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David Schwartz, FIBA: “Compliance. Compliance. Compliance”

With FIBA’s annual Wealth Management Forum in Miami just a few days away, we interview David Schwartz, CEO, FIBA, about the industry landscape.

What are the biggest challenges facing the industry in 2016?

The challenge is always “Compliance. Compliance. Compliance”. Regulations continue to be more stringent while the cost of compliance becomes more expensive. This year, however, the theme of FIBA’s forum is “Transformation and Opportunities: The Consolidation Conundrum.” The challenges for 2016 relate to factors that are driving transformation of the industry. The large players are leaving the business, or reducing their involvement. This creates both new opportunities for smaller firms and problems for the industry. We are seeing, and will continue to see, growth in small family-owned wealth management companies. At the same time, we are also seeing more use of digital and the emergence of Robo Advisors. At the same time, the industry is undergoing a gender shift. Over the next few years, half of the world’s wealth will be owned by women. There is also a generational shift as the Millennials acquire their wealth. The industry has to adjust to all of these changes, while remaining compliant.

Addressing one issue at a time, why are the bigger players exiting the industry?

Compliance. There is a lot of due diligence required, and lots of risk involved if you don’t dig deeply enough to uncover the true owner of an asset. The Panama Papers show just how complex it is to see who really owns what. Tax transparency laws have big players questioning just how far they have to go in order to meet compliancy regulations.

Is compliance easier for smaller, family firms?

Smaller firms do not need all the infrastructure required by larger wealth management firms. They have the luxury of being able to concentrate more directly on their clients.

How is the industry responding to the trend towards Robo Advising?

The industry is embracing Robo Advising in two different ways. Some firms are creating their own robo management service in-house, and others are acquiring small, FinTech companies and bringing these in house. Still others are partnering with Robo Advisers. An excellent example is BlackRock, one of the largest global investment firms. BlackRock acquired FutureAdvisor, a small robo firm, and now RBC and BBVA., are partnering with BlackRock’s FutureAdvisor and integrating the service to digitally augment the advice given by their financial advisors.

That clearly demonstrates how digital is transforming the industry, and how quickly these changes can occur. How do industry professionals keep pace?

The goal and the mission of FIBA is to educate our members on the latest trends. We’ve established various groups to study the issues and present them to our members via webinars, conferences, workshops, seminars, forums and other channels. For example, we recently held a webinar on the Panama Papers, and although the advance notice was short, over a thousand members participated.

Can you elaborate on some of the educational programs you provide?

We provide a comprehensive program of learning opportunities, and professional certifications throughout the year. Our Anti-Money Laundering or AML conferences are the largest in the U.S., attracting on average 1,400 attendees from 40 countries around the globe. Our AML certification courses, which are available both online and in the classroom, are among the most respected in the country. To date, FIBA has certified more than 6,000 individuals in compliance and thousands more in technology, bank security, trade finance and related specialty areas. We also hold regular conferences and instruction on technology innovation, bank security, trade finance, and other areas critical to our industry.

Money laundering is an ever-present threat, and compliance a continuous challenge, do you work closely with the regulators?

To stay on top of developments, FIBA frequently meets with regulators in Washington. Our primary focus is on educating our members and helping them comply with new or changing regulations. As advocates for our members, we also work to influence policy. We submit comment letters and position papers to legislators and regulators, and are respected voice for the industry. In running so many varied programs, we invite the regulators to participate and share best practice ideas. As an example, Robert Villanueva of the US Secret Service will be one of the presenters at FIBA’s Wealth Management Forum in May. His topic, “How the Criminal Underground is Targeting the Financial Sector and our Brokerage and Retirement Accounts,” will help wealth planners understand and recognize cyber threats, and how to respond, the regulators have a job to do, and by collaborating we can all stay ahead of the criminal element.

In addition to the Wealth Management Forum, FIBA is hosting several other international conferences in May—plus AML certification courses and other programs, including a Women’s Leadership Program. How do you plan and execute so many events, and remain on top of new developments around the globe?

