Foto: historias visuales, Flickr, Creative Commons. MiFID II y los bancos: “La mano que mece la cuna”
New research from global analytics firm Cerulli Associates finds that using technology to uncover what U.S. investors want is helpful, but personal interaction is needed to close the sale.
“There has been an explosive increase in the attention devoted to the evolving role of technology within the realm of retail investor relationships,” states Scott Smith, director at Cerulli. “Virtually all stakeholders, from advisory practices to asset managers to custodians and other service providers, feel the threat of disruption through disintermediation.”
Many assume that ongoing advances in technology will empower investors to handle their financial affairs without the assistance of traditional financial advisors. Cerulli believes that while technology innovations will transform how services are delivered, there will be an ongoing, and potentially increasing, demand for personalized advice delivered by humans.
“Since 2010, there has been a continuous stream of developments in the technology available for investors to monitor and manage their portfolios. However, during this period the self-directed investor segment declined from 45% to 33% across all households,” Smith explains. “At the same time, those households Cerulli terms ‘Advisor-Reliant’, who regularly consult with a financial advisor, increased from 34% to 43%.”
“We believe that unique elements of financial advice relationships will prove resistant to being cast aside in favor of purely self-service electronic relationships,” Smith continues.
“Data can help marketers understand what investors think and want relative to their finances, but wealth managers need to complement this insight with human interaction, predictive analytics, and communication,” Smith adds.
The European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA) has published its latest quarterly statistical release which describes the trends in the European investment fund industry during the second quarter of 2015. UCITS net sales fell to EUR 114 billion, down from EUR 283 billion in the first quarter.
Long-term UCITS, i.e. UCITS excluding money market funds, attracted net inflows of EUR 144 billion, down from EUR 236 billion in the first quarter. The three main types of long-term UCITS recorded lower net sales during the quarter.
Equity funds recorded net sales of EUR 22 billion, down from EUR 43 billion. Bond funds recorded net sales of EUR 32 billion, down from EUR 79 billion. Multi-asset funds recorded net sales of EUR 72 billion, down from EUR 101 billion.
UCITS net sales totaled EUR 397 billion during the first half of 2015, up from the EUR 274 billion in January-June 2014. Long-term UCITS have also increased during the first half of this year to EUR 380 billion from the EUR 282 billion during this period last year.
Money market funds registered a turnaround in net sales to post net outflows of EUR 30 billion in the second quarter, against net inflows of EUR 47 billion recorded in the first quarter.
AIF net sales increased to EUR 48 billion in the second quarter, up from EUR 18 billion in the first quarter. This increase in net sales was mainly due to a turnaround in net sales of equity funds to net inflows of EUR 4 billion compared to net outflows of EUR 13 billion in the first quarter. Net sales of multi-assets also increased to EUR 32 billion, up from EUR 22 billion in the first quarter.
Institutional net sales declined to EUR 38 billion, down from EUR 54 billion in the first quarter.
European investment fund assets decreased 0.8 percent during the second quarter of 2015 to stand at EUR 12,632 billion at end June 2015. Net assets of UCITS declined by 0.9 percent to stand at EUR 8,167 billion at end June 2015, whilst total net assets of AIFs declined by 0.8 percent to stand at EUR 4,455 billion at quarter end.
. BMO Global Asset Management Appoints Luis Martin as Head of Sales in Spain for Planned Madrid Office
BMO Global Asset Management has further expanded its European distribution team with the appointment of Luis Martín Hoyos as Head of Sales, Spain, effective immediately.
Martín joins the firm from BlackRock where he was Head of Retail & Institutional Sales for the Iberia region, where he spent three and a half years. Prior to this, Mr Martín held roles serving the wholesale market, as Senior Sales Manager at JP Morgan and was previously in wholesale at Alliance Bernstein.
At BMO Global Asset Management, he will be responsible for overseeing the distribution of the firm’s products and strategies in Spain, across both existing capabilities (including F&C Investments and BMO’s boutique managers) and soon to be launched strategies and products such as ETFs.
