Global ETF News Older than One Year
WisdomTree Announces Plans for Japan Office and Hires Market Veteran Jesper Koll
July 1, 2015--WisdomTree Investments, Inc. (NASDAQ:WETF), an exchange-traded fund ("ETF") and exchange-traded product ("ETP") sponsor and asset manager, today announced the planned opening of a new office in Tokyo and the appointment of Jesper Koll as Chief Executive Officer of WisdomTree subsidiary WisdomTree Japan K.K.,
to lead the development of WisdomTree's business in Japan.
Source: WisdomTree
REFILE-Flow Traders says seeking to raise at least 472 mln euros from IPO
June 30, 2015--Flow Traders, a Dutch high frequency trading firm, said on Tuesday it was seeking to raise between 472 million euros and 603 million euros ($530 million to $675 million) in its initial public offering, excluding an overallotment option.
It set an indicative price range of 29 euros to 37 euros per share for its initial public offering in which its owners are selling 40 percent of the company.
Source: Reuters
Banks and exchanges turn to blockchain
Wall St lured by efficiency promise of the technology behind bitcoin
June 30, 2015--The blockchain-the technology that underpins bitcoin-has been called "the future for financial services infrastructure".
Now banks, clearing houses and exchanges are becoming increasingly excited at the prospect of blockchain fundamentally transforming their business models.
Source: FT.com
IMF Survey-Strong and Equitable Growth: Fiscal Policy Can Make a Difference
June 30, 2015--Fiscal policies can help boost countries' long-term growth prospects
Complementary structural reforms magnify growth dividends
Social dialogue and attention to equity key to building public support for reform
Amid a recovery from the financial crisis that continues to disappoint and growing fear that the global economy is entering a prolonged period of mediocre growth, a new IMF study says that fiscal policy can actually lift potential growth.
view the policy paper-Fiscal policy and long-term growth
Source: IMF
IMF Working paper-Systemic Risk: New Trade-off for Monetary Policy?
June 30, 2015--Summary: We introduce time-varying systemic risk in an otherwise standard New-Keynesian model to study whether a simple leaning-against-the-wind policy can reduce systemic risk and improve welfare. We find that an unexpected increase in policy rates reduces output, inflation, and asset prices without fundamentally mitigating financial risks.
We also find that while a systematic monetary policy reaction can improve welfare, it is too simplistic: (1) it is highly sensitive to parameters of the model and (2) is detrimental in the presence of falling asset prices. Macroprudential policy, similar to a countercyclical capital requirement, is more robust and leads to higher welfare gains.
view the IMF Working paper-Systemic Risk: New Trade-off for Monetary Policy?
Source: IMF
IMF Working paper-How Does Post-Crisis Bank Capital Adequacy Affect Firm Investment?
June 30, 2015--Summary: We examine the effect of bank capital levels on firm investment drawing on a sample of 11,106 non-financial firms from 2007 to 2013 in 16 advanced economies. We examine two measures of bank capital adequacy, the Tier 1 ratio and a simple leverage ratio, and find that firms with larger external financial needs invest relatively more when domestic financial systems have relatively high leverage ratios.
This pattern is more pronounced for those firms that have sound fundamentals, suggesting that bank balance sheets and their willingness to extend credit can be an important factor in determining aggregate investment and growth outcomes. The empirical findings are robust to a range of specifications. Bank Tier 1 capital ratio does not appear to have a significant effect on corporate investment, possibly because a higher Tier 1 ratio also captures a high share of assets with low risk weights.
view the IMF Working paper-How Does Post-Crisis Bank Capital Adequacy Affect Firm Investment?
Source: IMF
Flow Traders seeks 1.7bn euro valuation from upcoming IPO
June 30, 2015--Flow Traders, the Netherlands-based proprietary trading company, has set a target of up to €1.7bn from its Amsterdam flotation as investors show signs of warming to high-frequency trading.
Source: FT.com
WEF-Finance Sector Heading for Uber-Moment
June 30, 2015--Some of the world's largest finance-sector companies are reviewing their business models following the rapid growth of financial technology ("fintech") entrants in the sector.
This is the main finding of a World Economic Forum report entitled The Future of Financial Services: How Disruptive Innovations Are Reshaping the Way Financial Services Are Structured, Provisioned and Consumed, which is being released today.
The Forum's report draws on more than 100 interviews with industry experts and a series of workshops where executives from global financial institutions such as UBS, HSBC, Deutsche Bank, Barclays, Visa and MasterCard met with leading global fintech innovators like Zopa, Funding Circle, Transferwise and Ripple to discuss the future of their industry.
Source: WEF (World Economic Forum)
China Construction Bank and Euroclear sign MoU to foster offshore RMB growth
June 30, 2015--Euroclear Bank, the Brussels-based international central securities depository (ICSD), and China Construction Bank (CCB), whom has a market capitalization of US$ 251.4
billion, ranking it third among listed banks in the world have just signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to further develop the offshore Renminbi (RMB) capital market.
Source: Leaprate.com
Greece Misses $1.7 Billion IMF Payment, Joining Zimbabwe's Ranks
June 30, 2015--Greece became the first advanced economy to miss a payment on IMF debt, joining the historical ranks of delinquents from Cuba to Zimbabwe after the Mediterranean nation's bailout talks with creditors collapsed.
The International Monetary Fund's board has been informed that Greece is now in arrears, spokesman Gerry Rice said in a statement, after a 6 p.m. Washington deadline Tuesday for Greece's $1.7 billion payment, coinciding with the expiration of the nation’s European bailout.
Source: Bloomberg