In keeping our members informed, we stay agile and flexible—and busy. Yes, this month FIBA is hosting our 32^nd CLACE conference on Foreign Trade May 22-24. From May 24-2, we will present our 19^th annual FIBA ATFA conference on Trade Finance and Forfaiting. We begin our planning about six months in advance, and revise topics as changes occur or new trends emerge. We stay flexible and adapt to the hot buttons. As mentioned earlier, we responded to the Panama Papers immediately with an informative webinar.

There are a lot of hot buttons for the industry right now. How did you land in the “hot seat” as CEO of FIBA?

I am a banker by experience, with more than 30 years as a senior banking professional within the international banking arena. And I am a lawyer by training. When the first and only CEO of FIBA stepped down, it seemed like a perfect fit for me to step into the position. And it has been exciting.

What is the composition of FIBA’s membership base?

We have about equal numbers international financial institutions, our core membership, and non-financial professionals who support or provide services to our industry in some way, including legal professionals, technology solution providers, consultants and others. We are always open to new members.

Michael Ganske, New Head of Emerging Markets Fixed Income at AXA IM

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AXA Investment Managers (AXA IM) appointed Michael Ganske as Head of Emerging Markets Fixed Income. He joins AXA IM in May 2016 from Rogge Global Partners where he was a Partner and Head of Emerging Markets (EM). Michael will report to Chris Iggo, CIO Fixed Income.

Michael has more than 15 years of experience in EM Fixed Income. Prior to his role at Rogge Global Partners, Michael was a Managing Director and Divisional Head of EM Research at Commerzbank (2007-2013) and a Director and Head of EM at Deka Investment GmbH (2004-2007), and Vice President and EM Fixed Income Portfolio Manager at DWS Investments, Deutsche Bank Group (2000-2004).

John Porter, Global Head of Fixed Income at AXA IM, commented: “We are pleased to welcome Michael on board and confident that his in-depth experience will further enhance our global emerging markets fixed income team and capabilities. We have invested heavily in this team with the hire of Sailesh Lad, Senior Portfolio Manager, and Olga Fedotova, Head of EM Credit Research, last Summer. Michael is a key appointment for our team and demonstrates the scale of our ambition in this space as well as our belief that investors will continue to find emerging market debt as an attractive asset class.”

Michael will lead a global team of 12 investment professionals based in London, Paris, Hong Kong and Mexico, managing approximately €5 billion of EM and Asian debt, across three flagship mutual funds and several segregated institutional mandates. The EM Fixed Income team is fully embedded in the AXA IM Fixed Income investment process. Michael’s appointment follows the decision in June to create a global emerging markets (GEM) fixed income team in support of the continued attractiveness of the EM asset class. Michael will be based in AXA IM’s London office.Michael is a German native, holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Economics from the University of Augsburg, and a Doctorate in Economics from the University of Hohenheim. Michael is also a certified Financial Risk Manager and Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).

Goldman Sachs Announces Simplified Pricing Structure for ActiveBeta ETFs

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Goldman Sachs Asset Management recently announced that it will implement changes to its fee and fee waiver arrangements for its ActiveBeta Exchange-Traded Funds. Effective May 1, 2016, a unitary management fee structure, together with a reduction in the management fee rate, will be implemented for the US Large Cap, European, international and Japan equities ActiveBeta ETFs.

Under the unitary fee structure, GSAM will be responsible for paying substantially all the expenses of each Fund. The total annual Fund operating expenses will be of 0.09% for the U.S. Large Cap Equity and of 0.025% for the Europe, International and Japan Equity ETFs.

Additionally, the current expense limitation arrangement for the Goldman Sachs ActiveBeta Emerging Markets Equity ETF will be made permanent. Under this arrangement, the Fund’s expenses are capped, subject to certain exclusions, at 0.45%.

