the tradable sector in response to a negative external shock. The paper concludes that structural reforms, while not having an immediate positive impact on the current account balance, can be an important complement to traditional macroeconomic adjustment.
view the IMF Working paper-Structural Reforms and External Rebalancing
Source: IMF
BlackRock reports global bond ETFs going strong in 2017
August 4, 2017--Stephen Cohen, Head of Fixed Income Beta at BlackRock writes that the global bond ETF industry achieved another strong quarter with USD43.3 billion inflows in Q2 2017, just short of the industry record set in Q1 2017 when the products attracted USD44.5 billion in assets.
Source: .owler.com
ETF Securities Investment Insights Commodities vs Producers: an in-depth comparison
August 3, 2017--Key points
Commodity prices have outperformed their respective producers, while experiencing a lower price volatility.*
Lack of dividends and negative roll yields have dragged commodity total returns lower, but holding longer dated futures contracts may help mitigate this negative yield.*
Commodities historically are less sensitive to equity factors and may serve as a better source of diversification compared to commodity producers.*
Source: etfsecurities.com