Foto: IngBerrio, Flickr, Creative Commons. Allfunds Bank obtiene la certificación de calidad ISO 9001:2008 en sus procesos de análisis
Allfunds Bank is continuing to build its worldwide investment research capabilities by receiving ISO 9001:2008 certification for its research processes.
The certification -from the one of the most recognized certification bodies, the UK’s National Standards body (BSI)- is important to both asset and wealth management clients as it recognises Allfunds has adopted a consistent approach to the way it operates its research function. This approach emphasises meeting customer requirements, adding value, monitoring performance and effectiveness as well as ensuring continual improvement.
Meeting the Standard also highlights the fact that Allfunds encourages feedback from clients as ISO 9001:2008 requires it to evaluate customer feedback in order to judge whether it has met their requirements – an essential point in the every changing regulatory environment according to Allfunds’ Deputy General Manager, Gianluca Renzini.
“As wealth managers come under increasing cost pressures as their business models evolve to accommodate the current regulatory environment, it’s essential that we provide our clients with a quality option for outsourced fund management research. Attaining this certification speaks to our continuous effort to increase internal process disciplines, provide first-class customer service and makes certain Allfunds Bank’s fund research service remains synonymous with quality,” says Renzini.
BNY Mellon has established an innovation center in California’s Silicon Valley. The opening of the facility is part of the company’s plans to use emerging and disruptive technologies such as Cloud Computing, Big Data and the Internet of Things to gain new business insights, develop inventive, operational and technological capabilities, and identify potential new ventures that anticipate and cater to emerging client needs.
“BNY Mellon is committed to becoming the financial industry’s technology leader,” said Suresh Kumar, senior executive vice president and chief information officer. “There is no better place in the world to do this than in Silicon Valley, one of the greatest centers of technology and innovation. By tapping into the area’s top tech talent and giving them a space specially-designed for innovation, BNY Mellon will be primed to embrace emerging technology that enables us to better run our businesses and serve our clients.”
Michael Gardner, managing director and head of the company’s Silicon Valley facility, most recently was with Apigee, Inc, where he led research and development, support, security and cloud operations. Previously, he held executive-level engineering posts at various startups and public companies in that region, including LiveOps and eBay.
Gardner will lead BNY Mellon’s efforts to foster collaborative innovation that leverages advanced and prototype technology to develop new offerings, improve customer service and reduce time-to-market. The types of technologies the center will focus on include, but are not limited to, mobile development, cloud computing, application development, information security, decision science/analytics and collaboration technology.
“BNY Mellon already is known for being a foremost provider of technology solutions and infrastructure for the world’s capital markets,” Gardner said. “Through our connection to this community of open collaboration, we can further our promise of technological excellence by bringing new technologies with practical and proven business uses to market more quickly.”
“Mike’s rich background in development, strategic thinking and successful execution will bring new vision and perspective to foresee and nurture innovative breakthroughs to BNY Mellon,” Kumar added.
The Silicon Valley site is BNY Mellon’s fourth global innovation center with a mission to encourage collaborative, break-through thinking that will leverage talent development and lead to innovations for clients. The company already operates similar centers in Jersey City, New Jersey; and Pune and Chennai in India, where employees share ideas that encourage dialogue, creativity and collaboration with staff anywhere in the world.
In addition to the innovation centers, BNY Mellon also provides numerous opportunities for its global employees to offer innovative ideas to enhance businesses or increase revenues. For example, the company’s A.C.E. (Accelerate, Collaborate and Execute) Awards give employees the opportunity to compete for cash awards, an opportunity to work full-time in an incubator on the start-up of the winning idea and – if implemented – share up to 10 percent of the value the winning idea creates. Also, the company offers an Innovation Boot Camp, which is a unique training program offered in partnership with Carnegie Mellon University, designed to help participants generate stronger innovative ideas, evaluate innovative ideas for business impact, use business cases to gain greater support for ideas and develop implementation plans to advance ideas.
The Board of Directors of BNP Paribas has appointed Jean Lemierre as Director and Chairman of the Board of Directors.