The Most Important Investment Lesson in the World for Warren Buffett is…

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At the annual meeting of his Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett stated that the US, the economy and his company would continue to grow saying, is a “remarkably attractive place in which to conduct a business.” He also defended his favorite stocks, mentioning he has “not seen evidence that convinces me that it’ll be more likely I reach 100 if I suddenly switched to water and broccoli,” but not everything he said was positive. Besides mentioning that some of his holdings are hitting tough spots, the Oracle of Omaha did warn about the risk of derivatives, and against consultants and Hedge Funds.

In his opinion, and given several years of poor returns, “probably the most important investment lesson in the world,” includes ditching expensive money managers. “Supposedly sophisticated people, generally richer people, hire consultants. And no consultant in the world is going to tell you, ‘Just buy an S&P index fund and sit for the next 50 years,’” he said. “You don’t get to be a consultant that way, and you certainly don’t get an annual fee that way.” His bet that a Vanguard Group Inc. fund that tracks the S&P 500 Index could beat a basket of hedge funds from 2008 through 2017 is going strong, with a 21.9% return from the bundle of hedge funds picked by Protege Partners while the S&P 500 index fund soared 65.7% in the last 8 years. The profits of the bet will go to charity.

On a follow up interview, Buffett also mentioned that he might consider taking money out of banks if they charge for deposits. Charlie Munger and him also criticized Valeant Pharmaceuticals, and Buffett, a Hillary Clinton supporter, implied that any one president, even Trump, could not derail the US economy, or his company’s business completely. “We’ve operated under price controls, we’ve had 52% federal taxes applied to our earnings… I will predict that if either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton become president Berkshire will do fine.” He concluded.

Banque de Luxembourg Investments (BLI) Strengthens its Multi-Management Team

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bli — Foto cedidaGuy Wagner, director general de BLI.. Banque de Luxembourg unifica sus unidades de gestión de activos

Banque de Luxembourg Investments (BLI), Banque de Luxembourg’s asset management company, has strengthened its multi-management team by recruiting Amélie Morel and Jean-Baptiste Fargeau as fund analysts. The team has now 5 people in charge of analyzing, selecting and monitoring an external fund list, as well as the management of the funds of funds multi-asset classes.

Amélie will be in charge of the follow-up of the asset classes European, SRI, sectorial and theme equities. Jean-Baptiste takes of the responsibility of the asset classes emerging equities and bonds and of high yield and corporate bonds.

“Following new recruitments in the past few years, mainly in the equities and fund distribution teams, we have also decided to strengthen our fund selection team”, says Fanny Nosetti, Head of BLI’s multi-management. “Amélie and Jean-Baptiste have gained first professional experience in other companies before joining us and they are an excellent addition to our asset management company. We are delighted to welcome them to the team!”

Amélie Morel (29) replaces Inès Buttet who left BLI. Following nearly three years auditing investment funds at Deloitte, Amélie worked as an investment analyst with a Luxembourg wealth structurer. Amelie holds a Master’s degree in Finance from Grenoble Ecole de Management and is a level 3 CFA candidate.

Jean-Baptiste Fargeau (36) has an engineering degree from Ecole Centrale de Nantes as well as a master degree in business administration from the IAE Paris. He started his career in Luxembourg in 2005 as a quantitative analyst within the management company J.Chahine Capital, and then became portfolio manager in 2007 in the same company.

FOMC Statement: A More Positive Tone

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As expected, and in keeping with the minutes from its March meeting, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) decided to keep rates on hold. Importantly, the Federal Reserve Board cited several aspects of the US economy and global conditions that leaves the door ajar for another June or July rate hike.

