Events and highlights

Analistas Financieros Internacionales (Afi), together with MicroEnergy International, MyClimate and Perspectives on Climate Change, forms part of a consortium that will provide financial assistance to Te Creemos (a registered people’s finance corporation or SOFIPO for its acronym in Spanish) for the development of green microfinance products in the Mexican states of Chiapas and Sonora.

Fundación Mapfre has announced 30 scholarships for postgraduate studies at Spanish universities and business schools, including the Master in Risk Management and Insurance run by Afi’s Escuela de Finanzas Aplicadas (School of Applied Finance). Each scholarship is worth €6,000.

One of the main themes of the Conference on Economic and Markets Analysis that Afi has arranged for its customers was the analysis of the factors that will define the strategy put forward by Afi for the management of portfolios in the next few months (5th June, Hotel Hesperia, Madrid). Another of the key issues was the state of the Spanish economy.

Analistas Financieros Internacionales (Afi) has been awarded a new project in Morocco, in addition to others it has recently carried out for public agencies in that country. On this occasion, Afi will prepare a study called "Design and implementation of the mechanism to evaluate the impact of the programs in support of companies and of the activities of the Moroccan National Agency for Promotion of SMEs (ANPME) ".

Afi, which is currently participating as advisor in several transactions of assets from Spanish banks, celebrated in London, on Thursday 25^th April, an event dedicated to analyze the current situation of the Spanish banking system.

The recent financial crisis has highlighted the importance of correctly assessing credit risk and prompted regulators and supervisors to introduce fresh requirements in terms of presenting certain transactions for accounting purposes. IFRS 13 took effect on 1 January 2013, prompting Afi to launch a new service, namely the provision, in its capacity as independent expert, of credit valuation adjustments (credit and debt value adjustments, CVA and DVA, respectively) for the purpose of measuring financial instruments, including derivative portfolios, at fair value, as is explicitly required under this new accounting standard.

On 10 April, Afi held its spring ‘Banking Workshop’ in Madrid, under the slogan, ‘2013: Time for deleveraging’. The seminar focused chiefly on analysing the progress made on the bank recapitalisation front, the challenges facing Europe in the wake of the Cypriote bailout, the outlook for the banking business this year and next and the asset sale-driven deleveraging strategy being pursued by Spain’s banks.

Afi has been studying the impact of a public scheme for the modernisation of small neighbourhood retailers in Morocco – the Rawaj Programme - between 2008 and 2012. The scheme, backed by the Moroccan ministry of industry, commerce and emerging technology, was endowed with 564 million Moroccan dirhams (€50.7 million) for the period covered. The funds were used to finance the acquisition of: (i) equipment needed by the beneficiary retailers to carry out their business activities; and (ii) advisory and training services in the areas of management, regulations and good sales practices. The funds were used to modernise over 22,500 establishments.

Afi, Inversiones Financieras Globales EAFI, has been advising the Credit Suisse Global Afi fund since 31 January. Its involvement in this fund’s Investment Committee is centred on the provision of Afi’s vision with respect to the global economic cycle (main blocks and core countries) and its opinion on the outlook for key financial variables: benchmark interest rates, public debt yield curves, corporate bond spreads, stock market indices, commodities, etc.

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