He succeeds Baudouin Prot, who informed the Board of Directors on 26 September of his decision to step down as Chairman and Director from the 1st December 2014.
With the other members of the Board, Jean Lemierre will oversee the implementation of the Group’s business development plan as well as the reinforcement of its governance and of its internal control measures put in place in recent months.
Since September 2008, Jean Lemierre has acted as advisor to BNP Paribas and as its international representative with regulators as well as economic and political leaders.
Before joining BNP Paribas, he carried out two mandates as President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (2000-2008). In addition, he served as Head of the French Treasury (1995-2000).
Photo: Investec. Investec: "Our Preferred Asset Class Is High Yielding Equities, Which We Think Are Reasonably Valued"
How will the potential move away from zero interest rates influence markets? John Stopford, Co-Head of Multi-Asset at Investec Asset Management, gives his view on this interview about the implications for high yield equities, income investors, emerging markets and more.
What has surprised you most in 2014?
One of the things that surprised me most is how much pessimism around the global economy has affected people’s expectations of US interest rate pricing. To our minds, the US economy is diverging, to some extent, from other economies and is creating room for the US to raise interest rates at some point in 2015. However, this has been largely priced out of markets, as markets worry about slowdowns in Europe, China and elsewhere. This has obviously had quite a big impact on bond markets and, to some extent, other asset prices as well.
Should we be concerned about US interest rates in 2015?
We think interest rate developments in the next 12 months are going to be very important. Clearly one of the key drivers of asset markets in recent years has been the very low level of interest rates and the promise by central banks to keep interest rates at low levels for a considerable period. If this driver is beginning to change then investors need to factor that into their investment thinking. We think it is highly likely that the US Federal Reserve will raise rates next year. We also think that this is a fairly significant development that will lead to a pick-up in volatility. It will cause more divergence between US assets and other markets, particularly the dollar, but also bond markets. It will create some noise in equities, although we think that equities should be able to ride through the noise and will be more focused on whether the global economy as a whole is going to expand.
How are you going to be managing your income portfolios?
The best way, we believe, to manage income asset exposure is to take a broad diversified approach. The world of income generation has widened out and it is no longer just a bond story. There are other assets – such as high yielding equities, property and infrastructure – that can provide part of an income solution. All income generating assets these days bring risks with them because all of the safe assets are pretty expensive: cash rates are very low, government bond rates are very low, so if you want to generate more income you have to take more risk. Therefore, to manage that we think you need to strike a balance between opportunity and risk management. One of the easiest ways of managing risk is to diversify and to actively manage the exposure that you take.
What are the biggest risks to these views?
We think there are both upside and downside risks. The main downside risk is the global economy is struggling to grow at a rate that will close output gaps and allow a more normal recovery. This is putting downward pressure on inflation. We may have reached a limit in terms of what monetary policy can do to offset this. There is also the risk that we might be in an uncomfortable economic environment. Asset prices may react badly to this risk, particularly some of the more growth-oriented assets.
But it is also possible that the world is already priced for a pessimistic outcome and potentially there are some upside risks in places like the US where we think growth may turn out to be stronger than people currently think, interest rates may rise somewhat faster than the market is pricing in and this will also potentially have an impact on the absolute relative pricing of assets, such as the dollar, equities, bond yi elds and so on.
How are you positioning your portfolio in terms of strategy?
At the moment our preferred asset class is high yielding equities, which we think are reasonably valued and which we think should benefit from a global expansion that could continue for some years given there are not many pressures on central banks to tighten monetary policy aggressively. We think that against that background earnings can come through, dividends can continue to rise and so equity income should do relatively well.
We are more cautious about high yield and credit in general, as we think this asset class has been the major beneficiary of low interest rates and is now a very crowded trade. It also tends to do less well towards the latter part of an economic cycle and looks reasonably expensive to us. We are underweighting high yield and are more neutral towards some of the other income-generating assets, such as emerging market debt and property, where we think having some exposure makes sense, but perhaps not too much.