The Federal Reserve indicated that it would maintain the current level of the target Fed Funds rate at 0.25% to 0.50%, in line with the minutes of the March FOMC meeting.The statement focused on US growth, rather than global conditions.
The statement underscored factors underlying a strong consumer – improved labor market conditions, rising household real income, continued strength in the housing market, and strong consumer sentiment – while acknowledging slower GDP growth, moderating household spending, soft business fixed investment and net exports.
The FOMC took the important step of excluding their prior observation that appeared in the lead-in sentence that “global economic and financial development continued to pose risks,” implying that this risk has abated. Instead, they indicated that they will continue to monitor global conditions and moved this statement to the end of the second paragraph. The outlook for global growth has improved, in the wake of more supportive global central bank policy, increased fiscal stimulus in China, recovering commodity and energy prices and increased inflation.
The statement continued to take a guarded view of inflation; the FOMC eliminated the comment that inflation had “picked up in recent months”; they maintained inflation would “remain low in the near term.” We would cite the recent uptick in core CPI and core PCE as indications of increasing inflation. Apparently, the Fed hasn’t completely bought into this upward trend.
We believe the statement confirms the Fed’s assessment that the futures market still reflects too shallow a trajectory for rate increases. The Fed does not want be forced to implement sharp rate moves that could jolt markets and have a negative impact on still relatively low GDP growth.
We believe this assessment opens the door for a June or July rate increase. We do not think any increase will occur, however, without continued strong employment data, coupled with improved household spending and stabilization in the manufacturing sector.

Column by Ken Taubes of Pioneer Investments

Preqin Wins 2016 Queen’s Award for Enterprise

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Preqin has been awarded a Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the category of International Trade. The award recognizes Preqin as an outstanding UK business, citing excellence in its field and sustained growth in its overseas business. This year the awards, which are announced annually on Her Majesty the Queen’s birthday, praise 243 UK companies for leading the way in business achievement.

The Queen’s Awards for Enterprise are the UK’s highest official accolades for business success. Operating in various forms since 1966, they recognize UK businesses for outstanding achievement in one of three categories:International Trade, Innovation and Sustainable Development. Entrants come from all parts of the UK, from city-located centers of commerce to the remotest of locations, and include organizations involved in a wide range of industries and sectors.

CEO Mark O’Hare said of the award:

“It is a huge honor to be included in this year’s list of Queen’s Award winners, especially so on the occasion of Her Majesty’s 90th birthday. Over the past 13 years, Preqin has strived to deliver excellent products to our customers, becoming the leading source of data and intelligence for the global alternative assets industry. We are extremely proud and grateful to have this hard work recognized by the Queen’s Award panel. I would like to add my deepest gratitude to all of our directors, staff and partners for creating the culture of excellence, integrity, and dedication which characterizes Preqin, and without which this achievement would not be possible. Most of all, we are grateful to our many customers around the world for their longstanding support.”

EFG International to Acquire UBI’s Luxembourg Private Banking Business

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Zurich-headquartered private bank EFG International has agreed to acquire the Luxembourg based private banking activities of UBI Banca International from Unione di Banche Italiane.

UBI Banca International (Luxembourg) has around EUR 3.6 billion in assets under management.

EFG International specified that the transaction is structured as a cash acquisition of UBI Banca International (Luxembourg) S.A. and will have no material impacts on EFG International’s regulatory capital position.

The deal is expected to close during the first half of 2017, and the company will merge into EFG Bank (Luxembourg) S.A..

UBI’s branches in Madrid and Munich are not part of the transaction, as well as its fiduciary and corporate banking activities.

It forms the second move of EFG International in the M&A activity since the start of 2016 as the company is to soon acquire the Lugano based private bank BSI, after an agreement has been signed on 21 February 2016 with BSI’s sole shareholder BTG Pactual.

The EFG International annual general meeting, scheduled on 29 April 2016, shall result in a shareholder approval for the transaction. The deal is to be closed in Q4 2016 and BSI is expected to entirely merge into EFG International at end 2017.

Bank of Japan Surprises Markets with Inaction

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The Bank of Japan’s regular policy meeting ended in Tokyo on Thursday with the policy committee deciding to take no action. In the event, this was a major surprise considering that in recent weeks the consensus expectation had formed solidly behind the view that the central bank would extend its negative interest rate policy which was introduced in January, and also extend the asset purchase programme. According to Nathan Gibbs, Fund Manager at Schroder Investment Management and renowned contrarian specialized on Japanese stocks, “today’s decision seems to imply that the policy committee feels more time is needed to judge the impact of the most recent changes before extending policy further.”

