Global ETF News Older than One Year
IMF Working paper-Finance and Development: Catalysts for Change
November 29, 2012--Summary:Financial network analysis is used to provide firm level bottom-up holistic visualizations of interconnections of financial obligations in global OTC derivatives markets.
This helps to identify Systemically Important Financial Intermediaries (SIFIs), analyse the nature of contagion propagation, and also monitor and design ways of increasing robustness in the network. Based on 2009 FDIC and individually collected firm level data covering gross notional, gross positive (negative) fair value and the netted derivatives assets and liabilities for 202 financial firms which includes 20 SIFIs, the bilateral flows are empirically calibrated to reflect data-based constraints. This produces a tiered network with a distinct highly clustered central core of 12 SIFIs that account for 78 percent of all bilateral exposures and a large number of financial intermediaries (FIs) on the periphery. The topology of the network results in the “Too- Interconnected-To-Fail” (TITF) phenomenon in that the failure of any member of the central tier will bring down other members with the contagion coming to an abrupt end when the ‘super-spreaders’ have demised. As these SIFIs account for the bulk of capital in the system, ipso facto no bank among the top tier can be allowed to fail, highlighting the untenable implicit socialized guarantees needed for these markets to operate at their current levels. Systemic risk costs of highly connected SIFIs nodes are not priced into their holding of capital or collateral. An eigenvector centrality based ‘super-spreader’ tax has been designed and tested for its capacity to reduce the potential socialized losses from failure of SIFIs.
view the IMF Working paper-Finance and Development: Catalysts for Change
Source: IMF
ABN AMRO Clearing Implements NASDAQ OMX's SMARTS Broker
November 29, 2012--ABN AMRO Clearing, a business line of ABN AMRO, has implemented NASDAQ OMX's SMARTS Broker solution for surveillance and compliance monitoring across multiple equity, derivative and commodity markets in Europe, Asia Pacific and the United States.
ABN AMRO Clearing will utilize the automated trade monitoring solution to facilitate quick identification of suspicious trading behavior and intuitive detection of potential market abuse. SMARTS Broker will provide the bank's multi-regional compliance professionals with actionable insight and sophisticated alerts for various forms of market abuse, including insider trading, market manipulation, violations of order handling rules and irregular trading patterns by automated and high frequency trading platforms. The ABN AMRO users of SMARTS Broker are then able to utilize the integrated SMARTS data analysis tools, including Spread Graph and Market Replay, which enables them to quickly and efficiently evaluate the alerted trading, against the background of full historical market data.
Source: NASDAQ OMX
BIS, ECB and IMF Publish Third Part of Handbook on Securities Statistics
November 28, 2012--The Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) today jointly released the third and final part of the Handbook on Securities Statistics, which covers equity securities issues and holdings.
The aim of the Handbook is to assist national and international agencies in the production of relevant, coherent and internationally comparable securities statistics for use in monetary policy formulation and financial stability analysis.
The Handbook is the first publication of its kind dealing exclusively with the conceptual framework for the compilation and presentation of securities statistics. As such, it directly addresses one of the recommendations endorsed by the Ministers of Finance and Central Bank Governors of the Group of Twenty Economies (G20) concerning the need to fill data gaps and to strengthen data collection. Recommendation 7 of the report The Financial Crisis and Information Gaps, prepared by the Financial Stability Board Secretariat and IMF staff, called on central banks and, where relevant, statistical offices, particularly those of the G20 economies, to participate in the BIS data collection on securities and to contribute to the further development of the Handbook.
view the Third Part of Handbook on Securities Statistics
Source: IMF
UK regulator approves metal exchange takeover by HK bourse
November 28, 2012--The London Metal Exchange on Thursday said that British regulators had approved its takeover by the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, clearing a key hurdle in a deal worth $2.15 billion (1.65 billion euros).
"The board of directors of LME Holdings are pleased to announce that the Financial Services Authority has given notice in writing... of its approval in respect of HKEx acquiring control over LME Limited through its indirect subsidiary, HKEx Investment," the LME said in a statement.
Source: AFP
Macro Matters-Market volatile on mixed economic signals
November 28, 2012--China
Both Hong Kong and China markets ended higher last week due to: 1) speculation the government will lower reserve-requirement ratio; and 2) news that CSRC (China Securities Regulatory Commission) had eased capital requirements for overseas and local investment.
China local market was highly volatile on mixed economic data. Markets once dropped on news that FDI inflow to China had decreased by 3.5% during the past 10-month of the year.
India-Investors remained cautious as Winter Parliament commenced. India market remained volatile last week as investors were cautious amid the start of winter session of the parliament on Thursday.
Indian stocks were boosted throughout the week by: 1) rating upgrades by brokerage firms; 2) hopes of increased sales during the holiday seasons; and 3) expectations of insurance, pension and banking sector liberalization.
