Du Toit and Majedie take top prizes at FN awards

Smaller firms more than held their own against their larger rivals at the eleventh annual Financial News Awards for Excellence in Institutional Asset Management, Europe, at London's Royal Courts of Justice last night.

Hendrik du Toit, the chief executive of Investec Asset Management, took home the coveted Asset Management Chief Executive of the Year prize, while Majedie Asset Management scooped the night's other top gong, winning the European Asset Management Firm of the Year category.

Du Toit, whose firm has £61.5bn under management and who delivered the night's key-note address, saw off competition from peers including Abdallah Nauphal at Insight Investment, which manages £182bn on behalf of its clients, and Martin Gilbert at Aberdeen Asset Management, which looks after £184bn.

Saving on Auto Insurance with Bad Credit

 

Even credit challenged drivers can now save on auto insurance costs if they drive certain General Motors and Ford vehicles and are insured by State Farm

Auto insurance costs

Consumers with less than perfect credit that apply for high-risk auto loans are often on tight budgets and are especially sensitive to the costs of car insurance.

At Auto Credit Express we’re familiar with this situation because for over two decades we’ve been helping car buyers with low credit scores find dealers for their best chance at auto loan approvals.

In some cases, buyer’s budgets are stretched because auto insurance rates in some states are based, in part, on the insured’s credit scores. But there is a form of car insurance that, even under these circumstances, could make their auto insurance premiums more affordable.

Pay as you drive

Called pay as you drive (PAYD), it’s a form of auto insurance that, in addition to the usual factors, calculates a portion of your premium to how far you drive. By taking into account the lower risks that lower mileage poses, it gives these drivers a discount over what they would normally pay.

State Farm and SYNC

Earlier this year, State Farm Insurance and Ford announced a partnership that included an expansion of State Farm’s Drive Safe & Save program to include select SYNC-equipped Ford vehicles.

State Farm customers who drive these vehicles can reduce their auto insurance premiums by using the Vehicle Health Report feature of SYNC to report their mileage.

State Farm stated that initial savings will be about 5 percent, with the actual premium savings determined at each six month renewal date interval, based on the number of miles driven during the previous six-month period.

The auto insurance company also estimates that drivers, who average 1,000 miles per month, will save about 10 percent, will lower-mileage drivers saving up to 40 percent.

State Farm and OnStar

Drivers of General Motors vehicles equipped with OnStar and an active subscription that includes OnStar Vehicle Diagnostics can also take part in State Farm’s Drive Safe & Save program.

At the time OnStar owners sign up, State Farm will request up to the six most recent historical odometer readings on your car and, as with the SYNC program the premium is recalculated with each six month policy renewal.

Unlike the Ford system, however, there is a charge for the OnStar subscription service and customers may not always save enough to recover the cost of OnStar.

One other point that should be made is that there currently are 14 states (Al, CA, CO, FL, GA, IL, IN, MI, MN, OH, PA, TX, UT, WA) where the Drive Safe & Save program is available and according to the State Farm web site, while OnStar participates in nearly all of those states, it’s not clear in how many of them Ford drivers with SYNC system can sign up.

As we see it

PAYD auto insurance, such as the State Farm Drive Safe & Save program, could certainly help low-mileage drivers with auto credit problems – especially in states where auto insurance rates are partially based on FICO scores.

So if you have bad credit and you’re shopping around for car insurance, be sure to check if your state allows some type of PAYD car insurance program. If it does, check out the various programs to see what your savings might be.

One more thing to check out: if you’ve had past car credit problems, Auto Credit Express can help you find a dealer for your best chance at auto loan approvals.

So if you’re ready to reestablish your auto credit, you can begin now by filling out our online auto loans application.

Giant Greek deal masks slow restructuring market

 A mandate advising Greece on its mammoth $263.1bn debt exchange has handed Blackstone and Lazard an almost unassailable lead at the top of the restructuring rankings for 2012, in what has been an otherwise quiet market for restructuring activity.

 

Completed distressed debt and bankruptcy activity globally totalled $364.1bn in the first nine months of the year, according to Thomson Reuters, up more than 200% from the same period last year.

 

This increase was largely driven by a single deal – the $263.1bn debt exchange undertaken by Greece, which is the largest restructuring deal on record.

Greece announced in April that 96.9% of its lenders had agreed to the debt restructuring demanded by its international creditors in exchange for a bailout. Investors holding around €6bn of Greek debt at the time refused the debt writedown. Since then, there have been reports than another debt restructuring may be necessary.

Oriel Securities deputy chief departs

The deputy chief executive of mid-tier broker Oriel Securities – which named a new chief executive last month – has left the firm, according to a filing with Companies House.

 

Paul Thompson was no longer a director of Oriel Securities as of last week, according to the Companies House register. The Financial Services Authority's register of authorised persons shows that Thompson ceased to be an employee of the firm from September 30.

 

Oriel named David Knox as its new chief executive on September 7. Knox and Thompson had been joint acting chief executives of the business since July. Oriel’s former chief executive, Simon Bragg, had taken a sabbatical around this time owing to personal issues, according to the firm.

EU clearing houses results reflect tough environment

 

The financial results for two of Europe’s largest equities clearing houses have highlighted the difficulties faced by the operators, amid a slump in trading volumes and an increasingly competitive post-trade environment.

 

 

EU clearing houses results reflect tough environment

 

EuroCCP, owned by US post-trade giant The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, reported its fifth successive year of pre-tax losses, of €15.8m, for the year ended 31 December 2011, according to accounts filed with Companies House last month. The losses were €1.6m less than those incurred in 2010.

Larry Fink: How to restore confidence in the financial markets

Virtually every developed nation today suffers from the reluctance of investors and chief executives to invest in new businesses, jobs or ideas. Investors have adopted a wait and see attitude because markets are missing the two components essential for confidence: trust and certainty.

Investors large and small are angry and cynical. For five years, they have consumed an almost daily diet of headlines pronouncing doom and gloom. Scandal after scandal in the financial industry has left many individual investors believing that the markets are stacked against them.

Those who stayed the course over the 10 years through 2009 suffered a "lost decade," with negative total returns on the S&P 500. Investors see little consensus in government for tackling the long-term fiscal and competitive challenges facing our developed economies. The result is profound uncertainty about the road ahead, a lack of trust in political institutions, and paralysis in markets.

BofA Merrill gives Hume-Kendall new Europe role

Rupert Hume-Kendall, a senior banker within Bank of America Merrill Lynch, has been promoted to a newly created European role, focused on relationship building within the region.

Previously chairman of global capital markets, Hume-Kendall will now have a wider remit but focused on Europe, Middle East and Africa as chairman of global corporate and investment banking for Emea, according to an internal memo.

In an internal memo, Christian Meissner, head of global corporate & investment banking, and Bob Elfring, co-head of Emea corporate & investment banking, said Hume Kendall will be responsible for “developing essential new senior relationships, across all aspects of corporate and investment banking in Emea”.