FIBA’s Women’s Leadership Committee Sponsors a Toy Drive for Visually Impaired Kids

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Toy Drive. El Comité de Liderazgo de Mujeres de FIBA prepara un Toy Drive para niños ciegos

The Florida International Bankers Association’s Women’s Leadership Committee (WLC), in partnership with the Next Gen and the Community Relations Committees, will be partnering with the Miami Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired this holiday season.

As they have done in the past three years, they will be sponsoring a Toy Drive, “so we humbly ask that you help us in our mission to bring holiday joy to the children served by this organization. The holiday events from the last years were true successes, which we would not have been able to accomplish without your generous support!”

All funds collected will be used to purchase the type of toys needed to fulfill the special needs of the children. The toys will be distributed by FIBA’s Committees to the children of Miami Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired during the December 21st Holiday event. They ask that you please make your donation by December 13th to allow them enough time to buy the toys for the children in time for their holiday event distribution on Saturday, December 21st.

Babies and children are among the most rapidly growing populations experiencing vision impairments in the Miami Lighthouse rehabilitation programs.  The Miami Lighthouse has developed specialized programs for visually impaired children from birth through 13 years of age. This includes the recently launched new learning center for visually impaired children from birth through pre-kindergarten that will provide specialized early intervention and training to help “level the playing field” when these visually impaired children enter the public school system.

“Please assist us in bringing joy to the Miami Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired children this holiday season. We thank you in advance for your generous contributions. We wish you a blessed and joyful holiday season to you and your families.” Concludes the WLC.

To make a donation, follow this link.

Aberdeen Standard Investments Expects “An L Not a V Shaped” Recovery in Global Growth in 2020

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Pixabay CC0 Public Domain. Aberdeen Standard Investments prevé una recuperación del crecimiento global en forma de L “y no de V” en 2020

Tentative signs have emerged that a trough in global economic activity growth is beginning to form, although the strongest evidence is coming from soft rather than hard data at present, says Aberdeen Standard Investments in a recent publication. Their global growth forecasts support that sentiment, driven by the expectation that geopolitical uncertainty will moderate at the margin, while the significant monetary support delivered this year supports the real economy. However, they expect any recovery in global growth to look “much more like an L-shape than a V”.

The fundamental drivers of geopolitical risk are still in place, constraining business investment, and monetary policy efficacy is lower than at earlier stages of the current expansion. “Indeed, we expect the world’s two largest economies (the US and China) to actually slow further in 2020, which will lessen the scope for improvement in those economies that were much weaker in 2019″.

Although markets have priced in growth stabilisation, the asset manager doesn’t think they price in a moderate recovery in industrial output and corporate earnings. As such, it expects further gains in the price of risk assets as we roll forward into 2020.

The strategy in global markets

When it comes to global markets, ASI identifies an “upside asymmetry” for some higher carry investments. “Risk assets are rallying and diversifiers are selling off, but changes in ‘hard’ data seem too insignificant to be the catalyst yet”.

However, the direction of ‘soft’ information has been noticeably more positive as optimism is rising that US-China trade tensions will abate; monetary easing from the Federal Reserve and other central banks has been substantial; and there has been an uptick in some leading indicators.

“As investors, our perennial question is whether markets have accurately adapted to these changes or overshot economic reality”, the asset manager points out. Its “tactical asset allocation process” offers a useful way to consider this. 

Sentimiento inversorIn this respect, in August, they defined their ‘late cycle slowdown’ scenario as a world where the Global PMI was below 50, global EPS growth was somewhat negative and US core inflation was materially below target at 1.5%. “That was fairly close to the economic reality at the time and yet, under that scenario, we forecast equity returns of only a further 5% decline”.

By contrast, their ‘moderate recovery’ scenario began to reflect equity upside of 10-20%, depending on the region. This asymmetry had been widening at the same time that investors were widely considered to be bearish in mindset (AAII surveys) and positioned in quite a risk-averse way (BAML Fund Manager Survey).

“The relief rally we have seen has therefore been in line with the modest improvement in trade rhetoric, the ongoing easing in monetary policy and the apparent basing in leading indicators that catalysed an improvement in investor sentiment”.

Looking forward, ASI thinks they must assess whether asymmetry still exists or whether further momentum can only come from hard-data improvements. Their economists forecast that growth is going to trough but that the recovery may look more L-shaped than V-shaped, so, for their tactical asset allocations scenarios, their expectation is for “an environment that looks more like a ‘moderate recovery’“. This would see the global PMI rise a little further, a return to modest earnings-per-share growth (single digit) and gently rising inflation.