He reports to Georg Kyd-Rebenburg, Head of European Distribution, BMO Global Asset Management. Martín will be based in London initially, prior to re-locating to a new Madrid office that should open in October 2015.
“We are pleased to have someone of Luis’ calibre and experience joining the firm, as we continue to expand our reach across Europe,” said Georg Kyd-Rebenburg, Head of European Distribution, BMO Global Asset Management. “We look forward to leveraging his deep expertise to enable us to serve clients and prospects in this fast-growing market.”
BMO Global Asset Management is a global investment manager delivering service excellence from 24 offices in 14 countries to clients across five continents. Including discretionary and nondiscretionary assets, BMO Global Asset Management had more than USD $244 billion in assets under management, as of July 31, 2015.
Led by four multi-disciplined investment teams based in Toronto, Chicago, London and Hong Kong, the organization is complemented by a network of world-class boutique managers strategically located across the globe. They include BMO Real Estate Partners, LGM Investments, Monegy, Inc., Pyrford International Ltd., and Taplin, Canida & Habacht, LLC.
With operations throughout North America and Europe, and in Abu Dhabi, Mumbai, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Melbourne and Sydney, BMO Global Asset Management has been recognized by Pension & Investments as one of the world’s largest 100 asset managers based on combined assets under management as of December 31, 2013 and is a signatory of the United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investment initiative (UNPRI).
BMO Global Asset Management is a part of BMO Financial Group (NYSE: BMO), a fully diversified financial services organization with $672 billion as of July 31, 2015, and more than 47,000 employees.
Foto: Krissyho
. JP Morgan AM amplía su equipo de deuda de mercados emergentes
J.P. Morgan Asset Management has appointed Diana Kiluta Amoa and Celina Apóstolo Merrill as part of the Emerging Markets Debt Team within the Global Fixed Income, Currency & Commodities Group.
Ms Amoa joins as senior portfolio manager on the Local Currency Emerging Markets Debt team. She will be based in London and will report to Didier Lambert, Lead Portfolio Manager for Local Currency (Rates and FX). In this role, she will partner with Mr Lambert on overall Rates and FX strategy across pooled funds and segregated accounts.
Ms Amoa brings 11 years of industry experience to J.P. Morgan Asset Management; most recently, she was responsible for the CEMEEA Rates Trading business at UBS AG. Previously, she also held positions in Emerging Markets Fixed Income Trading at Societe Generale and Standard Chartered. Ms Amoa began her career at J.P. Morgan Asset Management as a Global Multi-Asset Portfolio Manager.
Ms Merrill joins as senior credit analyst within the Corporate Debt Emerging Markets team. She will be based in New York and will report to Scott McKee, Lead Portfolio Manager, EM Corporate Debt. In this role, she will be responsible for fundamental corporate research, valuation and portfolio management related to the corporate debt strategy.
Ms Merrill brings 16 years of industry experience to J.P Morgan Asset Management. Prior to joining the firm, she was the head of EM Corporate Credit at Van Eck Global. Previously, Ms Merrill was a Director of Latin American Corporate bond research at Credit Suisse, and also held positions at TPG Credit Management, Greywolf Capital and Goldman Sachs.
“We are delighted to welcome Diana and Celina. Their strong respective expertise in emerging markets debt further enhances our ongoing commitment to fundamental research as a building block of our investment process,” said Pierre-Yves Bareau, Chief Investment Officer and Head of Emerging Markets Debt, J.P. Morgan Asset Management.
Photo: Rusan Estudio / Courtesy Photo. Stelac Advisory Services Hires Gabriel Garcia, Carlos Machado and Nacho Contreras, and Opens an Office in Miami
Stelac Advisory Services, a multi family office based in New York co-founded and headed by Carlos Padula, has closed three high level contracts over the past two months.