Brazil-Policy measures in support of nation’s demand.
October’s unemployment rate was 5.3%, according to IBGE, decreasing from 5.4% in September. The unemployment rate is at historical low as the labor force remained tight. Meanwhile, the Brazilian average real income continued to be at its highest level which is expected to continue over the midterm.
Russia-Global uncertainties continued to persist.
According to the OECD CLI (Composite Leading Indicators), it seems the slowdown trend of OECD economies have subdued.
Recent US economic indicators have posted positive surprises to the markets. The better prints came widespread from consumer confidence to labor data, whilst the housing sector has finally delivered a consistent recovery since 2008.
Source: Mirae Asset Financial Group
EPFR Global Fund Data News Release-No thanks from investors for junk bond and US equity funds in late November
November 27, 2012--Going into the Thanksgiving holiday weekend investors continued bailing out of US Equity and High Yield Bond Funds as US lawmakers addressed themselves to the so-called fiscal cliff that looms in early 2013.
Although China’s improving story attracted some interest --and cash--the week’s biggest inflows were recorded by Money Market Funds, with the cash equivalent vehicles absorbing over $21 billion.
Overall, EPFR Global-tracked Equity Funds posted collective outflows of $7.74 billion during the week ending Nov. 21 while Bond Funds took in a net $4.97 billion.
Despite the hefty inflows recorded by Money Market Funds and the big outflows posted by High Yield Bond Funds, the latest numbers contained some bullish signals. Emerging Markets Bond and Equity Funds both took in over $1 billion while flows into Commodities Sector Funds investing in things other than gold and precious metals hit their highest level since the first week of 2Q11.
Visit http://www.epfr.com/overview.aspx for more info
Source: EPFR
FTSE Launches Super Liquid Index Series
November 27, 2012--FTSE Group ("FTSE"), the award winning global index provider, today announces the launch of the FTSE Super Liquid Index Series (SLQ), a broad family of real-time free float market capitalisation weighted indices designed to mimic the characteristics of key FTSE indices via a smaller, highly liquid universe of stocks.
FTSE Super Liquid indices incorporate a novel methodology to determine the index size and select the most liquid stocks from within each industry of the underlying index. The resulting basket exhibits reduced implementation, maintenance and replication costs, whilst retaining the industry weightings and performance characteristics of the parent index.
The FTSE Super Liquid Index Series has been built to FTSE’s renowned standards of index design, which emphasises transparency, independence, innovation and strong governance.
Source: FTSE
New Finance Models to address Climate Change
The World Economic Forum and UN Climate Change secretariat forge a partnership to showcase new models for financing climate-friendly investments
The partnership, to be launched at the UN Climate Change Conference in Doha,Qatar, will benefit from the insights of the Forum's Green Growth Action Alliance.
November 27, 2012--The World Economic Forum and the United Nations Climate Change secretariat announced today the launch of "Momentum for Change: Innovative Financing for Climate-friendly Investment", an initiative that showcases successful public-private financing mechanisms and approaches to support climate change adaption and mitigation activities.
The initiative will inform governments, investors, business, public finance agencies and the media about practical ways and means to enable a global shift to environmentally and economically sustainable growth. It will be formally launched on 6 December during the United Nations Climate Change Conference, taking place in Doha, Qatar, from 26 November to 7 December.
“It is clear that the private sector needs to deliver significant investments to put the world on a path to a climate-secure future,” said Christiana Figueres, UNFCCC Executive Secretary. “However, given the scale of investment needed, the newness of technology solutions and the perception of risk that exists, the current level of investment is far too low. The public sector can help to unlock private finance and ensure supportive policy frameworks for climate-friendly investment.”
Source: World Economic Forum
Global economy facing hesitant and uneven recovery, says OECD
November 27, 2012--The global economy is expected to make a hesitant and uneven recovery over the coming two years.
Decisive policy action is needed to ensure that stalemate over fiscal policy in the United States and continuing euroarea instability do not plunge the world back into recession, according to the OECD’s latest Economic Outlook.
“The world economy is far from being out of the woods,” OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría said during the Economic Outlook launch in Paris. “The US ‘fiscal cliff’, if it materialises, could tip an already weak economy into recession, while failure to solve the euro area crisis could lead to a major financial shock and global downturn. Governments must act decisively, using all the tools at their disposal to turn confidence around and boost growth and jobs, in the United States, in Europe, and elsewhere,” Mr Gurría said.
view the OECD economic outlook
Source: OECD
BATS to borrow $300m for dividend payouts
November 27, 2012--BATS Global Markets is looking to raise $300m of "junk"-rated debt to fund a payout to shareholders in its first attempt to tap investors since the exchange operator bungled its own public float in March.
The company, which runs the third-largest US stock-exchange by volume, is seeking to issue a $300m, six-year senior secured loan and open a $50m three-year revolving credit facility.
Source: FT.com
