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(pictured: Jane Buchan)  The issue of gender diversity – or lack of it – in the alternatives space will be aired at the upcoming AIMA Australia Forum in Sydney. It is more difficult for female hedge fund managers to raise money from investors despite comparable returns with their male counterparts. Jane Buchan, one of the…

(pictured: Jim Christensen)  Some super funds are looking to change their global benchmarks to cater for the “upside down world” of negative interest rates and ongoing uncertainty about the worth of quantitative easing, especially in Japan. At a briefing organised by QIC last week, at which the manager’s latest paper on fixed income investing was…

(pictured: Alan Bird) The New Plymouth District Council (NPDC) in New Zealand has ditched its in-house investment strategy in favour of a fully-outsourced approach. It is conducting a review of potential providers. Following the changes approved at an official meeting last week, the Council will seek an implemented solution for its approximately NZ$270 million (A$257 million)…

(pictured: Louis Kuijs) The currency investment decision for super funds is the biggest and, arguably, most difficult they have to make. The Australian dollar has had the largest depreciation of any Asia Pacific currency since mid-2014, benefitting most big funds. In a new study, Oxford Economics predicts the future for Asian currencies. According to the paper…

(pictured: Adrian Banner) Portfolio rebalancing has long been recognised as a way to add long-term value and maintain or improve diversification. However, it has always been difficult to measure its impact. Now, a US-based quant manager has applied to patent its algorithm for better performance attribution. Enhanced Investment Technologies (known as INTECH outside of Australia), an…

(pictured: Damian Moloney)   Last week’s commentary on manager fees, questioning whether super funds realised the services they contract may be damaged as a result of the pressure, drew a good deal of response from both managers on the one hand and funds and consultants on the other. The two sides continue to line up in…

(pictured: Patrick Lemmens and Jeroen van Oerle)   To date it is the big banks which have invested most in the development of distributed ledger technologies, commonly known as ‘blockchain’. But uses other than streamlined payments are rapidly being explored. New research calmly examines the likely impact for all financial services players. The research, by investment…

(pictured: Chris Thompson)  BT Financial Group is to shift about $800 million in international alternatives assets to GMO, with the US hedge fund-of-funds manager Ramius understood to be the main loser, in a rejig of its $3.2 billion alternatives portfolios for retail investors. The move follows some significant personnel changes at BTFG, including the recent…

(pictured: Andy Sowerby) Takeovers, especially in financial services, usually fail to add value from the perspective of both the clients and shareholders of the acquiring company. Or the clients of the acquired company, for that matter. Usually it’s just the shareholders of the acquired company who do well. The important thing for the acquiring company’s shareholders…

(pictured: Ken Shaw)   After casting its net outside the securities servicing sector of the industry, including talking to fund managers, NAB Asset Servicing (NAS) has settled on one of its own kind for the new position of general manager sales. Ken Shaw, a former long-time business development manager at BNP Paribas Securities Services, who has…