PMIs globales“Despite this scenario being more optimistic than a continued slowdown, the rally we have already seen leaves us forecasting only a further 5% upside in the US, Japanese and European equity markets in the near term”. If growth does improve, the asset manager sees potentially more upside in UK and EM equities (10-20%) given their more elevated risk premiums.

Importantly, ASI considers the previous asymmetry of upside-to-downside equity returns has now evaporated and, at this stage of the recovery, sees more asymmetry in their credit forecasts than for equities. In that sense, they believe spreads in high-yield and EM are still fair and their carry returns more backstopped by monetary easing. “As a result, we see these credit markets as providing better risk-adjusted returns, even though we continue to benefit from some equity exposure in particular markets”.

CERPIs Dominate Over CKDs in the Amount Placed in the Last Two Years

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Pixabay CC0 Public DomainFoto: MarcusWoeckel. MarcusWoeckel

In 2018, 20 CKDs and 18 CERPIS were issued, totaling 7,584 million dollars in committed resources. In 2019 (as of November 25), only 4 CKDs and 6 CERPIs, totaling 1,818 million dollars, have been issued, which shows a significant drop in amount and number compared to the previous year.

The average committed amount of the last 5 years (2014-2018) has been 3,697 million dollars per year, which means that in 2018 it rose slightly more than double the average and in 2019 it takes half.

Much of the explanation for the 2018 boom is because it was the year on the eve of the presidential elections held in July 2018 and that in January 2018, CERPIs were allowed to invest 90% of the resources globally leaving only 10% locally. The fall in issues of CKDs and CERPIs in 2019 is explained by the change in the government where institutional investors are being more cautious in new investments in private equity.

CKDs vs CERPIs

Of the resources committed between 2018 and 2019, the General Partners (GP) have called only 27% on average and the rest, they will receive it in the coming years.

The value of the resources committed through CKDs and CERPIs is 24,767 million dollars of which 19,176 million dollars are CKDs and 5,590 million dollars are CERPIs which means that, with only two years of having authorized global investments for CERPIs, they already represent 23% of investments in private equity that reflects AFOREs remarkable interest in diversifying globally.

The number of CKDs, between 2008-2014 it did not exceed 10, while since 2015 the issuers fluctuated between 15 (lowest number) to 38 (highest last year).

Currently, CKDs and CERPIs represent 6.0% of the resources managed by AFOREs at market value and if the committed resources that will be delivered to the GPs are considered, the percentage almost doubles to reach 11.3 %. The maximum limit that the AFORE have for investing in this asset class is 18% on average according to the limits that each SIEFORE has, which leaves room for investments in private equity to continue growing.

With the numbers observed in 2019, we must recognize that CERPIs are being an option that competes with CKDs.

Column by Arturo Hanono

Trade Finance: New Opportunities in an Old Industry

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Chuttersnap trade Unsplash
CC-BY-SA-2.0, FlickrChuttersnap. Chuttersnap

Trade finance is one of the oldest forms of credit. Historical researchers have found some clay tablets from Babylon dating back to approximately 3000 B.C., showing samples of the first letters of credit. Trade finance flourished for several millennia driven by Italian lenders who financed the expeditions to the East in search of spices and other goods. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the industry mostly disappeared, until the fifteenth century. Around that time, the Trade Finance industry reemerged, led by European banks and financial institutions. However, it was only recently that it became accessible to private and institutional investors.

Currently, the term ‘trade’ has received some negative press. Since Donald Trump became U. S. President, we have seen many trade frictions, specifically between the United States and China. Nevertheless, global trade is still of enormous proportions. The value of global trade measured through export volumes exceeded US $19 trillion in 2018, reaching a new all-time high. Annual compound growth in the last 3 years stood at 6% and trade volumes are expected to continue this growth trend. This implies a massive financing opportunity. According to the World Trade Organization (WTO), only a small part of international trade is paid in cash in advance, since importers generally prefer to pay on receipt of merchandise in order to check for damages upon arrival, and exporters wish to receive payment on dispatch.

To bridge the gap between exporters and importers, a credit or payment guarantee is required. Trade finance provides this credit, guaranteed payment, and the necessary insurance to facilitate the transaction and establish the terms to satisfy both the exporter and the importer. Unfortunately, there are no comprehensive official statistics showing the exact composition and size of the global trade finance market, but the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) found that, in its broadest definition, the market is very large, well above US $12 trillion annually, and about 1/3 of this sector finances the trade in raw materials.

