Global ETF News Older than One Year
Scott Ebner moves to global State Street role
April 22, 2013--The man in charge of developing exchange-traded funds at SPDR ETFs has been promoted to the new role of head of global product development and research for State Street Global Advisors.
Scott Ebner will now oversee the creation of new institutional products around the world as well as ETFs for the $2.2 trillion fund manager. He moved to London when he joined State Street’s SPDR ETFs business in 2010 and will relocate to Boston later this year, the firm said.
Source: Financial News
IOSCO Publishes Report on Technological Challenges to Market Surveillance
April 22, 2013--The Board of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) published today a final report on Technological Challenges to Effective Market Surveillance: Issues and Regulatory Tools, which makes recommendations to help market authorities address the technological challenges facing effective market surveillance.
An effective surveillance regime is needed to ensure that trading in a given market is fair and orderly, and that market authorities have the ability to detect or uncover market abuse. But in recent years, technological developments in securities markets render it increasingly difficult to achieve these goals.
Source: IOSCO
EL-ERIAN: It's Official-The World Needs To Worry About The Damage Caused By QE
April 20, 2013--It is now official: "We will be mindful of unintended negative side effects stemming from extended periods of monetary easing." This is how the G-20, the most important country grouping today, put it in the communique they issued Friday night.
But what exactly are they talking about?
It all started with the difficulties that most advanced economies faced in generating adequate growth and employment after the 2008 global financial crisis.
Source: Business Insider
Growth in Europe and Central Asia Continues, but Slowly and Unevenly
April 19, 2013--Most economies in the Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region grew in 2012, with an average growth rate of 2.5 percent, and are expected to grow in 2013 at a slightly higher rate of about 2.9 percent, World Bank officials said at a press briefing during the World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings 2013.
Recovery in ECA will continue to be the slowest compared to other regions in the world, and will be multi-speed, with the western part of the region growing at a much slower pace than the eastern part. Protracted recession and slow growth recovery further aggravate the persistent unemployment in some parts of the region, which in turn has long-term implications for the region’s competitiveness and social inclusion.
Source: World Bank
World Development Indicators 2013 Released
Definitive Reference for Measuring Development Progress
April 18, 2013--The 2013 edition of World Development Indicators (WDI), released today, includes the latest available data on global development, poverty, the quality of people's lives, the environment, the economy, the functioning of states and markets, and global links of finance, trade, and migration.
As World Bank Group President Jim Young Kim highlighted yesterday, new estimates of extreme poverty show there were 1.2 billion people still living on less than $1.25 a day in 2010, a decrease of 100 million since 2008. The global rate of extreme poverty fell to 20.6 percent, less than half the 1990 rate of 43.1 percent.
view the World Development Indicators 2013
Source: World Bank
IOSCO Consults on Regulation of Retail Structured Products
April 18, 2013--The International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) published today a consultation report on Regulation of Retail Structured Products, which analyses trends in the retail structured product market, and proposes a regulatory Toolkit for IOSCO members.
The retail structured products work responds to concern among IOSCO members about the regulatory challenges these products pose, particularly in the area of investor protection. In February 2012, IOSCO agreed to work on retail structured products:
to understand and analyse the market, and related regulatory issues; and
to develop guidance, if appropriate, on regulatory responses.
view the IOSCO Regulation of Retail Structured Products Consultation Report
Source: IOSCO
Regulators Call to Tie Benchmarks to Data
April 17, 2013--Interbank lending rates and other benchmarks should be tied to real transactions with codes of conduct used to make these indices as free of conflicts of interest as possible, global securities watchdogs have said.
Spurred by the Libor rate fixing scandal, a task force led by top US and UK regulators on Tuesday called on their peers to make sure benchmarks in their jurisdictions conform to a set of principles aimed at preventing manipulation.
Source: FT.com
Report to the G-20 Meeting of Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors of 18-19 April 2013
April 16, 2018--Today, the principals of the authorities with responsibility for the regulation of the over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives markets in Australia, Brazil, the European Union, Hong Kong, Japan, Ontario, Quebec, Singapore, Switzerland and the United States, have held four meetings to discuss reform of the OTC derivatives market.
The principals recognise that the OTC derivatives market is a global market and firmly support the adoption and enforcement of robust and consistent standards in and across jurisdictions. This will help further the G-20 regulatory reform agenda for OTC derivatives markets to mitigate risk, improve transparency and protect against market abuse, and to prevent regulatory gaps, reduce the potential for arbitrage opportunities, and foster a level playing field for market participants, intermediaries and infrastructures. They also recognise the need to reduce regulatory uncertainty and provide market participants, intermediaries and infrastructures with sufficient clarity on laws and regulations by avoiding, to the extent possible, the application of conflicting rules to the same entities and transactions. They also acknowledge the need to take into account, among other factors, minimizing the application of inconsistent and duplicative rules.
Source: CFTC.gov
IOSCO Consults on Principles for Financial Benchmarks
April 16, 2013--The International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) published today a consultation paper on Principles for Financial Benchmarks. which seeks public comments on a set of high-level principles for benchmarks used in global financial markets.
Because of the wide diversity of benchmarks, IOSCO also is asking for public comment on a subset of more detailed principles for benchmarks having specific risks arising from their reliance on submissions and/or their ownership structure.
The principles form part of IOSCO´s efforts to enhance the integrity, the reliability and the oversight of benchmarks by establishing guidelines for benchmark administrators and other relevant bodies on governance, benchmark quality, quality of the methodology, and accountability mechanisms.
view the IOSCO Principles for Financial Benchmarks Consultation Report
Source: IOSCO
Global Experts Poll: Economic Confidence Up Significantly in Second Quarter
Economic Confidence Index rises to 0.48 from 0.43 last quarter, closer to optimistic territory above 0.5
Indices tracking confidence in global governance and global cooperation make similar gains
Eighth quarterly Global Confidence Index polled 304 experts from business, government, international organizations and academia who are members of the Forum's Network of Global Agenda Councils
April 15, 2013--Confidence in the world economy has increased significantly over the past three months, according to experts polled by the World Economic Forum.
The Economic Confidence Index rose to 0.48 from 0.43 on a scale of 0 to 1 during the first three months of the year, amid an easing of the Eurozone crisis and belief that the world economy may had avoided a double-dip recession. The score puts the index back in neutral territory for the first time since it fell into low-confidence territory in the third quarter of 2012; it marks a return to its most recent peak during the second quarter of 2012. However, the index did not break into positive territory above 0.5.
“It looks as though the worst is over and experts are not too worried about a double-dip recession of the world economy, as a whole,” said Martina Gmür, Senior Director of the Forum’s Global Agenda Council, of the poll of 304 global experts. “But, while the economic index has seen an improvement over three consecutive quarters and is now back at its peak from one year ago, it is worth remembering that, back then, the Eurozone crisis was already in full swing; and the index has so far not crossed over into positive territory.”
Source: WEF (World Economic Forum)