Photo: Ian Ormiston, portfolio manager of the Old Mutual Europe (excluding the UK) Smaller Companies fund. Old Mutual Global Investors Launches European Small Cap Fund
Old Mutual Global Investors has announced the launch of the Old Mutual Europe (excluding the UK) Smaller Companies Fund, a sub fund of the Old Mutual Global Investors Series Plc, a Dublin domiciled umbrella fund.
The fund, which is managed by Ian Ormiston who joined Old Mutual Global Investors in October 2014, aims to achieve long-term capital growth through investing in smaller companies in Europe (excluding the UK). The portfolio will hold between 40 and 55 stocks, each with an equal weighting in the portfolio.
The fund will focus on finding companies with less than €1bn market cap, with the team researching the most inefficient part of the market in order to find cheap growth opportunities.
By investing in businesses achieving high and consistent profitability whilst avoiding illiquid stocks and turn-around companies, the fund aims to reduce inherent risks that are sometimes associated with the small cap market.
The European small cap sector offers a breath of opportunities for investors, benefiting from economic clustering and diversity that offers attractive investments in most market conditions.
Ian Ormiston commented: “The European small cap market is a diverse universe offering great opportunities for investors. As an under-researched sector, it is naturally inefficient and so by focusing on high quality, true small cap companies, with a good level of liquidity we aim to create a portfolio that can add real value to investors.”
Foto: Jose Javier Martin, Flickr, Creative Commons. KKR se refuerza en España con el fichaje de Alejo Vidal-Quadras
KKR has announced the appointment of Alejo Vidal-Quadras as Director, based in KKR’s Madrid office.
In this role, Mr Vidal-Quadras will be responsible for developing and supporting KKR’s investment platforms in Spain. Alejo will be part of KKR’s Private Equity team and reinforce coverage of the Spanish market for the other investments platforms such as Credit, Infrastructure and Real Estate.
Alejo Vidal-Quadras is joining KKR from 3i where he was Head of 3i Spain, responsible for investments in Spain and Portugal. During the 9 years with 3i, Alejo worked on 11 Private Equity investments across several sectors, including buyouts and minority investments, and participated in 6 Boards of Directors.
Prior to joining 3i, Alejo worked at Rothschild in Madrid, providing M&A advisory services. Alejo holds a combined programme of Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and MBA at ESADE in Barcelona, completed with a Master in Management CEMS at London School of Economics and HEC Paris.
Jesus Olmos, Member, Head of European Infrastructure and Head of KKR’s operations in Spain, said: “I am thrilled to announce Alejo’s joining as we continue to build our Spanish presence. We have been investing in Spain since 2010, and we are expanding our team to offer our partnership, long-term capital and global industrial expertise to Spanish companies. I am sure that Alejo’s knowledge and network will be of great value to us.”
Johannes Huth, Head of KKR Europe, Africa and Middle East, said: “As we continue to build our team, I am delighted that Alejo is joining us in Madrid. We believe that Spain will present many attractive investment opportunities and Alejo’s involvement will enable us to identify and pursue even more opportunities on behalf of our investors.”
Alejo Vidal-Quadras commented: “I am excited to join an investment firm with such an outstanding reputation and track record. I am particularly attracted to KKR’s flexible, multiproduct and entrepreneurial approach to investment, which is key in the local Spanish market.”
Over the last years, KKR has invested over US$2.4 billion in Spain. These investments include Inaer, Uralita, ACCIONA Renovables Internacional, Telepizza, Grupo Alfonso Gallardo, TSolar, Saba, PortAventura and two real estate investments in retail and leisure parks.
Of KKR’s more than 80 private equity portfolio companies, 18 have operations in Spain, employing over 7,000 people.
Jose Luis Llamas, Verax Wealth Management CEO/Courtesy photo. The Birth of Verax, a Multi-Family Office Created by José Luis Llamas
José Luis Llamas is yet another example of those professionals who opt for leaving large companies to launch independent projects. After 25 years of private banking experience and 13 years at Deutsche Bank, this Mexican professional has created Verax Wealth Management, a Multi-Family Office oriented to UHNW clients in Latin America, which aims to become the largest Family Office in the country. “We are not the largest in Mexico, but we are close. We hope to be so in the short term, as we have started with already a significant amount of assets.”
