Global ETF News Older than One Year
Fraud lawyers and investment professionals to launch asset recovery fund
November 5, 2009--A team of global commercial fraud lawyers and investment professionals is launching a USD150m investment fund, named Echemus, to underwrite the investigation, seizure and recovery of worldwide assets for victims of fraud.
The team is led by Martin Kenney, a renowned commercial fraud lawyer and asset recovery specialist currently engaged in unwinding billions of dollars connected to the Bernard Madoff investment scheme.
Kenney will serve as managing director of the fund and will oversee all of its investigation, collection and litigation activities.
The International Monetary Fund estimates that purportedly fraudulent, "black transactions" account for five to ten per cent of the world’s gross domestic product each year, and data from the International Chamber of Commerce shows more than USD1bn in high-value commercial fraud is reported every month worldwide.
Source: ETF Express
SIFMA Research Quarterly for Third Quarter 2009 Now Available
November 5, 2009—The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) today released its third quarter 2009 Research Quarterly. The SIFMA Research Quarterly provides market participants and observers research and statistics on key areas of the capital markets.
Areas of the capital markets that are featured in the report include:
Municipal Bond Market;
Treasury Market;
Federal Agency Debt Market;
Funding and Money Market Instruments
Mortgage-Related Securities;
Asset-Backed Securities and CDO Market;
Corporate Bond Market;
Equity and Other Markets; and
Leveraged Loans.
http://www.sifma.org/research/pdf/ResearchQuarterly-2009Q3.pdf
Source: SIFMA
Old Mutual restructuring still under review
November 5, 2009--Julian Roberts, chief executive of Old Mutual, hopes to reveal the future structure of the life assurance and banking group around the time of its 2009 results in March next year.
Analysts and investors have long expected a break-up of the group’s diverse businesses and there has been renewed speculation that Nedbank, the South African bank, is likely to be sold.
Source: FT.com
Banks face change to loan losses rule
November 5, 2009--Banks outside the US would have to report expected losses on their lending much earlier, under proposals published on Thursday by the international accounting rulemaker.
The plans represent a virtual U-turn from the current system for banks. They would allow banks to provide for expected losses over the duration of a loan, rather than, as now, waiting until the losses have occurred – a practice criticised for exacerbating the crisis by increasing the cyclicality of bank accounting.
Source: FT.com
US, EU start 'clean energy economy' talks
November 4, 2009--The United States and the European Union opened high-level talks Wednesday aimed at boosting chances of switching "to a clean, sustainable energy economy," US Energy Secretary Steven Chu said.
Cabinet ministers from both sides, in Washington for the first meeting of the US-EU Energy Council, discussed tackling energy security and markets, energy policies and regulation, energy technologies and research cooperation.
Participants said their talks will promote technological efforts to cut sharply the carbon emissions blamed for climate change as a UN-backed climate summit in Copenhagen prepares to meet next month and set new emissions targets.
Source: EU Business
US asks WTO to rule on China raw materials restrictions
November 4, 2009--The United States, joined by the EU and Mexico, asked the World Trade Organization Wednesday to rule on a dispute over Chinese restrictions on raw materials exports, officials said.
The move seeks a formal WTO panel on a complaint filed June 23 alleging China improperly restricts exports to materials to help its own manufacturers.
"We are going to the WTO today to enforce America's rights, so we can provide our country's manufacturers with a fair competitive environment," said Debbie Mesloh, a spokeswoman for the office of the US Trade Representative (USTR).
Source: EU Business
Standard & Poor’s decides 2010 weights for S&P GSCI
November 4, 2009--Standard & Poor’s has published the composition and weights for the 2010 S&P GSCI.
The S&P GSCI is a world production-weighted commodity index which, in 2010, will be composed of 24 liquid, exchange-traded futures contracts.
The S&P GSCI includes energy, industrial metals, precious metals, agricultural and livestock products.
The weights become effective with the January roll period.
Source: ETF Express
Hedge Funds Face Investor War on Fees
November 4, 2009--Institutional investors are going to gang up on "arrogant" hedge funds, a pension fund chairman warned, as investors increasingly press for changes that would link lucrative fees more closely to genuine outperformance.
A key complaint of investors has been that while many of them lost money during the financial crisis, hedge fund managers were still able to rake in millions of dollars in fees. Last year, average hedge fund returns were a minus 19 percent.
"If they want money from us they will have to offer ... alignment of interests. If hedge funds remain arrogant and not humble, I think money will go elsewhere," Philip Read, chairman of the British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme, said on Tuesday.
Source: Reuters
RiskMetrics confirms KLD buy-out
Combined firm is biggest global ESG research house.
November 4, 2009--RiskMetrics Group, the New York-listed US risk management and corporate governance group, has confirmed a $10m acquisition of Boston-based KLD Research & Analytics, the ESG research house. The planned buyout was first reported in Responsible-Investor.com on October 13. The
The companies have not disclosed whether the deal will have any impact on staffing. RiskMetrics said the combination of the two firms would deliver increased ESG coverage, including more robust data, expert insights, and user-friendly tools.
Knut Kjaer, president of RiskMetrics Group, said: “Our clients have indicated that ESG performance is a critical benchmark of a corporation’s risks and long-term value. KLD’s ESG capabilities, combined with our financial risk and corporate governance experience, will give investors worldwide a more thorough picture of sustainability and risk across geographic and industry boundaries.” The KLD acquisition is RiskMetrics’ second major buyout this year in the ESG (environmental, social and governance) space after it bought Innovest, the SRI research house in February.
Source: Responsible Investor
Investors and stock exchanges discuss ESG listings ‘comply or explain’ at UN headquarters
UNCTAD backs PRI calls for ESG exchange disclosure.
November 4, 2009--UN Secretary General Ban-ki Moon, this week kicked off a high-level meeting at the UN headquarters in New York between major institutional investors including the Norwegian Global Pension Fund and France’s national pensions reserve fund (FRR) and global stock exchange executives in New York to look at ways of tightening up environmental, social and governance criteria for company listings.
Among discussion topics at the UNPRI-organised event, was the introduction of a ‘comply or explain’ requirement for companies to put an annual sustainability report to a shareholder vote at their annual general meetings.
Some countries already oblige companies to include a description of their corporate responsibility activities and practices in their Annual Reports or, if there are none, a make statement to this effect.
Speakers at the UN event included Serge Harry, executive vice president and deputy head of strategy at NYSE Euronext, Paul Abberley, chief executive at Aviva Investors and Peter Clifford of the World Federation of Stock Exchanges.
Abberley said he hoped the event would be “catalytic” in promoting more sustainable business behaviour. Aviva called last year for a debate on how listing authorities could promote corporate transparency.
Source: Responsible Investor
