International funds

NEW YORK -- In the aftermath of the global recession, regulators from developed nations are working with financial industry leaders to build a new foundation for a more balanced global economy less susceptible to worldwide crises.

ProShares has launched four new exchange-traded funds that seek to provide 200% of the daily return of their respective indexes.

Fidelity Investments has hired William J. Henderson as chief executive officer of Fidelity Clearing Canada., reporting to National Financial President Sanjiv Mirchandani.

The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission said Monday it is seeking court orders to issue a trading ban against New York-based Tiger Asia hedge fund over alleged insider trading and market manipulation.

Former President Bill Clinton now says he had an inadvertent role in the credit crisis and the SEC’s civil fraud case against Goldman Sachs by signing the Commodity Futures Modernization Act in 2000, exempting the $58 trillion credit default swap industry from meaningful regulation.

The U.K.’s Financial Services Authority is finally cracking down on how prime brokers protect client assets.

As the global market crawls out of the recession, the rapid proliferation of narrowly focused exchange-traded funds, which slowed as markets crumbled in the past two years, is beginning to gain momentum again.

Pending hedge fund regulations in the European Union are “protectionist [and] discriminate against U.S. firms and activities,” Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

HSBC Global Asset Management is planning a UCITS III European absolute-return fund, the HSBC GIF European Alpha Equity Fund, scheduled to debut next month. The fund will use both quantitative and qualitative factors in a market-neutral strategy to invest in stocks, equity swaps and short positions in developed European nations.

Hedge funds in Europe have begun embracing the UCITS III structure to sell their portfolios to a wider base of retail investors and rebuild trust, but shareholder interest groups warn this may be a vast mistake. Transparency of complex structures still does not make an investor well-informed or an investment suitable, they argue.

HSBC has launched the World Selection Funds, sub-advised funds managed by a wide range of respected investment mangers and that employ tactical asset management to invest in multiple asset classes, including domestic and international equity, bonds, commodities, property and private equity.

T. Rowe Price is looking to buy a stake worth $1 billion or more in China Asset Management, according to reports.

Proposed new hedge fund rules in Europe would limit access to the market for fund managers and custodian banks outside the EU, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has argued. Nonetheless, the European Commission is pressing ahead with the new rules.

Advent Software has acquired Norwegian software provider Goya AS. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Through this acquisition, Advent now offers the product Tradex, which is complementary to Advent’s existing products and is already implemented at a significant number of Advent clients in Europe and the Middle East.

American Beacon Advisors has launched the American Beacon Global Real Estate Fund, which aims to deliver high total return through a combination of current income and capital appreciation and which will be sub-advised by CB Richard Ellis Global Real Estate Securities.

ProShares is planning to offer four international sector and three U.S. regional banking exchange-traded funds, which will bring its stable of ETF offerings to 99.

If the U.S. mutual fund industry would like a clearer picture of what would happen to sales if fees—particularly up-front, sales load, 12b-1 or 401(k) fees—were disclosed, it need only take a look at the disastrous results in India.

The International Organization of Securities Commissions, of which the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.K. Financial Services Authority are members, starting in September will ask hedge funds to provide high-level, bi-annual snapshots of: their stock and bond holdings, geographic and underlying currency exposure, leverage levels, sales and redemptions, investor classifications, primary marketing channels, recent performance, and operations and technology details, including turnover, clearing mechanisms and risk measures.

Investment managers around the world are cautiously optimistic about stocks in the coming year but more guarded about bonds, Towers Watson found in a survey of 98 managers with $13.3 trillion of assets under management. They foresee economic growth, albeit modestly.

Affiliated Managers Group has reached an agreement with Russell Investments to acquire Russell subsidiary Pantheon Ventures for $775 million, with the potential for additional payments over the next five years, contingent on Pantheon’s growth.