By MJaundoo1 . Sabadell United Bank appoints two new employers for their local network
Sabadell United Bank today announced that Louis-Albert H. Jolivert has been named a senior vice president at the bank’s headquarters at 1111 Brickell Ave. In this position, he will be responsible for working with professionals and entrepreneurs in order to help them meet their financial goals. Prior to joining Sabadell United Bank, Jolivert served as senior director of BNY Mellon Wealth Managementat BNY Mellon Financial Corporation and was also a vice president at JPMorgan Private Bank in Miami.
Jolivert holds a number of volunteer leadership positions throughout the Greater Miami community. He currently serves as the treasurer of the Miami Finance Forum and is the immediate past chairman of the board of trustees at The Miami Foundation. He is also a member of the Miami-Dade Cultural Affairs Council and the Knight Foundation’s Community Advisory Committee.
Sabadell United Bank also announced that Patrick Morris has been appointed vice president, professional banker. He will work out of the bank’s Dadeland Banking Center and is responsible for serving business professionals in meeting their financial goals. Prior to joining Sabadell United Bank, Morris served as the vice president and chief development officer at the YMCA of Greater Miami. Before this, he was the co-founder, president and CEO of Hands on Miami, a broad-based community outreach program.
Sabadell United Bank, headquartered in Miami, Florida, is a locally-managed, nationally-chartered banking institution. The bank has 23 locations throughout the state, serving more than 40,000 clients, and is the fifth largest bank in Florida by deposits. Bauer Financial Reports recognized the financial strength of the bank by awarding it a five-star rating, the highest available. Sabadell United Bank is recognized as the trusted financial advisor for professionals and businesses as well as domestic and international high-net-worth individuals.
One Thousand & One Voices (1K1V), a movement of influential families investing relational, intellectual and patient financial capital to profitably accelerate prosperity in developing markets, today announced its formation. The announcement is being made in Cape Town in conjunction with the World Economic Forum on Africa.
Influential families conceived of 1K1V to help increase economic opportunity for families in developing markets. Each family’s capital is three-dimensional: relational capital leverages member family connections and reputation, intellectual capital leverages their business and industry knowledge, and patient financial capital provides the funding that developing-market businesses need to grow.
“One Thousand & One Voices was established with the belief that the pathway to economic freedom — real prosperity for millions living in poverty — is through values-based private investment grounded in the time-tested principles of free enterprise,” said Dr. John Coors, chief executive officer of technical ceramics company CoorsTek and one of the movement’s initial family members.
1K1V’s model was designed to provide financial capital that is sufficiently patient to accelerate prosperity in developing markets, addressing a major shortcoming of traditional private equity and many impact investment funds operating today. 1K1V does not impose arbitrary limits on the duration of its investments, making it possible to provide capital that is as patient as may be required, which reduces the risk of impaired returns due to forced exits.
1K1V intends to deploy $300 million in sub-Saharan Africa and similar or larger amounts in other geographies. Although 1KIV’s initial focus is sub-Saharan Africa – a region now experiencing robust economic growth but one that carries a substantial legacy of poverty, inefficiency, and undercapitalization – the movement is expected thereafter to focus on Latin America, Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe. 1K1V expects to use leading edge, proprietary tools to predict, measure and report impact.
“This movement emphasizes that a larger private-sector role in developing markets will profitably accelerate prosperity, and I strongly believe that One Thousand & One Voices’ three-dimensional capital model positions it for long-term success where other initiatives have fallen short,” said Hendrik Jordaan, president and chief executive officer of 1K1V. “I believe that One Thousand & One Voices fundamentally re-defines how private equity and leading families can drive prosperity in developing markets.”
“Capitalism and business done well – not socialism or philanthropy – is the only proven path for economic development to lift multitudes from poverty,” said Dr. Coors. “People in Africa are yearning for jobs. Only business can create an expanding jobs base, but business can only succeed if it has investment, and investment will come only if the returns warrant the risk. I believe today they do, and that is why my family has become involved in the One Thousand & One Voices movement.”
1K1V is comprised entirely of influential families with experience and potential influence in sectors that will be accretive to 1K1V’s investment objectives, and in part to represent a diversity of strategic regions around the globe. The movement employs a unique membership program to facilitate collaboration among families, particularly next generation family members.
“I became involved with One Thousand & One Voices with the recognition that private equity serves a very valuable purpose in developing markets, and also that this is a wonderful way to introduce my family to private equity investing,” said Charles Widger, founder and executive chairman of Brinker Capital, a Berwyn, Pennsylvania-based investment management firm, and a 1K1V founding family member. “A significant challenge for many families is educating the next generation on investing their money, and One Thousand & One Voices provides a strong framework for meeting this challenge.
