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The Productivity Commission is likely to have a heavy focus on systemic dynamic efficiency in its forthcoming review – with fees and charges being a key element. Participants in the various market segments should take note of the hints in the recent draft report. The report “How to Assess the Competiveness and Efficiency of the Superannuation…

(pictured: Anthony Serhan)  Morningstar has introduced its global sustainability ratings to Australia, with an unlikely group of managers at the top of the list and a plan to roll out increased access to advisors so they can assess their own portfolios on detailed ESG factors. The initiative, which was announced last year, has been developed…

(pictured: Thomas Lee)  Smoothing the journey to retirement through various defensive strategies has generally been assumed to cost the member in terms of the end outcome. A paper by Parametric Portfolio Associates shows that this outcome, or ‘destination’, can also be enhanced in a defensive strategy. Parametric has published a paper that argues that it is…

(pictured: Stephen Jackman)  PwC Investment Consulting has thrown its support behind the trend to after-tax management of portfolios with a new report which provides some of the questions super funds should be asking of their managers and custodians. The report, ‘Ten Questions to Ask Your Investment Manager and Custodian on Tax’, says that tax is…

(pictured: Peter Monson) The rise of financial technology ‘disruptors’ is “one of the unintended consequences of post GFC regulation and monetary policy”, according to a new Nikko Asset Management paper. Authored by Singapore-based Nikko senior equity analyst, Peter Monson, the paper argues the burgeoning fintech sector has been buoyed “all-time low interest rates and intense regulatory…

(pictured: Rob Prugue) Rob Prugue, the high-profile regional chief executive of Lazard Asset Management, has embarked on a personal campaign to raise awareness for mental health issues and to stop the stigma still attached. Working with Lifeline, Prugue is personally organising a campaign to build and promote an app which could be of enormous benefit to…

(pictured: Arif Joshi) A group of heavyweight global bond managers visited Australia last week, drawn together by a Conexus conference in Melbourne. They differed on many things except one: emerging markets debt looks like coming into its own. GREG BRIGHT spoke to three of them. Of the US$18 billion or so of fund flows into emerging…

(pictured: Paul McNamara) On the surface, Brexit is not going to mean a lot to emerging markets fixed interest strategies. However, there are subtleties and, as always, some winners and losers from the move. Emerging markets fixed interest managers like those nuanced themes. According to Paul McNamara, GAM investment director and lead manager for emerging market…

(pictured: Matt Toms) Investors have a tendency to run from the last crisis towards the next one, just as regulators, like generals, fight the last war. What investors are running from is the bubble of securitisation, which burst in 2008, to corporate credit. Are they creating the next bubble? Matt Toms, the head of public fixed…

(pictured: David O’Sullivan)  David O’Sullivan, the long-serving chief executive of BUSSQ, and Linda Vickers, the fund’s chief operating officer, are to embark on new roles in a planned expansion of the executive team at the fund. The $3 billion Queensland-based fund for building and construction industries, which has about 90,000 members, will split the chief…