Global ETF News Older than One Year
Green and growth go together: the business case for a low-carbon economy
November 30, 2010-- Companies are designing new ‘green’ business models which will complement the outcome of international climate change negotiations.
A new OECD report, Transition to a low carbon economy: Public Goals and Corporate Practices, highlights decisions companies are taking to fight climate change and recommends government actions to encourage them.
“A number of front-running companies have grasped the challenges and opportunities of moving towards a low-carbon economy”, says OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria. “Our report shows that “green” and “growth” go together: Substantial green investment makes economic sense and can support effective climate policies.”
The report, which covers OECD countries as well as China, India and South Africa, draws on national experiences and a survey of companies worldwide to assess business strategy on climate change.
Today 400 of the Global 500 companies measure and report their GHG emissions. Though this is an important step towards managing emissions, there are no internationally-agreed standards for corporate GHG emission reporting so results are neither comparable nor credible. Governments could solve this problem by agreeing international corporate GHG accounting methodologies.
Source: OECD
BlackRock New Report ETF Landscape Industry Review, End of October 2010
November 30, 2010--At the end of October 2010 the global ETF industry had 2,409 ETFs with 5,335 listings, assets of US$1,239.4 Bn from 130 providers on 46 exchanges around
the world.
Additionally, there were 995 other Exchange Traded Products (ETPs) with 1,572 listings and assets of US$153.6 Bn from 50 providers on 21 exchanges.
Combined, there were 3,404 products with 6,907 listings, assets of US$1,392.9 Bn from 160 providers on 50 exchanges around the world at the end of October 2010.
YTD assets have increased by 19.6% from US$1,036.0 Bn to US$1,239.4 Bn. This is greater than the 4.6% increase in the MSCI World Index in US dollar terms.
The top 100 ETFs out of 2,409, account for 63.3% of global ETF Assets Under Management (AUM). 1,217 ETFs have less than US$50.0 Mn in assets and 426 ETFs have less than US$10.0 Mn in assets.
YTD, the number of ETFs has increased by 23.9% with 514 new ETFs launched while 50 ETFs were delisted. ETFs listed in Europe surpassed the United States in April 2009. As at the end of October 2010, Europe has 1,048 ETFs listed, whilst the United States has 887 ETFs listed. There are currently plans to launch 1,036 new ETFs.
YTD, the number of exchanges with official listings has increased from 41 to 46 and the ETF average daily trading volume
Source: Global ETF Research & Implementation Strategy Team, BlackRock
Africa, EU on summit collision course over economic deals
November 29, 2010--Africa squared up to fight for a better economic deal with the European Union on Monday as Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi opened a key summit warning the continent was ready to do business elsewhere.
"We have failed in our economic partnership with Europe," Kadhafi told leaders of 80 nations gathered in the high-rise seaside Libyan capital for the two-day talks.
Opening the first summit in three years between the two continents, Kadhafi reopened old wounds between former colonial powers and nations marking half a century of independence at a time when the onus is on efforts to seal a "new, equal" partnership.
Source: EUbusiness
IOSCO Publishes Final Report on Guidelines for the Regulation of Conflicts of Interest Facing Market Intermediaries
November 25, 2010--Executive Summary
The last few years have seen a significant growth in the involvement of market intermediaries in the financial market, which has led to increased complexity in the range of business services provided as well as the usage of financial products and instruments. The recent financial crisis and several corporate scandals have given rise to concern over the conduct of market intermediaries due to their inherent agency structure that gives rise to conflict of interests. Many cases have arisen where intermediaries are not acting in the best interests of their clients. Further, due to providing a wide range of services, market intermediaries are prone to conflicts of interest, which can lead them to diverge from adopting strategies and behavior to benefit their clients.
The evolving market scenario combined with an enhanced role of globalization in financial markets has prompted regulators to find improved regulations to address conflicts of interests faced by market intermediaries which pose a risk to the health of any financial system. There are apprehensions over the methods and strategies adopted for the regulation of market intermediaries to manage conflict of interests. Regulators have been criticised by various sections for using soft regulation in relation to market intermediaries1. The increased role of globalization in the financial markets has also led to circumstances which have called for greater alignment in the regulatory scope of different jurisdictions. Therefore, regulation of financial markets needs to be developed with a focus on commonly accepted rules for the regulation of conflicts of interest. Consequently, an increasing number of the members of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) are in the process of adopting new regulations, to target conflicts of interest.
Source: IOSCO
Five Israeli Shares Were Added To The FTSE Med 100 Index
November 25, 2010--On Monday, 22/11/2010 on the occassion of the FTSE's semi-annual update of the FTSE Med-100 index, five Israeli shares were added to the index: B Communications, Menorah Mivtachim Holdings, Mellanox Technologies, Internet Gold and Ceragon.
The five Israeli shares replace five shares listed on the Cypriot stock exchange, bringing the total of Israeli shares in teh index to 56, the number of Cypriot shares to 10. The number of Greek shares in the index remains 34.