“Many developing markets are now progressing economically and socially at rates never before seen in their histories, providing a good foundation for private sector investment to build upon,” said Don Gips, former US Ambassador to South Africa. “As these economies are still developing, building sound, successful, job-creating businesses that will capture the full market potential requires a long horizon, creating a critical need for highly patient capital.”
Foto: Hayden Briscoe, Director Asia Pacific Fixed Income de AllianceBernstein. Las incertidumbres sobre China no detendrán la subida del Renminbi
Recent data releases and the transition to new political leadership have created some uncertainty about China’s short-term economic outlook. While positive growth surprises are unlikely in 2013, we still think nothing can stop the long-term appreciation of China’s currency, the renminbi (RMB).
The reason we expect the RMB to continue to appreciate lies in the strength of the structural, as distinct from cyclical, factors which should continue to support it in the medium to long term. The currency’s prestige, tradability and valuation bolster our expectations that the RMB will:
Appreciate by 2% to 3% a year on average, just to keep pace with the country’s persistent trade surpluses, and by up to 5% a year once economic rebalancing is factored in
Become fully convertible by the time the current five-year economic plan expires in 2015—much faster than widely expected
Emerge as a core reserve currency, especially in the Asia-Pacific region and other emerging markets
China is the second-largest economy in the world. It’s also one of the most dynamic, with the gap between the Chinese and US economies in purchasing power parity terms expected to close in just a few years (Display). Global trade flows don’t yet reflect this reality and continue to be settled mostly in US dollars.
But there are signs of change. In July 2010, the Chinese government began a move to internationalize the currency by opening an offshore currency (CNH) market based in Hong Kong. Taiwan followed recently, and Singapore and London are next on the list. This will help facilitate RMB trade settlements in time zones around the world.
The proportion of China’s global trade settled in RMB has grown to 11% and continues to rise. China’s banks are supporting the trend through the provision of trade finance: letters of credit denominated in the onshore currency (CNY) now account for the third-largest share of the global total, behind US dollars and euros and ahead of yen. By 2015 one-third of China’s exports are likely to be denominated in RMB, with annual trade-settlement volume expected to hit nearly US$2 trillion, according to HSBC.
RMB-denominated trade flows are increasing in strategically important markets, in Africa and Latin America in particular. They’re also rapidly becoming institutionalized. To date, 20 central banks have agreed on CNY swap lines with the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) totaling RMB2 trillion or US$320 billion.
Portfolio flows are another potential driver of the RMB’s internationalization, as China’s capital markets open up. For example, the Chinese government bond market is capitalized at around US$2.5 trillion. It’s the third largest in the world, equivalent to the German and French bond markets combined. If included in a traditional bond index, investors would be forced to commit 10% to 12% of their fixed-income allocation to Chinese government bonds. This, together with the continuing strength of overseas direct investment into China, further facilitates the RMB’s internationalization.
We expect China will do what it can to make full internationalization of the currency a reality. This will include maintaining the RMB’s credibility as a steadily appreciating currency. Given that the RMB’s appreciation sharply lags the US$2.5 trillion growth in China’s foreign exchange reserves since 2005 (Display), we think this is a realistic goal.
The RMB already fulfills two of the three criteria necessary to become a reserve currency—the size of the underlying economy and the credibility of the currency itself. It is progressing steadily towards fulfilling the third criteria, which is openness and financial-market depth. Internationalizing the currency is one of the goals under the country’s five-year plan and, in early September 2012, Dai Xianglong, a former PBOC governor, said that China could liberalize its capital account as early as 2015. While the precise timing will depend somewhat on global economic and financial-market conditions, we think the RMB is likely to be internationalized much faster than widely expected.
Wikimedia CommonsBy Earth Sciences and Image Analysis Laboratory, NASA. Itaú, interested in buying Citi´s Retail Banking business in Uruguay
The Brazilian Bank Itaú is almost ready to present a binding bid in order to buy the Citibank’s retail banking operations in Uruguay, which will later turn into a private financial institution in the country according to newspaper, El Observador, citing closed sources associated with the operation.
It seems that the terms of the agreement were closed last week in Uruguay and the only move they are waiting for is ratification from the main offices of both banks as well as further approval in order to make it a formal offer and adjust certain details, cited the same sources. The transaction would imply the transfer of two subsidiaries and 62 employees.
Citi would be mainly interested on closing the operation “as soon as possible,” an operation where the economic details have not been expressed to the media. The American bank is doing a global restructuring plan in order to reduce costs by $1.1 billion per year and a staff reduction of 11,000 jobs, according to what was explained by the bank at the end of 2012.
