Displaying items for 2018

Despite 30 months lapsing since the referendum, the status of Brexit is constantly shifting and interchangeable, making it very challenging for UK asset managers to implement contingency plans ahead of March 2019. A growing number of domestic managers – conscious of the complete breakdown in political consensus inside the UK – are resigned to the fact that either a no deal or bad deal is pending, prompting some firms to increase their substance onshore within the EU, in order to keep AIFMD and UCITS passporting rights. Efforts by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) – through its Temporary Permissions Regime (TPR) to…

When the Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SMCR) was first made public by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), market participants were shocked at the regulator’s proposals to reverse the burden of proof, in effect presuming senior managers at financial institutions would be guilty until proven innocent in the event of wrongdoing. Admittedly, this contentious element of SMCR is no longer in the rules, but the requirements do pose some challenges, which NCI members should be alert to. NCI held a seminar on SMCR led by Dechert in London on November 8, 2018, which was attended by a number of…

At the point at which the Capital Markets Union (CMU) was formally announced, there was an outpouring of support from financial services, a sector which until then had faced a barrage of regulations and added costs. CMU was welcomed by financial institutions and industry bodies representing them because its end goals stood to benefit the entire European financial ecosystem and the real economy - if implemented correctly. Almost three years after its launch, there are some very serious questions about what – if anything CMU – has actually achieved. Jaws recently dropped at an Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry (ALFI)…

The temptation to invest in digital assets such as cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings (not to be misconstrued with Blockchain, which is the technology that supports trading in those very same digital assets) is a growing one for some asset managers whose revenues from traditional equities and fixed income are becoming increasingly depleted. While some asset managers see crypto-investing as a tool to attract interest from younger clients, an investor pool which many providers have found difficult to onboard, others see it as a purely speculative tool with little or no value.   The volatile returns available through digital assets are…

A country once assumed to be impenetrable for investing and fundraising, China is now turning course. The last five years have seen a number of positive reforms being implemented making it easier for foreign institutions to invest into China’s sizeable equity and bond market through initiatives such as the Hong Kong-Shanghai/Shenzhen Stock Connect, China Interbank Bond Market (CIBM) Direct and Bond Connect, all of which have helped result in the country’s A Shares being added to the MSCI EM Index. That the market has been so under-tapped by foreign institutions presents an excellent opportunity for fund managers looking to generate returns…