MMF business in the spotlight as Standard Life acquires Ignis
Standard Life Investments (SIL) has bought leading manager of local authority liquidity funds Ignis Asset management for £390 million. In a statement to the London Stock Exchange on Wednesday, SIL said...
View ArticleOxford explores ethical screening for treasury portfolio
Oxford City Council is set to employ an investment research service to explore whether it can apply a new ethical investment policy to indirect investments. The council’s scrutiny finance committee...
View ArticleFitch downgrades UK banks as treasurers look to spread risk
Ratings agency Fitch has downgraded its outlook ratings for four UK banks from stable to negative, increasing calls for councils to diversify their investments. Last week, Fitch adjusted its opinion on...
View ArticleS&P affirms RBKC’s A-1+ short-term rating: outlook negative
Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s has maintained its top credit ratings for Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, but gave the council a negative outlook, due to its reliance on the UK government...
View ArticleFitch affirms AAA money funds but warns of bail-in risk
Ratings agency Fitch has affirmed 39 European money market funds’ AAAmmf ratings, but has warned that it will monitor how such funds respond to expected downgrades of banks. The agency has maintained...
View ArticleLocal Authorities’ Property Fund outperforms peer group
The Local Authorities’ Property Fund (LAPF) has jointly outperformed all of its peers over the past five years, according to new data. New figures from real estate analysis firm IPD show the fund...
View ArticleQ&A with Dom Piper: evolving treasury investment strategies
Yesterday, Room151 held a workshop for local authority cash investors which focused on changes to this year’s treasury management strategies. Afterwards, we caught up with session moderator Dom Piper,...
View ArticleCovered bonds take root in UK treasury portfolios
As discussions in Europe continue on how to treat covered bonds in banks’ liquidity buffers, the instrument is emerging as an increasingly popular form of investment for councils. Denmark, which is...
View ArticleNewcastle joins SME lending platform
Newcastle City Council has invested £100,000 with crowdsourcing website Funding Circle, taking the total amount placed by local authorities on the platform to £1.695m. The council will use the website...
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Government support in credit ratings
In the past month, both Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s have indicated that they expect to remove the uplift for government support that is currently built into many banks’ credit ratings. This...
View ArticleWeighing up short dated bonds
Merrick Styles is co-head of investment at Amundi (UK). Money market funds (MMFs) in the UK currently offer an annual yield of zero to 0.40%, well below the Bank of England base rate of 0.50%....
View ArticleBanks more risky for local authority depositors
Michael Quicke is the chief executive of CCLA, investment managers of the Public Sector Deposit Fund and Local Authorities’ Property Fund At the height of the financial crisis, the UK Treasury, like...
View ArticleDCLG figures show inter-authority lending on the rise
Inter-authority lending in the UK rose by 22.9% during the past financial year, figures released by the Department for Communities and Local Government reveal. Updated statistics published this week...
View ArticleSurviving the QE roller-coaster
With so much discussion within the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) about governance, structural reform and collaborative initiatives, it’s easy to overlook how volatile funding levels have...
View ArticleBournemouth launches mortgage loan scheme
Bournemouth Borough Council has launched a finance scheme offering mortgages to homebuyers and loans to local businesses. The council committed to the Community Finance Initiative (CFI) in July 2013...
View ArticleIMMFA report slams capital buffer proposal for MMFs
A body representing money market fund managers has warned that European proposals to regulate money market funds (MMFs) could take €250 billion out of the European economy. The Institutional Money...
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Two investment opportunities: challenger banks Vs the bond agency
At last week’s CIPFA Conference, all the talk at our stand was around two topics – the LGA’s Municipal Bond Agency and the new challenger banks, particularly Metro Bank and Sainsbury’s Bank who were...
View ArticleQ&A with Dom Piper: evolving treasury investment strategies
Yesterday, Room151 held a workshop for local authority cash investors which focused on changes to this year’s treasury management strategies. Afterwards, we caught up with session moderator Dom Piper,...
View ArticleHousing associations increasingly seek alternative lenders
The housing association sector will continue to find it difficult to access funding from banks in coming years, according to ratings agency Moody’s. The report says that the banking sector’s funding...
View ArticlePeterborough social bond set to reward investors
Investors in a social impact bond (SIB) aimed at reducing ex-prisoner reoffending rates are on track to receive payments after results for the first stage were announced. The Ministry of Justice and...
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