“Deadlines are not being established. These are complex operations that are going to neglect important details, and not because they have not been done before,” according to the bank’s spokesman who also mentioned that the Central Bank should give its approval taking into consideration that this operation is more than just a simple sale of assets.
If the operation is complete, Itaú would take the lead in front of BBVA placed in second place and behind, to another Spanish bank, Banco Santander in terms of business volume among the private banking institutions. Santander was the leader of the private banking segment with 29.2% of the market, considering business volume, and later followed by BBVA with 17.7% according to the data from the Central Bank. Itaú was placed in third with 17.5%.
By Adavyd. Mexican Government resumes conversations with the Opposition Leaders to continue the path towards reforms
After a series of accusations from the political leaders of PAN, PRI, and PRD over the alleged electoral use of the social programs of various entities in the country; as well as the result of the decision made by the President of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto, of postponing the presentation of the financial reform, the leaders of PAN, PRI, and PRD met this Wednesday in a meeting proposed by Los Pinos. Whereas they agreed to start the discussion again in order to give hope to the Agreement for Mexico and to continue moving forward in the agenda for reforms.
Peña Nieto suspended the presentation of the proposal, this last Tuesday, for the financial reform as a result of the accusations of both sides. However, this same Wednesday, he emphasized that he will not tolerate the political use of the social programs and called a meeting with the leaders of the main political parties through his secretary, Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong
In this meeting, which was performed behind closed doors, PAN’s leader (Gustavo Madero), PRD’s president (Jesus Zambrano), PRI’s president (Cesar Camacho), the Government’s Secretary (Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong), and the Head of the President’s Office (Aurelio Nuño) were all present.
According to the Secretary of Treasury, the initiatives for the financial reform “want to transform the development banking sector into an authentic motor for an inclusive economic development, and change the legal framework in order for the commercial banking sector to lend more money at lower rates.” It is expected that the proposal will be presented by Peña Nieto and later sent to the Congress before Tuesday.
Wikimedia CommonsBy Alistair Rickman . El equipo de Tecnología Global de Henderson incorpora a su equipo al veterano Graeme Clark
Henderson Global Investors has strengthened its technology team with the hire of Graeme Clark as senior investment analyst. Graeme has over 13 years’ experience in technology equities, gained predominantly on the sell-side. Most recently he was at Jefferies International as senior analyst covering European software and IT Services. Prior to this he spent five years at Piper Jaffray, where he founded the software and IT services team which ultimately grew to a team of three analysts, the company said in a statement.
In addition, Niall Holleran, who joined Henderson in August 2012 as a trainee on the technology team has been promoted to research assistant. He will work alongside Graeme, investment analyst Ronan Kelleher and the funds’ managers Stuart O’Gorman and Ian Warmerdam. As part of this change, analysts Gordon Happell and Giles Tulloch have decided to leave Henderson.
Commenting on Graeme’s appointment and the team changes Ian Warmerdam says, “It is testament to the regard in which the Henderson technology team is held that we have been able to bring Graeme on board. His experience in the technology sector, garnered pre and post the fabled dot com boom and bust era, together with his broader financial markets and analytical experience, will stand our clients in good stead.
The five strong Henderson Technology team manages £2.57 billion (As at 31st March 2013 ) across a range of international clients.
Wikimedia CommonsFoto: Khalidshou . CICC IM y PineBridge lanzan el primer fondo mundial de hedge funds dirigido a inversores chinos
CICC Investment Management (USA) and PineBridge Investments announced the launch of the first global fund of hedge funds (“Fund”) on April 1 targeting qualified Chinese investors. The launch of the global fund of hedge funds demonstrates the strategic decision of CICC Investment Management (USA)’s parent company, China International Capital Corporation Limited (“CICC”), to expand its investment management business globally.
PineBridge and CICC Investment Management (USA) have both invested proprietary capital to seed the Fund and ensure alignment of interests with investors. CICC Investment Management (USA) serves as the Fund’s investment manager and PineBridge as its sub-advisor. CICC Investment Management (USA) will leverage its resources in Beijing and New York. The PineBridge Hedge Fund Solutions team is primarily based in New York, London and Hong Kong.
The Fund intends to invest in a diverse range of hedge funds globally across equity long/short, event driven, global macro/CTA, and relative value strategies. Potential managers of these hedge funds are expected to have outperformed HFRX, with proven track records and assets under management ranging from the hundreds of millions to billions of dollars. The Fund aims to generate attractive risk adjusted returns with low volatility and low correlations with the broad markets. Investors in the Fund will benefit from exposure to successful hedge funds globally through a diversified portfolio supported by CICC’s direct market investment experience and PineBridge’s 30-year history in hedge fund investing.
