Global ETF News Older than One Year
BlackRock's iShares Canada Chief Wiley Departs Company
June 19, 2014--Mary Anne Wiley left her position as managing director and head of iShares Canada, the exchange-traded funds unit of BlackRock Inc. (BLK), as competitors encroach on the company's leading market share.
Wiley told management earlier this year she planned to leave and departed the company last week, said Maeve Hannigan, a spokeswoman for iShares Canada. Warren Collier, chief operating officer for U.S. iShares, is replacing Wiley as acting head while the firm seeks a successor, Hannigan said in an interview today.
Source:Bloomberg
World Gold Council calls meeting to explore gold fix reform
June 18, 2014--A discussion by gold buyers and sellers across the market on ways to reform or replace London's global price benchmark, known as the "fix", will be held next month by the World Gold Council.
The discussion comes as gold and silver fixes, along with other commodity benchmarks, face increased scrutiny by regulators in Europe and the United States following the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) manipulation case in 2012.
Source: Reuters
Minerals Can Boost Well-being in Developing Countries
June 18, 2014--STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Mineral wealth need not be 'curse', study says.
Well-being improved faster where mining fueled growth.
Appropriate structures must be in place to manage the large revenue inflows in a responsible and transparent manner.
Since 1995, when Jeffrey Sachs and Andrew Warner published their influential study claiming that natural resource abundance has a strong negative impact on growth, the term "resource curse" has been associated with mineral wealth in developing countries.
view The contribution of the mining sector to socioeconomic and human development report
Source: World Bank
Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management Expands its Passive Distribution Team for U.S. Western Region
June 18, 2014--Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management (DeAWM) announced today that it has hired four Regional Vice Presidents to support the growth and coverage of its U.S. exchange-traded products (ETP) platform in the Western region.
The team reports to Mick McLaughlin, Head of Passive Distribution in the Americas.
Source: Deutsche Asset & Wealth Managemen
IMF Working paper-Impact of Fed Tapering Announcements on Emerging Markets
June 17, 2014--Summary: This paper analyzes market reactions to the 2013-14 Fed announcements relating to tapering of asset purchases and their relationship to macroeconomic fundamentals and country economic and financial structures. The study uses daily data on exchange rates, government bond yields, and stock prices for 21 emerging markets.
It finds evidence of markets differentiating across countries around volatile episodes. Countries with stronger macroeconomic fundamentals, deeper financial markets, and a tighter macroprudential policy stance in the run-up to the tapering announcements experienced smaller currency depreciations and smaller increases in government bond yields. At the same time, there was less differentiation in the behavior of stock prices based on fundamentals.
view the IMF Working paper-Impact of Fed Tapering Announcements on Emerging Markets
Source: IMF
IOSCO Research Department Publishes Securities Markets Risk Survey
June 17, 2014--The Research Department of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) today published a Staff Working Paper entitled A Survey of Securities Markets Risk Trends 2014: Methodology and Detailed Results, which provides a detailed analysis of responses to its annual survey on market trends and emerging risks.
The views expressed in this Staff Working Paper are solely those of the IOSCO Research Department and do not necessarily reflect the views of IOSCO or its members.
The survey is an annual exercise formulated to collect the views of financial market regulators and experts globally on emerging trends that are or could be of concern. This edition of the survey was conducted in March 2014 and is based on some 200 responses.
Source: IOSCO
ETF strategy waits to gain in currency
June 17, 2014--While investors have been ploughing money into exchange-traded products over the past few years, niche exchange-traded funds that specialise in currency strategies have proved an exception to the rule.
Net inflows into global ETPs over the past two calendar years amounted to $507.8 billion. However, currency ETPs suffered more than $3.1 billion in outflows over the same period, and a further $918 million had been withdrawn this year by May, according to consultancy ETFGI.
Source: Financial News
Smart beta: A deeper look at asset owner usage and perceptions-findings from Russell's global survey
June 16, 2014--Overview:
Smart beta poses an interesting opportunity and challenge for assert owners, managers and consultants as the industry discussion continues to evolve. In January 2014, Russell's index business conducted a survey of approximately 200 institutional asset owners with at least $200 million in assets under management(AUM) in North America and Europe.
The goal was to better understand perceptions and adoption of smart beta within this important investor population. The survey intentionally recruited equity investment decision-makers across a broad spectrum of AUM and at different stages in their evaluation of smart beta.
So what did Russell learn? Smart beta is here to stay.
Source: www.financiallibrary.co.uk
Nomura Hires Etf Securities Emea Distribution Head
June 13, 2014--The Japanese bank has also hired a new head of equity sales and a global head of execution services and equity trading in London this year.
Source: Financial News
OECD G20 GDP growth, first quarter of 2014
G20 GDP growth steady at 0.8% in first quarter of 2014
June 12, 2014--Quarterly Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the G20 area grew by 0.8% in the first quarter of 2014, the same rate as in the previous quarter, according to preliminary estimates.
Among G20 economies, India recorded the strongest growth at 2.1%, compared with 1.1% in the previous quarter. GDP growth slowed in China and Indonesia but remained strong at 1.4% and 1.2%, compared with 1.7% and 1.3% respectively in the previous quarter. In other BRIICS countries growth remained relatively weak.
In Brazil, GDP grew by 0.2% in the first quarter, a deceleration after a growth of 0.4% in the previous quarter. In South-Africa, GDP slowed significantly, contracting by (minus) 0.2% compared with an expansion of 0.9% in the fourth quarter.
Among the OECD-countries, Turkey (1.7%) and Japan (1.6%) experienced the highest growth rates in the first quarter, although in the case of Japan this is partly due to advance expenditure prior to the April increase in the consumption tax. In Australia, Germany and the United Kingdom, GDP growth accelerated to 1.1%, 0.8% and 0.8% respectively, compared with 0.8%, 0.4% and 0.7% in the fourth quarter of 2013, while growth remained unchanged at 0.9% in Korea.
Source: OECD