Gabriel Garcia Daumen joinsfrom UBS WM Americas International, where he was responsible for the selection of offshore mutual funds and hedge funds for the UBS platform. He joined the team as Head of Research and Direct Investments last July. Before joining UBS WM in 2007, Gabriel Garcia worked at PWC and prior to that, from 1999 to 2003, at Deutsche Bank, where the founders of Stelac Advisory Services worked before founding the company. Gabriel Garcia shall carry out his duties from New York headquarters.
Carlos Machado joined the Stelac team this month as Director, Relationship Manager, and Head of the Stelac office in Miami, which opened this August. Machado has worked for just under four years in BigSur Partners, a multi family office based in Miami, where he carried out advisory work. He previously worked at Standard Chartered during the years 2010 and 2011, although the bulk of his career, from 2003-2010, was carried out in various areas of Deutsche Bank in the Americas region and in Switzerland.
Nacho Contreras, holder of an MBA from IESE and a PHD in Economics and Human Resources, and an expert in corporate finance and consulting, has joined the Stelac team as Head of the Human Resources division and to lead relationships with endowments and foundations.
Carlos Padula, Managing Partner of Stelac, was Managing Director and CEO of PWM Latin America at Deutsche Bank until 2007, the year in which he founded Stelac Advisory Services together with Maria Zita La Rosa and Karla Cervoni, who also worked at Deutsche Bank with UHNW Latin American clients.
According to information filed with the SEC, Stelac Advisory Services has US$1.5 billion in assets under management and advisory, belonging primarily to UHNW clients from international families.
. Embrace New Sources of Return: Pioneer Investment’s Miami Forum
Pioneer Investments will host an exclusive due diligence meeting at the JW Marriott Marquis in Miami on the 8th of October. The event will provide clients with the opportunity to engage with Pioneer Investments’ senior investment team members as they look beyond traditional asset classes, challenge conventional asset allocation and risk management, and identify compelling new investment solutions.
Amongst others, highlight speakers coming together from Pioneer Investments around the globe will include:
Piergaetano Iaccarino: Head of Thematic & Disciplined Equity, Portfolio Manager of Pioneer Funds – Global Equity Target Income
Thomas Swaney: Head of Alternative Fixed Income U.S., Portfolio Manager of Pioneer Funds – Long / Short Opportunistic Credit
Adam MacNulty: Client Portfolio Manager of Pioneer Funds – Absolute Return Multi-Strategy & Absolute Return Multi-Strategy Growth
Andrew Feltus: Director of High Yield Bank Loans, Portfolio Manager of Pioneer Funds – Strategic Income
As fundamental changes taking place in the investment management market continue to lead investors to look beyond their existing strategies, the theme “Embrace New Sources of Return” is a continuation from Pioneer Investments’ global annual client meeting for international investors held in Boston in April.
Key topics of conversation on October 8th will include:
How to navigate Fixed Income markets in a rising interest rate environment.
The outlook for Equities moving forward in continued volatility.
Where are the opportunities in Emerging Markets?
How to meet the need for Income in today’s economic environment.
What Alternative Investments can provide market neutral solutions?
Foto: MinWoo, Flickr, Creative Commons. El positivo escenario para la industria de fondos europea hace que relaje su consolidación en el segundo trimestre
“As mentioned in the last report, it seems European fund promoters are in a standby mode, even though the activity regarding fund closures, mergers, and launches went up in Q2 2015 compared to Q1 2015. One reason for this can be seen in the still-exceptional high net inflows witnessed by the European fund industry during Q2 2015; higher assets under management (AUM) lead to a higher income stream and therefore to lower pressure with regard to the profitability of single funds within the product ranges. In addition, we have already seen a lot of activity with regard to the cleanup of product ranges, meaning European fund promoters have done a lot to realize economies of scale within their product offerings. This might have eased pressure on profits. That said, the activity in the equity segment during Q2 2015 showed there is still a lot for promoters to do on this front”, says Lipper.
During Q2 2015, 459 funds were launched in Europe. The quantity of newly launched products was 11% behind the number of launches during second quarter 2014, but it was in line with the average of the last four measured second quarters (the number of launches for Q2 2011 needs to be considered as exceptional).
