Australia’s superannuation funds have nearly the highest proportion of internal asset management in the world, but there’s plenty of questions hanging over the practice even as funds push into more expensive niche asset classes.
The retirement chief of the $335 billion AustralianSuper, who was “instrumental” in delivering a slew of member experience uplifts across a 17-year stint with the fund, will leave this month to establish a new venture.
ANZ fund admin outed as big back-office prize
ANZ is the last of the big bank-owned investment operations in NZ to retain almost full in-house control of funds administration including registry, accounting and custody. But the bank is poised to put the back-office duties in play, according to industry sources, bringing it into line with competitors in the sector.
Last year ASB joined fellow Australian banks Westpac and BNZ in outsourcing most back-office services after inking a custody and admin deal with BNP Paribas Securities Services NZ. BNZ and Westpac have long used external providers including Trustees Executors and Apex (formerly MMC) for various fund administration services.
Aside from ANZ, only AMP and Booster among the large KiwiSaver providers do most administration in-house. The $7 billion plus Kiwi Wealth, now owned by Fisher Funds, only recently switched off a long-running in-house admin system after outsourcing to BNP Paribas and Apex (MMC). However, it is understood the Kiwi Wealth business will ultimately switch to Fisher admin provider, Trustees Executors.
Currently, ANZ, which is the largest retail fund manager in NZ with three KiwiSaver schemes under tow among other investment products, performs all admin and local custody internally with JP Morgan acting as global custodian.
A spokesperson for the bank said: “ANZ partners with a number of suppliers across our New Zealand business, including those with specialised investment management expertise. We are always looking for opportunities to evolve or improve our business however we don’t comment publicly on commercial partnerships.”
The ANZ funds management team, headed by Fiona Mackenzie (pictured), has also seen several senior departures over the last few months including Alan Clarke, co-head of diversified portfolio management, and Australasian equities chief, Craig Brown.