To this end, he has left New York to return to his roots in Mexico City, where the company will have its headquarters. “Although our headquarters will be in Mexico, our goal is to open another office in the US, probably in Miami or Houston.”
With this new project, Llamas aims to offer his services to a small number of high income households (over $25 million), with a focus on “pure family office”, covering their financial and non-financial needs, estate planning, and tax advice. “The idea of a family office is to cover all the needs of the family. I do not believe in the model which focuses exclusively on the financial side, ignoring family planning and the fiscal situation. Our big advantage is to be able to purely represent the client’s interests and to avoid conflicts of interest. We don’t need to make a decision because we represent a certain institution. This allows us to offer many more options to our customers, in a market that is becoming increasingly complex.”
As regards portfolio management, they will use an open architecture approach that aligns with the interests of the families they represent. “We will provide tailor-made solutions for each of our customers,” said the expert. “The fact of starting from scratch with a large volume of assets allows me to have a greatly talented team of investment professionals. We are about to close the recruitment of Chief Investment Officer and two other portfolio managers. “The objective of the company is to initially have a team consisting of eight or nine people, three of which will be bankers.
In late November, Verax will launch its first open fund, with medium risk, which will invest in liquid share certificates, fixed income and commodities. “With this fund we want to give access to smaller customers who have requested our services.”
On the other hand, the expert says that they are investing in less traditional assets, both in private equity and real estate, “Smaller products that are difficult to access and in which we are having the good fortune of participating.”
“We will have many short term corporate surprises, both by the corporate deals in which we are involved, and for the important recruitments we are making,” he concludes.
Photo: Ruocaled. Allianz GI Shares its Wish List for Santa
Having just celebrated Thanksgiving, says Kristina Hooper, the US investment strategist and head of US Capital Markets Research & Strategy for Allianz Global Investors, we have so much to be thankful for as Americans—and as investors:
The employment situation has improved substantially in the past year – Unemployment has dropped to 5.8% in October 2014 from 7.2% in October 2013. Even U-6, the broadest measure of unemployment, has fallen to 11.5% from 13.7%.
Lower oil prices have put money back in consumers’ pockets – On June 6, oil closed at $102.66 per barrel. Last Friday, it closed at $76.1 per barrel. A roughly 25% drop in a few short months, helps compensate, at least indirectly, for the lack of wage growth many Americans continue to experience.
Global monetary policy remains very accommodative – Last week, the Bank of China lowered interest rates and the ECB president Mario Draghi suggested the probability of sovereign QE is rising. Even the Fed is looking at a broader set of economic data in assessing when to begin tightening. Policy makers want to ensure the economy is on solid footing before it acts. Even after the Fed’s initial move, the environment will remain relatively accommodative, especially given that the Fed expects to maintain its balance sheet at its existing size through re-investment of its maturing assets.
Most importantly, our veterans, who have made great sacrifices for our freedom – Thanks to our men and women in uniform, we live in a free society and enjoy all the rights and privileges that come with it, including a capitalist system.
But there are some items on our wish list for Santa:
Higher-quality jobs and higher wages – There has been very little wage growth in the past few years, a result of the substantial slack in the labor market. In general, many Americans have lower-quality jobs— ones they’re overqualified for, ones that don’t pay as much, ones that don’t include benefits—that are far worse than the ones they had before the global financial crisis. We are hopeful that will change as labor-market slack diminishes, although we expect it will vary by region and industry in the US.
Less conflict in the world – Some of our greatest risks right now are geopolitical ones. Let’s hope many of the troubling flare-ups we’ve seen recently begin to moderate. “The euro zone and Japan are concerned primarily about deflation while China is concerned with decelerating growth.”
