Amundi has completed the full integration of the Luxembourg-domiciled fund platforms of Goldman Sachs Fund Solutions & Origination (GSFSO), part of the Goldman Sachs Global Markets Division.
Amundi Luxembourg, one of Amundi's four main hubs for fund hosting services meeting Ucits and AIFM directives, is the management company of three Luxembourg systematic and alternative management Sicavs with total assets under management on behalf of GSFSO of €2.6 billion.
Amundi manages, controls and supervises Luxembourg investment vehicles based on GSFSO’s systematic trading strategies, and provides a management service as well as the analysis and monitoring of the external managers present on its Ucits platform for alternative funds.
Fund hosting services are ‘fully in line’ with Amundi's development strategy which includes making Amundi Luxembourg a leading provider in third-party asset management in the long term, according to Jeanne Duvoux (pictured), CEO of Amundi Luxembourg.
Both firms entered a partnership in early 2018 through which Amundi manages Luxembourg-domiciled funds based on Goldman Sachs’ proprietary systematic strategies and to expand its alternative UCITS offering through institutional investors and financial intermediaries.
Under the agreement, investment management of the funds is carried out by the structured products team of Amundi. The French manager is a top provider of guaranteed and structured funds in Europe (Broadridge, September 2017, open ended funds domiciled in Europe).
Amundi has marketed over 90 structured funds as a third party distributor across European markets including its home market France (75 products), Belgium (eight), Austria (two) and Greece (five), of which 55 structures are still live. The French manager also appears as a main distributor of 31 products in Italy, Germany, and France. Goldman Sachs is a top provider of flow products such as turbo certificates, bonus tracker, and warrants in Europe where it has marketed over 950,000.
FVC adds FX to stress testing and Priips
UK research analytics firm FVC has added FX capability to its stress testing and Priips services which already covered equity and fixed income.
FX testing on structured products is needed to satisfy UK Financial Conduct Authority governance rules, the mandatory Priips Kid document and Mifid 2 requirements.
The new service will initially cover over 20 ‘heavily traded currencies’ from G10 and emerging markets along with a variety of popular product types, including the dual currency deposit, participation note and warrant.
The new functionality will enable Priips Kids document generation for FX structured products as part of the Ascend partnership that FVC has with the Opal platform created by Vox FP, its expert documentation partner.
‘Demand for FX structured products and therefore stress testing and Priips continues to grow, and the current market environment of low interest rates and uncertain equity markets are likely to support this further,’ said FVC’s managing director Tim Mortimer.
As part of the development of the FX module the value-for-money concept created by the UK Structured Products Association was extended to cover FX structured products.
Annuities provider Global Atlantic joins Simon Platform
Simon Annuities and Insurance Services has partnered with Global Atlantic Financial Group as it continues to expand its annuities platform and digital marketplace for wealth managers.
Under the agreement, Simon’s annuities module will include fixed and fixed indexed annuities issued by Global Atlantic subsidiary Forethought Life Insurance Company.
Simon Markets launched its InsurTech module to help financial professionals navigate the indexed annuities market in December 2019 in a move to include index-linked annuities in its digital platform and onboarded Insurance company Prudential which launched the PruSecure fixed indexed annuity - its first offering in the platform.
Since then, the multi-issuer platform has onboarded several providers and distributors of index-linked annuities including Great American Life National, Raymond James Financial, and multi-carrier sales offering, Insurance Technologies FireLight to address the requirements of the annuities provider’s workforce as they became remote during the Covid-19 lockdown during the first half of 2020.
Equitable adds buffered options to VA range
US annuities provider Equitable has expanded its annuities line up with eight new options available for its Structured Capital Strategies Plus registered index-linked annuity.
The new offerings are aimed at providing investors with additional ways to capture some upside potential even when equity market benchmarks may decline. Available from 23 November, the new products expand the firm’s Plus Dual Direction strategies launched earlier this year.
The new segment options include enhanced upside, which allows clients to capture up to 125% of the positive return of the S&P 500 benchmark index with -10% downside protection; expanded Dual Direction protection options of -15% and -20% buffers, in addition to the original -10% buffer; as well as the option to capture upside return or partial downside protection on a one-year basis for investments in the S&P 500, Russell 2000, MSCI EAFE, Nasdaq 100 and MSCI Emerging Markets indices.
Equitable introduced Structured Capital Strategies, the first registered index-linked, or buffered, annuity in 2010.
Marex Spectron expands product range
Marex Spectron has signed an agreement to acquire X-Change Financial Access (XFA), a Chicago-based exchange-traded derivatives (ETD) execution broker to strengthen its North American footprint.
The transaction, expected to close on 13 November, broadens the Marex Spectron product range, and builds on its global clearing infrastructure, while providing XFA clients access to complementary products and services.
XFA is an agency-only broker in benchmark global products, including equity options (S&P 500 index options, volatility index options, equity and exchange-traded funds, and flex-based execution), as well as futures and futures options (including S&P 500 Index, Eurodollar, Treasury and commodities).
XFA is also one of the leading volume brokers in global ETDs - in S&P 500 index options (SPX), XFA accounted for over 50% of all volumes in the full year of 2019; and has ranked in the top two firms, by volume, in volatility index options (Vix).