“It is remarkable that the industry has not started to launch a massive number of new products to profit from the ongoing trend toward asset allocation/multi-asset and income products as has been seen in the past. Nevertheless, the European fund industry still has a lot of room for consolidation, since the AUM in Europe is still far behind the average AUM in the United States”, according to the report.
The number of liquidations went down approximately 11%, comparing Q2 2015 with Q2 2014—to 359 from 402, for the lowest number of liquidations in the five-year observation period.
The number of fund mergers went up approximately 28%, from 257 for Q2 2014 to 329 for Q2 2015, but–similar to launches–fund mergers were in line with the average of the last four measured second quarters.
“Since there is still a lot of activity regarding mergers and acquisitions in the European asset management industry, the alignment of product ranges and the resulting mergers and closures of funds will be one driver of future consolidation in the industry. This is the easiest way to increase the potential profits from an acquisition. That said, we see no lack of innovation in the European fund industry, and therefore we still expect the European asset management industry to show net growth in terms of new funds at some point in the near future. That will depend on general market conditions staying in the favor of investors, i.e., that no negative trend hits the stock or bond markets. The growth pattern of the industry is heavily dependent on market conditions and investor confidence”.
Beamonte Investments, a private investment firm in Boston, along with its affiliate Beamonte Mexico Holdings SAPI de CV, announces the formation of Fondeadora KC, SAPI de CV (KCMX Capital) a Mexico City-based company dedicated to provide innovative financing solutions to SME’s in Mexico.
KCMX is specifically designed to serve small and middle market family-owned operating enterprises in Mexico and will provide structured financing across the capital structure and short-term financing as Factoring. KCMX will assume the operations and portfolio of Kiwii Capital.
KCMX Capital is a provider of senior secured asset-based loans to the small and middle-market across a variety of industries with additional complementary financing throughout the capital structure. KCMX will offer financing schemes, such as project finance/contract-linked, receivables financing, and inventory financing products, as well as structured loans.
Luis Felipe Treviño, who currently serves as senior Managing Director of Beamonte Investments, will serve as Chief Executive Officer of KCMX Capital.“We are excited to announce a premiere credit platform like KCMX that offers our investors a unique way to capitalize on the opportunity to finance the growth of SME’s in Mexico”, said Treviño.
Salvador Gaytan former CEO of Kiwii Capital will serve as Director of Operations.“I’m thrilled to be part again of another venture with Beamonte Investments, KCMX is a vehicle that allows us to provide a more robust product offering to serve SME’s, we work with companies with annual sales between MXN 20 million to 150 million that provide products or services to large corporations. The credit facilities goes from MXN 1.5 million up to 50 million”, said Gaytan
Andrea Mandraccio is Head of Institutional Clients Division at Anima. Italian Fund Manager Anima To Land in the Spanish Market Through Selinca
Italian fund manager Anima has landed in the Spanish market, with the registration of its Irish Sicav in the Spanish regulator, CNMV. In this interview with Funds Society, Andrea Mandraccio, Head of Institutional Clients Division at Anima, explains its objetives for the future.
Why have you made the decision to enter in Spain now?
Anima is today a reference point in the Italian asset management industry with a total AUM of 65 billion euros (data as of July 31, 2015). Through a combination of diversified and complementary backgrounds and know-how, Anima’s products and services figure among the widest available on the Italian market. The range of products includes wealth management services both for retail and institutional clients. Anima offers Italian mutual funds, open-ended umbrella funds domiciled in Ireland and in Luxembourg and pension funds.
Having achieved a significant reach in the Italian market we are moving our first steps abroad since mid 2014 through our Institutional Client Division. As of today we have clients in Germany, Switzerland and Luxembourg. We’ve targeted the Spanish market as the first country to approach with a structured effort through the partnership with a solid operator such as Selinca, since the structure of the market (relationship between Asset managers and banks), size and culture is similar to our own.
What are your objectives in the Spanish market? Is it a big potencial market for you?
