The global financial services industry during 2011 faces active rulemaking and a myriad of changes in derivatives regulations from the United States and European Union. For financial firms operating in the Asia-Pacific region, the effects of these proposed regulatory changes on derivatives markets are particularly unclear.

This article touches on some of the most-pressing concerns around new derivatives regulation for APAC-based firms and Northern Trust’s view of how some of these issues, such as clearing, reporting and margins, may develop.

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The Alaska Permanent Fund has made allocations to three alternative investment programs and begun a new push into timber and diversified inflation funds hiring Callan to conduct searches.

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The Ann Kaplan professor of business, finance and economics at Columbia University, Andrew Ang, who also consults to the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund, describes the shortcomings of research on asset allocation and illiquid assets, and how to overcome behavioural biases. (more…)

As Sudan divides into north and south, CalPERS and other UN PRI funds are divesting shares in public companies in that country, while at the same time warning on the fragile peace and the precarious economy. (more…)

CalSTRS is in contract negotiation with a hedge fund consultant, with a view to hiring global macro hedge funds as part of its innovation portfolio, and the next tasks will be reviewing commodities and non-traditional benchmarks, as the innovation and risk unit comes of age.
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Competition and debt concerns have scuttled an ambitious proposal by a consortium of nine Canadian banks and pension funds to acquire the country’s biggest stock exchange. (more…)