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(pictured: David Gallagher) The Centre for International Finance and Regulation, the university-backed and mainly federally funded investment research body, is likely to cease operations at the end of this year following the Government’s failure to renew its funding in last week’s Budget. Professor David Gallagher, CIFR chief executive, wrote to supporters and other stakeholders last Friday…

(pictured: Kevin O’Sullivan, MC Pauline Vamos and Warren Chant; Mark Delaney; Andrew Howard, REST, and Scott Hartley, Sunsuper) The Australian super fund industry is held up as a model for the rest of the world but “in true Australian fashion” we tend to talk down its achievements, according to Warren Chant. The Chant West Awards…

(pictured: Julian Poulter) Australian super funds have been ranked third in the world overall for taking action on climate change, with 10 of our funds getting into the top decile of the annual ