Institutional investors pay less attention than family offices to the risk profiles of hedge funds they are looking to invest in, according to Neil Heywood, sales director at hedge fund managers, Armajaro Asset Management.

European financial institutions have to work much harder to implement straight-through processing (STP) initiatives in their back and middle offices, according to a survey released during the 2006 Sibos conference held in Sidney this month.

The premiums being charged by insurance companies to take on the liabilities of corporate pension schemes which have closed to new members are “excessive” and may stifle buy-out activity, an investment consultant has warned.

Ted Sotir, head of business in Europe for Goldman Sachs Asset Management, has made inroads in the Netherlands with the firm’s brand of fiduciary management, but faces the challenge of breaking the consultant-driven UK market. He speaks to Henry Smith.

AIGGIG is offering a range of products to external clients to increase AUM. However, as head of US fixed income Richard Mercante explains, clients would not be exposed to anything the firm wouldn’t do for itself. Paula Garrido reports.

Investing in Europe in the last two years has been a question of ignoring the popular Anglo Saxon cant on the region. The general market level suggests acceptable returns, the 2007 price/earnings ratio forecast of 12.5x implies a real return of over 7 per cent and to this we can add a decent prospective dividend yield of 3.3 per cent.

The US economy is currently shifting gears, making the short-term outlook particularly uncertain. After a robust expansion that lowered the unemployment rate steadily over the last three years, growth is poised to slow. The all-important question is, of course, by how much?

This summer, no equity region has tested the mettle of investors as sorely as Latin America. But while stock prices have fluctuated wildly in reaction to news on global economic growth, US interest rates and commodity prices, essentially nothing within Latin America has changed. Both the internal and external environment remain extremely positive.

Forecasts for economic growth in Asia have been under scrutiny in the recent past as investors consider the impact of both domestic tightening measures undertaken in two of the larger economies, namely China and Japan.

The greenback is surprisingly resilient in the face of market problems in the US, as investors are sitting on their hands elsewhere, writes Neil Mellor.

Fund managers looking at algorithmic trading need not only to look at a daunting set of choices, but also to consider how much time and energy is involved, says Jonathan Cohn.

Exchange-traded funds are evolving, with new products appearing across a broad range of asset classes. Specialists are emerging in what is becoming a concentrated market. Paula Garrido reports.

Daniele Tohmé-Adet, co-head EasyETF platform and head of ETFs and indexed funds business development structured and indexed investments, explains how exchangetraded funds have evolved to become appealing to a wider range of users.

Professionalism within the corporate treasurer market is making investors realise that cash is no longer there just to pay the bills but should be made to work. Paula Garrido reports.

Judith Benson, money market product manager at Insight Investment, charts the rise of liquidity funds as an alternative to short-term deposits and the advantages and disadvantages of the products.

Jonathan Curry of Barclays Global Investors outlines the different categories of enhanced cash funds and the risks associated with them, as well as showing the increasing innovation in the asset class.

FX’s stellar returns of 2004 could not continue, but the maturing asset class still pulls in good performance and pension funds are recognising it as a source of alpha again, says Tim Cooper.

Regulation and efficiency are driving demand for foreign exchange electronic trading, says Neill Penney, global head of product strategy for multi-bank trading portal, FXall.

Investors are turning their backs on Japanese equities, with many predicting a gloomy future. However, they are increasingly optimistic over Europe’s prospects, writes Elizabeth Cripps.

Funds of hedge funds (FoHFs) have been criticised for the extra layer of fees they tack on and it is argued that multi-strategy hedge funds can replicate diversification.

The arrival of contractual trust arrangements in Germany has seen a shift away from the traditional pensionskassen to more flexible forms of investment. Elizabeth Cripps reports.

Germany is a land of opportunity as far as asset managers are concerned. This belief is behind ING’s decision to focus on Germany with the opening of a new office in Frankfurt, both to service existing German clients previously serviced out of The Hague and to mine the German market for new clients and new opportunities.

Roger Aitken speaks to Andreas Preuss, the recently rejoined chief executive of Eurex, on the firm’s tenth year of growth and how it is handling increased demand for electronic trading.

The FIX Protocol is a voluntary organisation that has been instrumental in trading technology for many years. Roger Aitken assesses the group’s history and its plans going forward.

It is an inevitable fact that computer systems need to be in place to deal with the data explosion in financial markets, but there may be some spanners in the works, writes Roger Aitken.

FTK regulations in the Netherlands have made it difficult for many pension funds to keep up with IT demands, allowing fund adminstration specialists to capitalise. Henry Smith reports.