The FTSE Med-100 index was launched in 2003 and is comprised of the 100 most highly capitalized shares on the Tel Aviv (TASE), Cyprus.(CSE) and Athens (ASE) stock exchanges. The index is administered by the British index vendor, FTSE and is updated semi-annually - after the third weekend in May and November of each year, according to the market capitalitzation of shares as of the end of April and October, respectively.
Source: Online News
BlackRock New Report ETF Landscape Emerging Markets Industry Review: November 2010
November 24, 2010--The use of ETFs and ETPs for emerging markets exposure have always been very useful and popular for many investors since it is often difficult to achieve exposure directly in many emerging and frontier markets such as Korea and Taiwan, without foreign investor status due to a limited selection of available futures contracts offering emerging and frontier market exposure.
At the end of August 2010, there were 450 ETFs/ETPs providing exposure to various emerging markets indices with 869 listings, assets of US$193.5 Bn from 94 providers on 38 exchanges in 32 countries.
YTD, ETFs/ETPs providing exposure to emerging and frontier market indices have seen net inflows of US$30.5 Bn, with US$27.9 Bn of net new assets going into emerging and frontier market equity ETFs/ETPs, of which US$18.7 Bn went into broad emerging market equity ETFs/ETPs and US$5.7 Bn into ETFs/ETPs tracking Chinese equity indices.
In comparison, for the full year 2009, ETFs/ETPs providing exposure to emerging and frontier markets had net inflows of US$24.8 Bn, with US$23.2 Bn going into ETFs/ETPs tracking emerging and frontier equity indices, of which US$9.6 Bn went into ETFs/ETPs tracking broad emerging/frontier market equity indices and US$6.5 Bn into ETFs/ETPs tracking Chinese equity indices.
The array of ETFs/ETPs now available to track emerging markets benchmarks has grown significantly, such that an investor can now access every MSCI emerging market country except the Czech Republic and Morocco.
Emerging markets has been one of the markets where we've seen innovation in ETF/ETP structures such as allowing for exposure to India and China A share indices. We expect to see continued growth in the use of these products, as well as emerging market and frontier market exposures availability.
Note: Flow data for many emerging market ETFs is only available 6 weeks after month end via the Simfund global mutual fund database, end of August 2010 data was the latest available when the analysis was produced.
Source: Global ETF Research & Implementation Strategy Team, BlackRock
BNY Mellon Asset Management Goes Live On Calastone’s Fund Transaction Network
November 24, 2010--BNY Mellon Asset Servicing has gone live with Calastone's connection to the network to offer full mutual fund processing STP for its UTAS mutual fund clients.
Through this connectivity, BNY Mellon's end clients can reap STP efficiencies and benefit from Calastone's global mutual fund community in addition to the efficiencies that will be provided by their settlement offering.
Calastone said that its independent cross-border transaction network services provides electronic message automation to help clients improve their account opening, re-registration, creation and liquidation, switching, settlement, reconciliation, cash reporting or any associated funds messaging processes.
Source: BBR Asset Management
Inequality, Leverage and Crises-IMF Working Paper
November 24, 2010--The paper studies how high leverage and crises can arise as a result of changes in the income distribution. Empirically, the periods 1920-1929 and 1983-2008 both exhibited a large increase in the income share of the rich, a large increase in leverage for the remainder, and an eventual financial and real crisis.
The paper presents a theoretical model where these features arise endogenously as a result of a shift in bargaining powers over incomes. A financial crisis can reduce leverage if it is very large and not accompanied by a real contraction. But restoration of the lower income group's bargaining power is more effective.
view Inequality, Leverage and Crises-IMF Working paper
Source: IMF
Dow Jones Sustainability Index expanded to cover 20% of world index
Move follows split from STOXX earlier this year
November 23, 2010--SAM, the Swiss sustainability fund manager, and Dow Jones Indexes, are to broaden out their joint global sustainability index product, with the launch of the Dow Jones Sustainability World Enlarged Index on November 30.
The new index will increase the number of component companies to 20% (513 comanies) of the largest 2,500 companies in the Dow Jones Global Total Stock Market Index. The existing DJSI World Index, which was launched in 1999, covers 10% of the global universe, or around 300 companies. The new index will be reviewed annually and weighted according to free float market capitalization. It will have a subset index of 459 components that excludes tobacco, alcohol, gambling,
Source: Responsible Investor
Understanding Financial Interconnectedness-IMF Working paper
November 23, 2010--Summary:
This paper seeks to advance our understanding of global financial interconnectedness by (i) mapping aspects of the architecture of global finance and (ii) investigating critical fault lines related to interconnectedness along which systemic risks were built up and shocks transmitted in the crisis.
It thus takes initial steps toward operationalizing enhanced financial sector and macro-financial surveillance called for by the IMF’s Executive Board and by experts such as de Larosiere et al. (2009). Getting a better handle on interconnectedness would strengthen the Fund‘s ability, together with the Financial Stability Board, to track systemic risk concentrations. It would also inform spillover and vulnerability analyses, and sharpen bilateral and multilateral surveillance.
view Understanding Financial Interconnectedness-IMF Working paper
Source: IMF