Wikimedia CommonsFoto: Kishore Mahbubani y Jim Walker. Robeco, hosts the battle of the Titans for the future of China
China’s short-term prospects are bleak, with a recession ahead, Jim Walker told the Robeco World Investment Forum. But its longer-term rise, along with the wider Asian region, is unstoppable, countered Kishore Mahbubani.
China’s economy is faltering. First-quarter GDP growth disappointed, with a 7.7% year-on-year increase. That was lower than both the 7.9% reported for the final quarter of last year and the consensus expectation of 8%. Moreover, the government is warning that the country has entered an era of lower growth, as it presses on with rebalancing the economy from a focus on investment and exporting to domestic consumption.
What are the implications of this shift, both in the short term and in the long term? Where is the country heading in the next few years? And is China still on course to overtake the US as the world’s largest economy?
For Jim Walker, managing director at Asianomics, the independent economic research company, China is at a critical juncture. And the outlook is not good. “We think there’s a recession ahead for China,” he said. “Not just lower growth, but a recession.”
China saved the world but killed itself
Why? “China killed itself when it saved the world in 2009,” said Walker. That is because of the extraordinary credit expansion since the start of the financial crisis. In 2009, the Chinese injected new credit into the economy equivalent to 43% of Chinese GDP, or 16% of US GDP. They followed up by repeating the act in 2010, 2011 and 2012, when new credit was equivalent to 41%, 37% and 37% of Chinese GDP respectively.
At the same time, the growth rate is slowing. Walker argued that rather than the official 7.8% for GDP growth last year, digging into the supporting data suggests that 5% is a more realistic figure.
New credit increased further in Q1 2013
“This credit expansion cannot continue, can it?,” he asked. “Well, actually, in the first quarter of this year, it accelerated.”
The inevitable result of these floods of money is overcapacity across the economy. “When countries have overcapacity, they don’t make money in their corporate sector,” said Walker. And that is the case in China, he said, as the earnings reported by companies there “don’t actually exist”, thanks to accounting sleights of hand. Tellingly, operating cash flow as a percent of net profit was only 54% in China in 2011, against a typical figure in most counties of 100-120%.
“To improve that cash flow position, to improve the companies’ balance sheets, they’ve got to cut capital expenditure. And banks have got to stop lending to them,” he said. “When that happens, you get recession.”
New political leadership has its hands full
A further issue is China’s new leadership. Walker told the forum that his Beijing contacts are positive about the new leadership’s efforts in fighting corruption and moving the economy away from the state sector.
But he’s not so sure. For sure, they have been dealt a bad hand. “Corruption, corruption, corruption. China is ripe, rotten with corruption,” he said. “There is a clampdown on corruption. But is it enough?”.
The answer is: probably not. “They’ll take China forward to feather their own nests and to make sure that their pockets are full,” he said. “They know how to accumulate money like nobody else on the planet.” Moreover, the acceleration of credit growth in the first quarter of this year suggests to Walker that “more of the same” can be expected from the new leadership.
Still, Walker’s picture of China isn’t 100% gloom. “The Chinese take such crises on the chin,” he commented in his interview “Recession in China will come as a surprise”, before they bounce back.
Mahbubani: a major historical aberration is ending
According to Kishore Mahbubani, Professor in Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, China’s bounce-back is long overdue. Mahbubani’s stock in trade is not so much the rise of Asia but its return.
He argues that until 1820, the world’s two largest economies were China and India. And after two centuries of Western domination, the world is returning to the historical norm of the previous two millennia. In this longer-term perspective, the supremacy of the UK and the US should be viewed as “a major historical aberration”. “All aberrations come to a natural end,” he said.
For Mahbubani, “the big question” about Asia’s return to the center stage of world history “is why? And why now?”
Asians have learnt best practices from the West
His answer is that Asians have absorbed and understood Western best practices in many areas, from free-market economics to innovation in science and technology. “If you want to find the greatest psychological conviction about free market economics, it used to be in the West. Now, it resides in Asia,” he said. They have also instilled in many cases a belief in meritocracy and the rule of law, and developed what he referred to as a “culture of pragmatism”.
How meritocratic is China?
But just how meritocratic is China? The author of The Great Convergence: Asia, the West and the Logic of One World rejected the notion that nepotism offers an easy entry route into the country’s political elite, pointing to the intense struggles behind the scenes in the Chinese communist party.
