Global ETF News Older than One Year
China's Yuan Joins Top 5 Most-Used Global Currencies
January 27, 2015--China's yuan has become one of the five most widely used currencies in global payments, an international financial transactions agency announced Wednesday.
The yuan passed the Canadian and Australian dollars in popularity in December, according to the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, which provides communications between financial institutions and companies.
Source: ABC News
ETF Securities Research-Precious Metals Weekly-The ECB Adds Additional Support to Precious Metals
January 26, 2015--The ECB's firm commitment may be more beneficial for the cyclical PMs. Most assets, including precious metals (PMs), were supported by last weeks' quantitative easing (QE) announcement by the ECB.
The greater-than-expected QE size and open-ended determination from the ECB, until inflation is firmly in place, helped to boost asset prices.
Precious metals received another layer of underlying support via lower real yields and in a growing number of countries, negative real yields. Silver was again the best performer, gaining 2.7% on the week and remains the best performing precious metal year-to-date and the best performer among all major commodities so far in 2015.view more
Source: ETF Securities Research
Seeing Global Opportunity, S&P Dow Jones Indices Sets Aggressive Expansion of its Fixed Income Business
Index Provider Announces Launch of Flagship S&P U.S. Aggregate Bond Index
January 26, 2015--Anticipating flourishing, global demand for fixed income indices for use in both passive investment strategies and as benchmarks for actively managed portfolios, S&P Dow Jones Indices ("S&P DJI") announced today an aggressive plan to exponentially grow its fixed income index business throughout the world-bringing greater transparency, integrity, breadth, and flexibility to the fixed income markets.
In total, the new S&P Aggregate(TM) Bond Index Family will cover over 20,000 individual securities with the ultimate goal of launching thousands of maturity and sector based indices. S&P DJI already publishes over 500 fixed income indices globally covering municipals, preferreds, corporates, CDS, and senior loans amongst others, and is the third largest provider of fixed income indices for the global ETF market.
Source: S&P Dow Jones Indices
Exchange traded fund assets will double to $5tn by 2020
January 25, 2015-Exchange traded fund assets will double to $5tn by 2020, according to a detailed study by PwC, far outstripping the asset growth of traditional fund managers, which have come under increasing pressure to prove their worth.
The consultancy calls the growth a "game changer" for the asset management industry.
Source: FT.com
PwC-Exchange traded funds (ETFs): Understanding the future opportunities and challenges
January 24, 2015--Executive summary-PwC ETF 2020
The proliferation of ETFs was identified in our AM 2020 publication as one of the six game changers in the asset management (AM) industry. ETFs are no longer a niche product, and their impact will continue to be felt much more widely than imagined.
As such, all financial services firms should consider developing an ETF strategy. This may be an obvious choice for firms planning to manage, service, or distribute ETFs, but it is also important for firms that will be competing in an environment that is increasingly shaped by ETFs.
In 2013, PwC explored the rise of ETFs in depth in 'The next generation of ETFs'. Based on the history of ETFs and a close examination of recent developments, this paper identified key trends, highlighted potential obstacles to growth and articulated how industry players might formulate coherent strategies to deal with ETFs. Since then, we have gone on to survey asset managers, service providers and other industry participants around the world in an effort to better understand regional developments in ETFs and use their expertise as a sounding board for our own perspectives. This report leverages the results of our global survey and our insights to paint a picture of how the ETF business is likely to evolve globally over the next six years.
view the PwC report-ETF 2020 Preparing for a new horizon
Source: PwC
DECPG Global Weekly-January 23, 2015
January 23, 2015--ECB unveiled €1.1 trillion asset-purchase program. The European Central Bank announced it will inject about €1.1 trillion ($1.3 trillion) into financial markets through an asset-purchase program in a bid to counter weaker than expected "inflation dynamics".
Beginning March this year, the ECB will buy a total of ECB unveiled €1.1 trillion asset-purchase program. The European Central Bank announced it will inject about €1.1 trillion ($1.3 trillion) into financial markets through an asset-purchase program in a bid to counter weaker than expected "inflation dynamics".60 billion ($69 billion) a month of public and private sector securities until end-September 2016. These purchases may continue beyond September 2016 unless thereare clear signs of "a sustained adjustment in the path of inflation" towards ECB's target of close to 2 percent. Following the announcement, European stocks rallied, while the euro weakened to an 11-year low against the dollar.
Source: World Bank
Second progress report on banks' adoption of risk data aggregation principles issued by the Basel Committee
January 23, 2015--The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision today issued a second progress report on banks' adoption of the Committee's Principles for effective risk data aggregation and risk reporting.
Published in 2013, the Principles aim to strengthen risk data aggregation and risk reporting at banks to improve their risk management practices and decision-making processes. Firms designated as global systemically important banks (G-SIBs) are required to implement the Principles in full by 2016.
view the Progress in adopting the principles for effective risk data aggregation and risk reporting
Source: BIS
Leveraged ETF investors caught short by Swiss franc surge
January 22, 2015--ETF Securities labels SNB's decision to scrap the franc's peg to the euro as 'drastic and unprecedented' after it is forced to
delist an exchange-traded currency
Source: Financial News
Industrial Internet of Things: Unleashing the Potential of Connected Products and Services
January 22, 2015--Report assesses the business and socio-economic opportunities and risks expected in latest wave of technological change
The Industrial Internet of Things to redraw industry boundaries and create a new wave of disruptive companies
Vast majority of organizations still do not understand the full impact on their business and industries
The World Economic Forum today launched the Industrial Internet of Things: Unleashing the Potential of Connected Products and Services. The report demonstrates that the industrial internet of things will dramatically change manufacturing, energy, agriculture and other industrial sectors of the economy that, together, make up two-thirds of the global gross domestic product (GDP). view more
Source: WEF (World Economic Forum)
IMF-Middle East and Central Asia region-January 2015 Update
January 21, 2015--A large and possibly persistent decline in oil prices, and slower-than-projected growth in the euro area, China, Japan, and Russia, have substantially altered the economic context for countries in the Middle East and Central Asia.
The appropriate policy response will depend on whether a country is an oil exporter or importer. A common theme, however, is that these developments present both an opportunity and an impetus to reform energy subsidies and step up structural reform efforts to support jobs and growth.
Lower oil prices have weakened the external and fiscal balances of oil exporters, including members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Large buffers and available financing should allow most oil exporters to avoid sharp cuts in government spending, limiting the impact on near-term growth and financial stability. Oil exporters should prudently treat the oil price decline as largely permanent and adjust their medium-term fiscal consolidation plans so as to prevent major erosion of their buffers and to ensure intergenerational equity.
view the IMF Middle East and Central Asia region-January 2015 Update
Source: IMF
