From the press release desk this week…
People moves
Neuberger Berman has appointed Alan Isenberg as global head of product strategy and marketing. Although his responsibilities are global, he will be based initially in the firm’s Hong Kong office, the firm said in a statement. Before joining Neuberger Berman, Isenberg was previously Pimco’s head of strategy and business management for Asia-Pacific…
Pimco has appointed Gavin Power as Newport Beach-based executive vice president and chief for international affairs and sustainable development, as the firm aims to grow its ESG platform. Before Pimco, Power was the deputy executive director of the United Nations Global Compact, the platform used to advance sustainability efforts and responsible investment…
Australia-based Westpac has appointed Michael Correa as general manager for Asia-Pacific. Correa, who is currently the bank’s Sydney-based head of corporate and institutional distribution and origination for financial markets, will be moving to Singapore. In his new role, he will be responsible for overseeing all of Westpac’s business operations in Asia, as well as client, partner and regulator relationships…
Enforcement
Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has reprimanded and fined UBS Securities HK$4.5m ($570,000) for failing to put in place effective controls to record transactions and client consents in relation to its facilitation trading activities. In an investigation, the SFC found that UBS Securities was only able to locate client consent records for about half of the client facilitation trades it conducted between June 2015 and June 2016. Just recently, the regulator imposed a $15.2m fine and a suspension of UBS Securities Hong Kong’s ability to act as a sponsor for Hong Kong IPOs for 18 months…
Black Cell Technology has halted its initial coin offering (ICO) to the Hong Kong public and agreed to unwind ICO transactions for Hong Kong investors by returning them the relevant tokens. The move follows regulatory action by the SFC over concerns that Black Cell had engaged in potential unauthorised promotional activities and unlicensed regulated activities…
Products
Prestige Fund, which specialises in direct lending strategies in the UK, saw its Luxembourg-domiciled direct lending fund, Commercial Finance Opportunities, has passed $100m in AUM. The fund operates with an investment portfolio of around 200 underlying loans to 200 underlying loan customers and targets annual net returns of between 6%-7% with annual volatility of around 1%…
Of the alternative asset classes, private equity is what Asian institutions view as most promising, according to a survey conducted by BNY Mellon. Around 27% of the participants surveyed said private equity is likely to receive the highest allocations in the next 23 months, with private debt (23.5%) and real estate (23%) forming the top three investment allocations choices within the region…
Assets in bank wealth management products in China grew by only 1.5% for the whole of 2017, much lower than the 23.4% growth in 2016 and the 56.7% growth in 2015, according to a Cerulli Associates report. The size of interbank WMPs shrank by nearly half due to regulatory curbs. Some small- and mid-sized banks, which usually offer higher returns to attract retail customers, saw their own returns fall before their increasing costs. In a separate study, an Oliver Wyman report expects that Chinese investors will shift away from WMPs to fund products in the next five years…