“These guys fight their way up,” he said. And that, he said, has a positive effect, allowing only the cream to rise to the top: “The quality of the minds of the people at the top in China is probably among the best you’ll ever find.” That is quite a different interpretation of the Chinese leadership to Jim Walker’s.
Still, Mahbubani accepts there are risks for China, both internally and externally. At home, inequality is on the rise and the exploding middle classes are demanding more government accountability, creating some political uncertainty.
No avoiding Sino/US geopolitical competition
Abroad, there are geopolitical tensions within the Asian region, such as the squabble with Japan in the East China Sea over the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands, and with the US, whose number-one position in the global economy China is challenging. “Rising geopolitical competition between China and the US is inevitable,” said Mahbubani.
But he believes the Chinese government is too pragmatic to allow such tensions to have a long-term impact on economic relations. Moreover, he feels that the interdependence of the world economy, through trade and financial links, make the likelihood of war extremely unlikely. “There will be geopolitical rivalries. There will be no geopolitical wars,” he argued. “The US & China will actually work together in economic co-operation.”
Will China become the world’s #1 economy
So where does that leave China’s progress to economic top dog? For Mahbubani, it is just a matter of time—and not that much time either. He said that by 2017, China’s share of global GDP will have risen to 18.2% in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms, when the US’s share will have dropped to 17.6%.
Walker was more skeptical. “China will become the biggest economy in the world as long as it keeps printing numbers that don’t mean anything,” he noted.
Wikimedia Commons. Invirtiendo en el poder de las mujeres
Goldman Sachs is helping women such as Ayo grow their small businesses. Through the 10,000 Women Program, they are providing business skills to women entrepreneurs worldwide. Since participating in the program, Ayo has relocated her catering business from her home and has opened a restaurant. Now her small business is driving economic progress in her country.
The Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women initiative is a five-year investment to provide underserved female entrepreneurs around the world with a business and management education.The initiative operates through a network of more than 80 academic and nonprofit institutions. These partnerships help develop locally relevant coursework and improve the quality and capacity of business education worldwide.
The women selected for the program enroll in customized certificate programs ranging from five weeks to six months. Topics covered include marketing, accounting, writing business plans and accessing capital.Students are offered mentoring and post-graduate support by partner institutions, local businesses and the people of Goldman Sachs.
Investing in the Power of Women
Investing in women is one of the most effective ways to reduce inequality and facilitate inclusive economic growth. Research conducted by Goldman Sachs over several years has shown that investing in education for women has a significant multiplier effect, leading to more productive workers, healthier and better-educated families, and ultimately to more prosperous communities.
In the wake of the financial crisis, advisors to either institutional investors or high net worth investors need a drastically different set of skills and personal qualities to succeed, according to a white paper just released by BNY Mellon, the global leader in investment management and investment services.
“The Conscientious AdvisorSM: A New Paradigm in Wealth Management Sales” co-written by Tracy Nickl, Executive Director of Sales for BNY Mellon Wealth Management and Jennie Hollmann, PhD. of Caliper Management, asserts that today’s successful advisor must be more methodical and conscientious when dealing with clients and prospects. Furthermore, the paper contends, firms should establish a conscientious platform that helps their advisors succeed and prepares them for career advancement. The result, say Nickl and co-author Hollmann, whose firm is a workplace productivity and talent recruitment and development consultancy, is not only having happier clients but also more satisfied and more successful employees.
“It’s clear to us that since 2008 high net worth investors have become more skeptical about our financial system. What these investors want and need in a trusted advisor has changed dramatically. Our paper offers some insights into what Conscientious Advisors—and their companies—must do to better serve these clients,” said Nickl.
In addition to retaining and winning new business, companies that adopt the Conscientious Advisor/Conscientious Platform model stand to benefit in other ways. “BNY Mellon adopted the Conscientious Advisor model in early 2010 and by the end of 2012 our sales force turnover dropped by 50 percent and the average new business revenue for a sales director had jumped by nearly 20 percent,” said Nickl.
Nickl contends that a Conscientious Advisor shows:
Commitment: Cares about clients and focuses on empathy, listening, over-preparing for every client interaction
Collaboration: As part of a team over-prepares for each meeting and offers holistic solutions, not product
Credibility: Asks the right questions, exhibits professionalism and transparency that reinforce one’s personal brand
Consistency: Follows repeatable processes, executes flawlessly, always follows up and always follows through
Just as importantly, Nickl adds, firms must do their part to support their advisors with a conscientious platform that promotes and rewards conscientiousness through:
A defined, repeatable sales process
A “think tank” model for developing solutions for clients
