FROM THE PRESS RELEASE DESK THIS WEEK…
People moves
First State Investments has made several appointments for its global operations following its acquisition by Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation. Among them is Hong Kong-based Rob Scott, who has been named as chief operating officer. Before First State, he was head of global operations at Nikko Asset Management. The other appointments are Justin Hourigan, who has been named as global head of data; Lorraine Dryland, chief information security officer; Ben Marks, chief audit officer; and Adrian Hilderly, head of FSI Ireland…
JP Morgan Asset Management has appointed Myles Bradshaw as managing director and head of global aggregate fixed income strategies within the firm’s global fixed income currencies and commodities group (GFICC). Bradshaw replaces Iain Stealey, who has been promoted to international chief investment officer for the GFICC group, which manages around $591bn in assets. Bradshaw will also be added as a named portfolio manager, in addition to existing portfolio managers, for a number of funds domiciled in Hong Kong, Australia and Luxembourg. Before JP Morgan AM, Bradshaw was Amundi’s head of the global aggregate fixed income team. Before that, he was at Pimco, where he led the firm’s Eurozone sovereign and macro strategy…
The Bank of International Settlements (BIS) has appointed Benoît Cœuré as head of the new BIS innovation hub, which was set up to foster international collaboration among central banks on innovative financial technology. The hub will operate in three locations. Centres have been established in Switzerland and Hong Kong, and a third will be launched in Singapore. The hub’s mandate is to identify and develop in-depth insight into critical trends in technology affecting central banking, develop public goods in the technology space geared toward improving the functioning of the global financial system and serve as a focal point for a network of central bank experts on innovation…
Business moves
Kuala Lumpur-based Aiiman Asset Management, the Shariah-compliant fund management wholly-owned subsidiary of Affin Hwang Asset Management, has launched a Shariah-compliant global equity fund. The Aiiman Global Equity Fund will invest in quality stocks and will only include 40-50 names in the portfolios. Although the firm was founded in 2008, this is the second retail mutual fund that the firm has launched, after it decided to tap Malaysia’s retail market with the launch of its maiden fund in February…
Singapore-based robo-advisor Kristal AI’s customer base continues to grow, according to a spokesman for the firm. The number of subscribers grew to 6,000 from 5,000 in the middle of this year, while AUM rose to $90m from $80m during the same period. Separately, the firm announced that it added new ETFs on its platform this month, which include the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF, the Blackrock 20 Year Treasury Bond ETF, the Invesco AT1 Capital Bond Ucits ETF (AT1), the Blackrock Treasury Bond 0-1yr Ucits ETF and the Invesco DB Commodity Index Tracking Fund…
Hedge funds
The global hedge fund industry saw an average return of 0.55% in October, bringing year-to-date industry returns to 7.09%, according to an Evestment report. This year, around 83% of hedge funds globally produced positive returns, with average gains among positive performers of 11.25% for the year. Performance is also positive across all strategies, led by long/short equity and event-driven – activist strategies…
Enforcement
Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has banned Ma Sin Chi, a former responsible officer at Deutsche Securities Asia, from re-entering the industry for life. In February last year, the Court of First Instance convicted Ma of accepting bribes of around $6.4m ($820,000) from his client as rewards for providing information and assistance to the client and the client’s family in their trading of Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft-issued derivative warrants with Deutsche Securities being the liquidity provider. Ma was sentenced to 45 months of imprisonment and was ordered to pay HK$6.39m to Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft…
The Monetary Authority of Singapore has imposed a civil penalty of S$11.2m ($8.23m) on UBS for deceptive trades by the bank’s client advisors, according to a statement from the regulator. According to the MAS, UBS’ client advisors had engaged in acts that deceived or were likely to deceive clients about the spreads or interbank prices for transactions in over-the-counter bonds and structured products. UBS had admitted liability for its client advisors’ actions and has paid the regulator the civil penalty. As part of the civil penalty settlement, UBS will compensate all affected clients managed by UBS’ Singapore branch…
