Research Affiliates has taken the study of factor timing to a user-friendly new level through a paper which argues that the market’s momentum and valuation are good predictors of economic influences. The paper, by Mike Aked, director of research for Australia, shows that a strategy based on a factor’s discount to historical averages of value…
Australian investors put more money into traditional equity funds in February and March than they did in the whole of 2019, prior to the impact of covid-19. A new index shows Australians also had more conviction. According to figures from Calastone, which passes about 95 per cent of all fund flows, mostly from platforms, to…
The three largest global custodian banks have enjoyed hefty increases in the total assets under custody and administration in the March quarter as markets continued to rebound. BNY Mellon is still the biggest. BNY Mellon remained the largest in the world, by a whisker, ahead of State Street, but third-placed J.P. Morgan Chase, America’s largest…
Front-to-back services and market activity have helped the big global asset servicing companies to record levels of assets under custody and administration in the March quarter, despite falling interest income. State Street emphasised the success of its front-to-back offering, which it calls ‘State Street Alpha’, with the quarterly Wall Street earnings statement (April 16) coinciding…
Tricia Nguyen, a principal of Mercer, has been promoted to head of Mercer Sentinel following the move by Peter Baker to a part-time role with the business. The changeover had been planned for some time. Nguyen, who became a principal of the group on joining Mercer Sentinel in 2015, said that her move was part…
Yarra Capital last week completed its acquisition of Nikko Asset Management’s Australian business, taking its assets under management to about $20 billion. Now the hard work begins. Branding has been decided, with Yarra Capital to remain the overall brand, Nikko’s fixed income business to be subsumed into Yarra’s and the old Tyndall Asset Management brand…
Warakirri Asset Management has cemented its position as the second-largest fund manager in Australian agriculture with the launch of a second fund in the buy/lease sector. The Warakirri Farmland Fund, launched last week (April 12), has been seeded by a European pension fund. It differentiates itself from the Warakirri Diversified Agriculture Fund (DAF) by being…
Amundi has revamped its old responsible investing green bond fund as a broader strategy which looks to also mitigate against societal damage from the shift to renewables. The new fund, ‘Just Transition for Climate’, retains the fixed income and credit investment strategies, with a sharper focus on carbon reduction, while integrating scores to do with…
ESG investing continues to polarise institutional investors around the world, with a surprisingly large number considered ‘contrarians’ who tend to buck the trend to ESG’s adoption and integration. This is one of the outcomes from research by Nuveen, the NYSE-listed global funds management arm of big US-based TIAA (formerly TIAA-CREF), a profit-for-members financial services organisation….
After years of consolidation in the member administration space for big super funds, smaller and newer competitors appear to be gaining ground. FNZ and Grow have won their first clients. GROW Inc (formerly Grow Super) was selected by Vanguard as the administrator for the manager’s proposed new superannuation business, against most industry predictions, and FNZ…
