US giant creates units to focus on international investment policy. Roxane McMeeken reports.

Merrill Lynch has hit back at criticism typically levelled at US private banks that they mistakenly export American business models abroad. It has created an international investment policy group, tailored for its non-US wealth management business.

Commerzbank Securities finds business for covered warrants in the UK. Yuri Bender reports.

A saturated mass market for covered warrants in Italy, Germany and Holland has led Commerzbank Securities to push this complex asset class through brokerages servicing high net worth clients in the UK.

Chairman troubles add to Credit Suisse nightmare

Credit Suisse is on the lookout for a new chairman after Lukas Mühlemann bowed to shareholder pressure to split his role as chief executive and chairman. He has been blamed for the slide in Credit Suisse’s share price. Industry commentators have suggested that head of Suisse Re, Walter Kielholz, could be drafted in.

Basic barriers like language and culture, along with ever-changing market conditions, have limited the expansion of life insurance companies as far across Europe as they would have liked, as reports.

Gothaer’s alliance with JPMorgan provides the kind of technology and service that improves trading efficiency, writes Roxane McMeeken.

Managers are battening down the hatches in preparation for the forecast growth downturn. Yuri Bender reports on their cost-control methods

Amvescap’s Brian Baughan shuns fly-by-night products and fashionable styles. The investment veteran is sticking to his back-to-basics approach, offering Atlantic Wealth Management clients consistent quality stock selection. Roxane McMeeken reports.

Atlantic Trust Wealth Management, the recently re-branded E10bn private client arm of global investment giant Amvescap, is on the lookout for acquisitions. The firm has set itself a staggering target. It wants to run E75bn in assets for wealthy individuals within three years.

Adam Courtenay describes how Aegon subsidiary Scottish Equitable is gradually changing its distribution model from Anglo-Saxon-style broker sales to the pan-European bancassurance system.

Many companies’ dreams of distributing financial products to wealthy individuals across Europe have turned into nightmares.

Distributors currently enjoy the advantage in third party distribution relationships. But the balance of power is about to shift. Charles River Associates (CRA) looks at the strategies distributors must implement to maintain their advantage.

Sales of third party funds in the US have been outstripping those of proprietary products since 1994. Indications are that European third party fund distribution is heading the same way. On this basis, it is widely believed that the US trend towards open architecture will translate verbatim to Europe. Not so.

Growth of the European fund industry is being stifled by the labour-intensive communication system of too many hand-scribbled faxes and re-routed phone calls. Roxane McMeeken sees that automation and standardisation must happen soon.

“Co-operate or cop out” just about sums up the choice facing fund distributors in Europe today. The same choice faces other creatures of the so-called “back office” – global custodians, trade clearers/settlers and transfer agents. There is now a growing realisation that unless they work together towards a fully integrated processing system that combines order routing, settlement and custody on a single platform, the prospect of the European investment fund industry ever reaching its full potential is unlikely.

Private equity presents the opportunity for tremendous profit but investors are often concerned about the risk. Jonny Maxwell, chief executive of Standard Life Investments (Private Equity) outlines the promise and the potential pitfalls of investing in this attractive asset class.

To many people, the term “private equity” conjures up images of either finding the next Microsoft in the next-door garage, or corporate bankers dressed in Versace suits, smoking cigars and mulling over their next big deal.

As the number of different kinds of listed securitised derivative products increases, these conservative products represent one of the latest successes in the market.

As investors look for different investment alternatives on the risk/reward spectrum to benefit from the current market conditions, they have found interesting alternatives in certificates.

In 2000 City Index introduced an alternative to traditional stock trading called contracts for differences (CFDs). This new form of trading gives individual investors the chance to deal on the same basis as institutional clients.

With WealthBench, investors and their advisers are better prepared to face portfolio danger.

Risk matters. That is clear enough after a year of high market volatility, steep market declines and high-flyers like Enron and WorldCom crashing to earth. In the wake of such stormy market conditions, risk is at the forefront of investors’ minds. To serve today’s nervous client base, financial advisers must be able to identify, measure, and incorporate risk into every aspect of the wealth management process.

Earlier efforts by investment banks highlight the importance of data management as a central pillar of risk management operations. The resulting solution has applications far beyond risk management.

Takeovers remain the biggest area of “event risk” concern within the convertible market. When the conversion/exchange property (ie the underlying equity) is acquired or merged with another entity, the overriding concern for convertible holders will be what the conversion rights change to and whether they will retain any optionality.

There is no sign of a slowdown in demand for collateralised debt obligations (CDOs) from European investors despite mounting concerns over the credit ratings of corporate bonds and the high-profile collapses of WorldCom and Enron.

Much has been made of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) lately – easily traded, diversified, low cost, low risk investments. Their success and popularity with investors is reflected in their phenomenal growth, both in the US and increasingly across Europe.

Fund supermarkets are known to target the lower end of the market, but they can also offer a valuable service to investors holding larger sums. Elizabeth Cripps reports.

In our last issue three European experts explained how they would spend E500,000 in a fund supermarket for a fairly conservative investor with a balanced strategy. Roxane McMeeken discovers how they would update their portfolios for autumn.

July was a tough month for European long/short managers. Simone Leontis explains why.

Investing in a film can pay dividends. But not all films are blockbusters and many go straight to video, warns Roxane McMeeken.

Retail property returns, governed by consumer demand, have held up well, writes Anna Bawden.

Employees working away from home risk losing important investment and tax benefits if pension arrangements are neglected, writes David Fairs

Private bankers are under pressure and small institutions or specialist units of universal banks especially so. They will have to review their offering to a demanding wealthy clientele in order to meet changing expectations.

Wealth management employers fall into two very different groups. Tim Gibson advises that careers must therefore be carefully planned.

Keeping watch for a belated stock market recovery, continental European managers are guiding clients to guaranteed products before equities, writes Simone Leontis.