LONDON -- The Global Straight Through Processing Association has formed to deal with worldwide crossborder trading matters.
The London-based GSTPA will fund research and planning for the implementation of an industrywide crossborder trade-processing model. Short-term funding will come from fees paid by member firms. The association will continue the work of its predecessor group, the Global Straight Through Processing Committee.
Crossborder trading is expected to increase to 600,000 trades per day by 2002 from an estimated 200,000 trades per day currently, according to Albert Petersen, a member of the GSTPA executive committee and vice president of State Street Corp., Boston.
Other members on the executive committee are Arthur Thomas, Merrill Lynch & Co.; Kathleen Corbet, Alliance Capital Management; Richard Genin, Bank of New York; David Gilks, AXA Investment Managers; Des Joyner, Dresdner Kleinwort Benson; James Leman, Salomon Smith Barney; Michel Lenson, Warburg Dillon Read; Vincent Molloy, Fidelity Investments; Mark J. Smith, Schroder Investment Management Ltd.; Ruud van der Horst, ABN AMRO; and Edward Watts Jr., Goldman, Sachs & Co.
Information on the association can be obtained by contacting Derek Stein at [email protected]
Emerging market managers underperform index
The median emerging market equity manager underperformed the MSCI Emerging Markets Free index by 0.9% in the third quarter, according to InterSec Research Corp., which based its evaluation on returns from 46 money managers. The InterSec median was
-23.5%, while the MSCI EMF index returned -22.6%.
Managers benefited from an underweighting in Malaysia and Russia, but were hurt by stock selection in Mexico and Brazil, according to InterSec.
Standard Life spins off asset management unit
EDINBURGH, Scotland -- Standard Life Assurance Co., Europe's largest mutual life insurance company, has spun off its investment management unit into a new company.
Newly named Standard Life Investments manages L60 billion ($100 billion) and is headed by Chief Executive Sandy Crombie, formerly general manager, investments.
The goal is to hit L100 billion within five years, by aggressively boosting both institutional and retail assets under management through the company's pooled funds.
At the same time, Standard Life has added five international equity growth subfunds to its existing group of nine, which is organized under an open-end investment company, similar in structure to U.S. mutual funds.
The new growth-stock funds cover international (non-U.K.); continental Europe; America;, Japan; and Pacific Basin (ex-Japan).
Active international accounts prove most popular
STAMFORD, Conn. -- U.S. pension funds and other tax-exempt investors invested more in active international equity accounts during the first half of the year than in other international accounts, according to InterSec Research, a pension fund consultant.
Tax-exempt funds invested $8.58 billion in newly created, separate and pooled active international equity accounts in the first six months. That's double the $4.24 billion invested in the first half of 1997, but down 15.3% from the $10.13 billion of initial funding in the second half of 1997.
Total initial funding for cross-border mandates increased in the first half to $15.17 billion vs. $13.93 billion in the same period last year. It slid 12.9%, however, from $17.42 billion in the second half of 1997.
InterSec based its findings on a survey and analysis of 200 managers.