More importantly, after the Great Financial Crisis, traditional lenders such as banks have begun to withdraw from trade finance activity, driven by increased regulation and compliance costs, which has caused a shortage of financing. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), especially those that are located in emerging markets, suffer the most, because they face great obstacles to access financing under affordable conditions. According to the WTO, this is especially worrying, as SMEs contribute to more than 60% of total employment in developing countries and 80% in developed ones.

Currently, there is a need for unsatisfied trade finance worth trillions of dollars, particularly in emerging markets. Meanwhile, many investors have been desperate to find attractive returns in a world where traditional fixed-income instruments, such as corporate and sovereign bonds, offer very low returns, in some cases even negative returns for investors. In fact, the market value of bonds that offer negative returns is around 12 trillion dollars.

Therefore, it’s only logical that trade finance funds have emerged in recent years, allowing investors to benefit from the industry’s attractive dynamics, and alleviating, at least partially, the financial scarcity faced by importers and exporters.

Likewise, the risk / return profile of the trade finance sector has improved significantly. New practices and conventions have evolved to reduce risk for investors. For example, trade financers take the assets described in the contract as collateral and hire local agents to inspect and check the products in detail. Similarly, contracts have been standardized, typically using the law of developed jurisdictions, thus avoiding the risk of corruption in local courts. In addition, well reputed specialists in international warehouses ensure the existence and security of guarantees. Finally, multinational insurance companies cover the risk of accidents, weather, terrorism and fraud during shipping.

As a result, the risk to investors has been significantly reduced. In fact, in the past 20 years, default rates have been approximately 0.1% per year. And, given the high recovery rates in case of default, the annual expected loss rates are around 0.01%, which is much lower than the corporate bond risk. Meanwhile, expected returns are very attractive compared to corporate bonds. Most of the foreign trade funds have annual yields of between 5% and 8% in dollars, which is attractive, given the low risk profile, low volatility, and the fact that many trade finance funds offer investors monthly or quarterly liquidity. In addition, trade finance funds provide an excellent source of diversification for portfolios, given their low correlation with traditional asset classes and their low sensitivity to the economic cycle.

 

Tribune by Pascal Rohner, CIO at Katch Investment Group  

 

Charles Schwab to Buy TD Ameritrade

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Walter Bettinger, foto cedida. Walter Bettinger

Charles Schwab, which represents almost 50% of all independent RIA custody businesses, plans to buy TD Ameritrade according to CNBC sources.

Fox Business reported that Schwab would pay 26,000 million for the company.

In theory, the combined firm will be led by Schwab CEO Walter Bettinger, and TD Ameritrade chief financial officer Steve Boyle will lead his company until the agreement is completed.

It is not clear if the acquisition would face antitrust problems since Schwab and TD Ameritrade are the two largest publicly traded brokers and an agreement would create a giant with 5 trillion dollars in combined assets.

The discount brokers sector has been under pressure recently since the ‘zero commissions’ for the negotiation of shares, ETFs and options, arrived, which has caused brokers to struggle to find ways to up their profits, decision which gave Schwab an advantage, since the commissions represented only about 4% of its revenues, while for TD Ameritrade, the commissions represented more than 10% of the revenues.

For RIAs, whose custody business is an activity that generates 40% to 50% of the operating income of most discount brokers, the acquisition would eliminate an important option among custodians. Schwab is the leading custodian for RIAs, while Fidelity and TD occupy second and third place, followed by Pershing Advisory Services and E * Trade.

Data Theft at Cayman Bank

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Cayman National Bank, together with its sister company Cayman National Trust Company, confirmed that it has experienced a data hack. Responsibility for the data theft was claimed on Sunday 17 November 2019 by the hacker or hackers known as Phineas Fisher, which is offering other hackers $100,000 to carry out politically motivated hacks. The bank reported it as soon as it was made aware and is in the process of notifying their customers of the data breach. It has also set up an email to deal with client inquiries.

“It is known that Cayman National Bank (Isle of Man) Limited was amongst a number of banks targeted and subject to the same hacking activity. A criminal investigation is ongoing and Cayman National is co-operating with the relevant law enforcement authorities to identify the perpetrators of the data theft. Cayman National takes any breach of data security very seriously and a specialist IT forensic investigation is underway, with appropriate actions being taken to ensure that the clients of Cayman National’s Isle of Man bank and trust companies are protected” the bank said in a statement.