We think that through the partnership with Selinca, we can potentially achieve an interesting penetration of the Spanish market. Spanish market is very similar to the Italian market by structure with a particular focus to the fund buyers space. Similarities between our economies and needs of savers other than their historical experience and culture make us think that investment solutions studied for the Italian market would be viable also for the Spanish market.
To get them, what does your sicav look like?
For the Spanish market we’ve just registered our Irish Sicav. The main strategies we want to present in the Spanish market are the essence of our best capabilities: Anima is a leading player in the equity market – in particular with a European focus. Our CIO Lars Schickentanz who’s running our long only flagship European fund and absolute return European fund has more than 20 years of experience in the management of such products and a proven track record.
Our offer will also include Absolute return strategies in the fixed income space which are becoming a specific need for asset allocators going forward, where we can as well show proven numbers and a different approach vs our main international competitors.
Finally we think the Italian equity market – one of the most de-rated of the past years – today offers interesting pockets of value which could be disclosed through a dynamic and absolute approach. Our team has a long standing experience and excellent numbers on their side in out domestic stock market.
You registered also a sicav in Luxembourg in 2006 that is in CNMV…
In the Spanish market we’ve decided to register our Irish Sicav funds, since those products are historically the clones of our Flagship Italian vehicles. New strategies are today launched through our Irish branch, so we think this is the best tool to approach a new market.
Being Anima the result of mergers between multiple Asset managers we have also a Luxemburg sicav coming from another of our constituent Asset Managers.
Who will be your distributor in Spain?
Our distributor in Spain is Allfunds Bank S.A.
Animais an historical player in the Italian asset management industry and today is a leading independent operator in the field. The company was born in 2012 from a process of mergers between Italian Asset management companies. Since April 2014 the Holding of the Anima Group was listed in the Italian Stock Exchange and today roughly 70% of the capital is owned by the market. Anima Sgr is headquartered in Milan, but it is also present in Ireland and Luxembourg, through its subsidiaries Anima Asset Management and Anima Management Company respectively.
Anima is a reference point in the Italian asset management industry, with more than one hundred distribution agreements and one million customers, with strong partnership with leading banking groups.
Art Steinmetz, de OppenheimerFunds, y Vince Lowry, de VTL Associates. Foto: PRNewsFoto/OppenheimerFunds. OppenheimerFunds compra VTL
OppenheimerFunds has announced an agreement to acquire VTL Associates, an independent institutional investment firm best known for itsRevenueShares exchange traded funds (ETFs). VTL manages $1.7 billion for investors across eight ETFs and its separate accounts.
The acquisition expands the firm´s active client offering into the growing smart-beta space, subject to customary closing conditions and consents. The deal will bring both high-quality smart-beta ETFs and an ETF platform offering cost- and tax-efficient investment solutions that financial advisors are increasingly using in their investors’ portfolios.
“Investors are looking to active managers for innovative solutions to add to their overall investment strategy, including products that are designed to deliver better-than-market returns with full transparency of their investment process,” said Art Steinmetz, Chairman, President and CEO of OppenheimerFunds.
In general, smart beta strives to identify factors that have the potential to generate positive risk-adjusted returns compared with market-cap-weighted index funds. VTL applies a proprietary methodology to screen and weight the stocks in each ETF according to various factors such as revenue or dividends, instead of by market capitalization. This practice is designed to lower exposure to overvalued companies, while maintaining diversification by investing in all of the stocks in the given index. VTL has been successfully employing this strategy in ETFs since 2008.
“Our firm has grown by serving the needs of investors seeking above-market returns delivered through a suite of custom index products and institutional advisory services,” said Vince Lowry, Founder of VTL.
Peter Mintzberg, Head of Corporate Strategy and Development at OppenheimerFunds, said, “Clients have expressed interest in OppenheimerFunds expanding its array of investment capabilities. We are expediting that process with a strategic acquisition, as we did most recently in 2012 with SteelPath, which enabled clients and their investors to participate in the income and tax advantages afforded by master limited partnerships. We continue to look for these types of opportunities to further broaden our offering in a way that is consistent with our core investment approach.”