Stronger economic growth and a healthy level of inflation globally – It’s clear based on recent monetary policy that Japan, China and the euro zone are worried about their economies. The euro zone and Japan are concerned primarily about deflation while China is concerned with decelerating growth. The International Monetary Fund downgraded global growth expectations for 2015 to 3.8% from 4% earlier this year. And while the United States is enjoying improving economic growth, it’s not immune to what’s happening on other shores. In fact, the October FOMC minutes show that the Fed is concerned about a global deceleration and the impact it would have on the United States. Let’s hope that greater deceleration can be halted, and that economies can actually see stronger growth in the coming year.
Investors who put emotions aside and invest with a plan – Investors, particularly younger ones, are far too risk averse right now. That’s cause for concern especially since we expect more volatility going forward. A recent Bankrate survey showed that 39% of millennials—those ages 18 to 29 years old—felt that the best place to invest money they “didn’t need for 10 years or more” was cash. While that’s largely due to the kind of investing environment they lived through as young adults, it doesn’t bode well for their financial security. Looking ahead, the investing environment will be more challenging with a lot of twists and turns. Still, investors should stick to a long-term financial plan and broadly diversify their portfolios, including an adequate allocation to stocks. It’s risky not to be in risk assets.
Foto: Coleccionista de Instantes, Flickr, Creative Commons. Los activos en fondos UCITS y no UCITS en Europa sobrepasan los 11 billones de euros por primera vez en la historia
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 third quarter of 2014.
The combined assets of UCITS and non-UCITS surpassed the EUR 11 trillion mark for the first time ever to end the quarter at EUR 11,057 billion.
UCITS recorded increased net inflows of EUR 130 billion in the third quarter of 2014, up from EUR 126 billion in the second quarter of the year. This marked the third successive quarter of UCITS net sales surpassing the EUR 100 billion mark.
So far in 2014, UCITS attracted EUR 405 billion in net inflows, more than double the EUR 178 billion attracted over the same period in 2013.
Long-term UCITS, i.e. UCITS excluding money market funds, continued to register strong net inflows of EUR 117 billion, albeit down compared to EUR 148 billion in the second quarter.
Demand for bond funds remained high in the third quarter (EUR 47 billion compared to EUR 56 billion in the second quarter). Net sales of balanced funds also posted strong net inflows during the quarter (EUR 52 billion compared to EUR 56 billion in the second quarter). On the other hand, equity fund net sales fell to EUR 14 billion, from EUR 24 billion in the second quarter, owing to rising geopolitical and economic uncertainties during the quarter.
Money market funds posted net inflows of EUR 13 billion in the third quarter, against net outflows of EUR 22 billion recorded in the second quarter.
Total net assets of UCITS increased by 4.3 percent during the third quarter to stand at EUR 7,807 billion at end September 2013. Net assets of balanced funds increased 5.9 percent during the quarter, followed by bond funds with growth of 4.7 percent. Net assets of equity funds registered growth in assets of 3.3 percent. Money market funds also registered a rise in assets of 4.1 percent during the quarter.
Total net assets of non-UCITS increased by 3.1 percent in the third quarter to stand at EUR 3,250 billion at end September 2013. Assets of special funds reserved to institutional investors grew by 3.3 percent during the quarter.
S&P Dow Jones Indices announced the launch of the S&P Brazil Sector Gross Domestic Product (GDP) Weighted Index. The Index is designed to measure the largest and most liquid stocks listed on the BM&F Bovespa weighted proportionately to the published Brazilian sector GDP figures.
“Brazil’s equity market is highly concentrated in financial services and natural resource companies, thus traditional market capitalization weighted equity indices are not representative of the Brazilian economy,” says Michael Orzano, Director of Global Equity Indices at S&P Dow Jones Indices.
“By weighting the constituents according to their GDP sector weights, the S&P Brazil Sector GDP Weighted Index provides investors with a transparent benchmark that reflects the growing, dynamic industries underrepresented in market cap weighted indices.”
The underlying universe for the S&P Brazil Sector GDP Weighted Index is all stocks from the S&P Brazil Broad Market Index (BMI). The Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS®) sector for each of the 100 unique companies is mapped to the following Brazilian GDP sectors: Agriculture, Industrials, Financial Services and Non-Financial Services. The sectors are then weighted according to their annual GDP figures.