The Isle of Man Financial Services Authority and Information Commissioner’s Office, along with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority, have been informed and are working with Cayman National in the Isle of Man.

Any customers with questions in the meantime should email dataenquiry@caymannational.im. Periodic updates will also be available at www.caymannational.im

“Cayman National, along with virtually every other international banking group, is not immune from the constant attempts by hackers to gain access to confidential data”, stated Cayman National Bank (Isle of Man) Limited’s Managing Director, Nigel Gautrey. “In this instance, and despite the best efforts of leading data security consultants, this criminal hacking group has breached our system – although to date we have detected no evidence of financial loss to either our customers or Cayman National”.

Cayman National Bank (Isle of Man) Limited is a subsidiary of Cayman National Corporation Ltd (“CNC”). CNC, and its main banking subsidiary, Cayman National Bank Ltd. (“CNB”), are located in and operate from the Cayman Islands. All of Cayman National’s operations within the Cayman Islands, including CNB, are separate and distinct operations from the bank in Isle of Man. The two banks do not share common systems, databases, client information, or email platforms. CNC is confident that the theft is contained within Cayman National Bank (Isle of Man) Limited and Cayman National Trust Company (Isle of Man) Limited only, and does not affect CNB or any other operation in the Cayman Islands.

 

Neuberger Berman Launches New Japanese Equity Team with Focus on ESG Engagement

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Pixabay CC0 Public Domain. Neuberger Berman crea un nuevo equipo de renta variable en Japón

Neuberger Berman announced its first Japan-based equities team, to be led by Keita Kubota, who joins as a Managing Director and Senior Portfolio Manager. The team will manage a “Japan Equity Engagement Strategy” seeking attractive returns through active engagement and constructive dialog with Japanese small/mid-cap companies in which the team invests. The strategy will be offered to both institutional and high-net-worth clients.

Kubota joins from Aberdeen Standard Investments, where he started his career over 13 years ago and most recently served as Deputy Head of Japan Equities. He was the investment director on Aberdeen Standard Investments’ Japan large cap strategy and small cap strategy, both of which were managed with an engagement strategy and offered to large institutional clients across Europe, Asia and Latin America.

Two analysts, one of whom will specialize in ESG investing, will support Kubota. Naoto Saito, joined Neuberger Berman in September as a Senior Research Analyst and has a generalist focus. Saito previously served in research roles and covered a broad range of companies across the Japanese equity market at Balyasny Asset Management, CLSA Securities and T. Rowe Price. With diverse experience as well as deep knowledge in ESG engagement, the team will seek to generate additional value by offering insights and knowledge sharing on ESG investing with portfolio companies.

“We look forward to the further expansion of ESG investing in Japan as companies have increased their awareness of corporate governance and other material factors. We think encouraging Japanese companies to improve their ESG factors through our active engagement can generate superior returns. Mr. Kubota and his team are bottom-up stock pickers with a focus on in-depth proprietary research,” said Ryo Ohira, Head of Neuberger Berman East Asia. “They are active, long-term investors who engage deeply and frequently with company management. Most importantly, Mr. Kubota has helped deliver long-term performance for his clients – which is our firm’s mission.”

Neuberger Berman has been in Japan for 15 years and currently manages over $53 billion in client assets locally having grown from $13 billion in 2015. For largely an institutional client base, the firm manages fixed income, alternatives and equity portfolios. Neuberger Berman is recognized in Japan as a leader in the ESG investing space, reflected in the firm winning the first ever Tokyo Financial Award for ESG Investing.

“We’re happy to welcome Mr. Kubota and team and know they are a fit our firm’s culture and core strengths. The group expands our global platform, bringing another long-term market perspective with a focus on active/ESG engagement in Japan, the third largest equity market in the world. We look forward to their capabilities helping client globally,” said Joseph Amato, President and Chief Investment Officer, Neuberger Berman.

 

J.P. Morgan Asset Management Launches its First Machine Learning Active Equity Thematic Fund

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Pixabay CC0 Public Domain. J.P. Morgan lanza un fondo sobre terapias genéticas que aprovecha el aprendizaje automático

J.P. Morgan Asset Management (JPMAM) is pleased to announce the launch of JPMorgan Funds – Thematics – Genetic Therapies in Europe, JPMAM’s first actively managed fund which combines both machine learning and active equity insights. The new fund leverages research carried out by UBS Global Wealth Management’s Chief Investment Office (UBS CIO) within its Longer Term Investments framework, and is being distributed by UBS initially.