Japanese inflation, which was also released today, showed a marked slowdown in progress towards the central bank’s own inflation target of 2%. Indeed, in its statement the committee implicitly extended the deadline to reach that 2% target into the latter part of 2017. “This admission that the target has become harder, without any additional policy response, led to an immediate decline of around 4% in the stockmarket from the levels seen in the morning session. At the same time there was a sharp strengthening of the yen as currency markets priced-in the effective change in expected interest rate differentials. Some of the current deflationary impact is clearly due to external forces, including the weakness in the price of oil which forms a major part of Japan’s imports. Nevertheless, financial markets had already reflected the change in expectations with the implied inflation rate in index-linked bonds declining this year from around 0.8% to 0.3%. Most surveys of individual consumers in Japan also suggest that the gradual increase in inflationary expectations which has been generated in the last three years has begun to tail-off,” says Gibbs.

In his view, inconsistency introduces uncertainty and although Governor Kuroda has successfully surprised investors with the timing of previous decisions, the direction of his policy has always been absolutely clear. As a result, most investors have been prepared to accept his assertion that he would do “whatever it takes” to raise inflationary expectations. With those inflationary expectations now in decline, “the lack of response today introduces an element of uncertainty which the financial markets may view negatively. Of course, the central bank’s policy objective is to influence the real economy, not the stockmarket, and we must wait longer to see if the current policy is indeed sufficient to maintain the positive underlying trends we have seen so far,” he concludes.

Anthony O’Driscoll gets Promoted to COO at Apex Fund Services

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Current Managing Director of Apex’s Maltese operation, Anthony O’Driscoll, has been promoted to Chief Operating Officer for the group. O’Driscoll, a member of the Certified Public Accountants of Ireland, has been with Apex for 10 years during which time he has worked at various Apex offices around the world; including Mauritius, Hong Kong, Ireland and Malta.

O’Driscoll has been instrumental in the rapid growth of the Malta office which he helped launch in 2008. Opening with just 5 employees, Apex Malta has grown exponentially now boasting a team of 70 employees servicing over 124 funds. Paulianne Nwoko current Operations Manager for Apex Malta replaces O’Driscoll as Managing Director for the office and David Butler becomes Chairman. Butler is the founder of Green Day Advisors LLP and Kinetic Partners, bringing over 20 years of industry experience with him to the role at Apex Malta.

Peter Hughes, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer said: “Anthony has been a driving force behind operational innovation for the Apex Malta office. His dedication and commitment to the success and growth of the office are evident in its rapid expansion since establishment 8 years ago. Through implementing progressive projects, such as successfully ensuring Apex Malta becomes the first paperless Apex office, Anthony has demonstrated an aptitude for operational excellence that we want the rest of the group to benefit from. I’m delighted that he can now support me in the role as COO for the group and ensure these progressive developments are implemented quickly and effectively across the rest of the Apex group.”

Anthony O’Driscoll, Chief Operating Officer said: “I am delighted to take on the role of COO for Apex. The group as a whole delivers a really distinctive service to its clients through continually evolving and adding to its product suite and delivering solutions spanning the full value chain of a fund. Understanding the day-to-day requirements of each unique asset manager, alongside the wider impact of market change on their businesses overall, is what fosters longevity in relationships and forms real trust in our ability to service and support our clients. I look forward to further developing our operating strategy on a global basis and implementing some of the procedures already successfully in place in Malta, to benefit both the other local Apex offices and in turn their clients.”

David Butler, commenting on his role as Chairman for Apex Malta, said: “I am thrilled to be joining the Apex Malta team in the position of Chairman. At this exciting time of growth for the company I will look to supporting its local development and helping reinforce Apex’s position as the leading administrator in Malta”.