Fundamentals

Cleared contract volume reached 329,891,797 in June, representing a 12 percent decrease from the June 2011 volume of 376,877,261 contracts according to OCC who recorded year-to-date total contract volume is down 6 percent with 2,100,988,040 contracts in 2012.

Euroclear UK & Ireland’s EMX Message System has attracted over 25 new clients from both the fund product provider and fund distributor communities in the first quarter of 2012. Leading fund management companies, including the likes of AXA Funds Management (Luxembourg), Deutsche Bank, GLG Partners, Hermes Investment Management and Janus Capital have all signed up to route orders involving their suite of investment funds through the automated EMX Message System.

A poll of UK pension schemes has revealed that UK pension professionals are increasingly seeking greater diversification of assets to assist in mitigating continuing market volatility. The research, conducted online among professionals involved with the investment management of a UK private or public pension scheme, found that the number of respondents who cited greater asset diversification as a key tactic for navigating market volatility has increased significantly in the past six months, from 47.6%1 to 63.8% according to Baring Asset Managfement who conducted the poll.