Genetic therapies represent a once-in-a-generation breakthrough in the world of medicine. These treatments offer the hope of a cure for patients with serious inherited diseases, by modifying genetic information to address the underlying causes of disease. Today they are at an inflection point, moving from the clinic to commercial reality. This should generate high growth rates for companies operating in the space, and could prove highly disruptive for incumbent companies in the pharmaceutical industry if the technology proves to have wider applications.  JPMAM’s Genetic Therapies fund provides the opportunity to investors to gain diversified exposure to this new and exciting theme, and can help to hedge the risk of disruption to existing healthcare portfolios.

The fund will be co-managed by Yazann Romahi, Berkan Sesen and Aijaz Hussein. The portfolio management team sit within JPMAM’s Quantitative Beta Strategies (QBS) team, a team that specializes in quantitative portfolio management and are experts in developing innovative machine learning based technology solutions. Several members of the team hold PhD’s in Artificial Intelligence.

The fund has been designed to combine the strength and reach of JPMAM’s proprietary thematic engine, ThemeBot, with the portfolio management and research capabilities of JPMAM’s global equity platform. ThemeBot can efficiently identify stocks exposed to a range of investment themes including genetic therapies.

Using natural language processing, ThemeBot will screen more than 10,000 stocks globally, rapidly analysing hundreds of millions of data sources, such as news articles, company profiles, research notes and regulatory filings to identify stocks with the highest exposure to the theme and generate a high relevance portfolio, accounting for liquidity, market capitalisation and profitability. The portfolio will invest across the market capitalisation spectrum and provide diversified exposure to both innovative pioneers and established healthcare players. ThemeBot dynamically ensures only the most relevant stocks based on textual and revenue metrics are flagged for inclusion in the portfolio.

Once ThemeBot has selected the stocks it thinks are most applicable to the genetic therapies theme, the QBS team will work with experienced industry career analysts from JPMAM’s global equity platform to vet and validate ThemeBot’s output, to ensure stocks most relevant to the theme secure a spot in the portfolio. The portfolio management team will have access to five dedicated healthcare analysts with an average experience of 19 years. Additionally, the portfolio managers will be able to call upon the expertise of JPMAM’s broader equity analyst community, made up of 51 sector specialists.

Yazann Romahi, Chief Investment Officer of Quantitative Beta Strategies at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, said: “In seeking to create data driven portfolios which brings together human and artificial intelligence, we’re able to offer investors thematic solutions which enable them to tap into some of the central investment themes shaping our world today.”

Mark Haefele, Chief Investment Officer at UBS Global Wealth Management, said: “Genetic therapies could develop into a profoundly disruptive technology for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry. Positioning portfolios to capture the economic benefits of disruption, while hedging or mitigating its effects on other assets, supports our goal to help our clients protect and grow their wealth over generations.”

George Gatch, CEO, J.P. Morgan Asset Management, said: “We’re delighted to partner with UBS in developing this new fund. We’re deploying our best Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Big Data capabilities combined with our global research expertise for this investment theme. Innovating jointly with our clients is an important priority for us.”

Christian Wiesendanger, Head of Investment Platforms and Solutions at UBS Global Wealth Management, said: “Developing new solutions with our partners is critical to implementing innovative ideas in clients’ portfolios. Machine learning is an exciting new tool for those looking to be at the cutting edge of investment management and will likely play a greater role in the years ahead.”

The fund’s C share class will have a Total Expense Ratio of 56 basis points.

 

Azimut Enters the US Private Markets Industry with Azimut Alternative Capital Partners

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Pixabay CC0 Public Domain. Azimut se constituye en los Estados Unidos

Azimut, Italy’s leading independent asset manager with €58 billion in AUM, established a US based newco named Azimut Alternative Capital Partners, with the purpose of investing in GP stakes of alternative managers specialized in the private markets space, including private equity, private credit, infrastructure and real estate. At the same time, Azimut signed an investment and shareholder agreement with AACP’s new CEO, Jeffry Brown, to execute the business plan, which, among other things, aims at building the leading private markets strategic permanent capital solutions provider and business operator.

AACP was established to build a next generation, diversified, multi-affiliate investment firm by acquiring initially minority stakes in alternative asset managers and providing strategic value-added services. AACP’s focus is on the large and growing, yet underserved segment of sub $ 3bn AUM alternative asset management businesses. Alternatives industry veteran Jeff Brown has over two decades of investing, due diligence and operating management experience in the alternatives asset management industry. Jeff was previously a Managing Director at Dyal Capital Partners (one of the leading minority stake investors in the alternatives asset management businesses globally, part of Neuberger Berman), and joined in its early days of formation. He founded and for five years led Dyal’s Business Services Platform which drove value creation in the Dyal portfolio companies across three private equity funds totalling $ 9bn in AUM. Prior to Dyal, Jeff was a Senior Managing Director at Bear Stearns Asset Management (“BSAM”). During his tenure at BSAM, he was Chief Development Officer and led the strategic expansion of the firm from $ 23bn AUM to $ 55bn AUM in four years. Prior to joining BSAM, Jeff held senior roles at Morgan Stanley Asset Management.

Jeffry Brown, CEO of AACP commented: “I am delighted to join the global Azimut family and look forward to building a next-generation multi-affiliate alternatives business leveraging the Azimut brand and my combined capabilities. Azimut’s strong reputation as a committed and steadfast long-term partner give me confidence that we will achieve the business goals targeted in the plan”.

Pietro Giuliani, Chairman of Azimut Holding, commented: “We are excited to have a top-notch professional such as Jeff on board with us in this long-term initiative. We strongly believe in the opportunity of investing into alternative managers in the US with a long-term approach and commitment, very much in line with our Group DNA. We are convinced that this partnership will be successful and will allow an important step forward in the alternative sector, complementary to what we are doing in Italy with the Azimut Libera Impresa project. The alternative asset managers in which we’ll invest will have a stable and trustworthy partner at their side, helping them to achieve their goals and growth targets.”

AZ US Holding, Azimut US sub-holding company, will carry out the transaction, involving a 10-year business plan with call/put option rights aimed at partnering with alternatives asset management businesses in the sub $ 3bn AUM space, helping them achieve their greatest business potential. In the base case of all the envisaged acquisitions, Azimut anticipates an investment of capital sufficient to achieve over $ 7 bn of pro-rata AUM (in excess of ca. $ 20 billion of affiliated AUM) in the next 10 years. The business plan also entails the entrance of further key senior managers over time, who have already been identified. Azimut and the management of AACP will cooperate to grow the business in the long term.

Oppenheimer & Co. acted as advisor in the creation of Azimut Alternative Capital Partners.

 

Allfunds Strengthens its Presence in the Nordics as the Acquisition of Nordic Fund Market is Finalized

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CC-BY-SA-2.0, FlickrFoto: mariano mantel. estocolmo

Allfunds, the largest investment fund distribution network in Europe and a leading wealthtech platform, has successfully finalized the acquisition of the Nordic Fund Market (NFM), from Nasdaq. The acquisition was announced in March 2019 and has been pending regulatory approvals and customary procedures.

With this operation, Allfunds total assets under distribution (AUD) increase to more than €530 billion and further strengthens its presence in the Nordic region. The Nordic Fund Market client portfolio will boost Allfunds’ presence in the Nordics at the same time as benefiting existing NFM distributors and fund managers with added value solutions, increased efficiency and advanced technology. Current NFM distributors and fund managers will become part of Allfunds’ distribution network in the region which already compromise more than 20 entities in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Iceland and the Baltic countries.

Allfunds now has an established office in Stockholm which will provide services to the distributors and fund managers throughout the Nordic region. All employees working with NFM at Nasdaq in Stockholm were recruited, one being the former CEO of Nasdaq Broker Services Mattias Hammarqvist who is the Head of Allfunds Sweden.

“I am very excited that we, with new office will be able to leverage on the technology, services and benefits Allfunds global platform provides. It enables us to improve our offerings to current distributors and fund managers as well as to attract additional,“ said Mattias Hammarqvist, Head of Allfunds Sweden.

With the new office, distributors and fund managers are able to leverage the technology and know-how of experts in the region while accessing a cost-efficient way to distribute funds and reducing operational risk.  This agreement and access to the global platform will benefit local financial institutions who can take advantage of the global scale and specialisation within Allfunds as well as to benefit from state-of-the-art technology and increased service offering to meet challenges in the industry.

Juan Alcaraz, CEO of Allfunds, said: “We are very excited to close this acquisition that allows us to increase our presence in the Nordics by bringing our leading fund and wealthtech platform to the region while strengthening our global position. The Nordic markets deserve a trusted and global B2B partner to boost and support local financial institutions. The integration of NFM’s business and infrastructure into our company and our solutions further enhances our innovative offering, disruptive and value-added services that will now be made available to Nordic entities and help them achieve their objectives.”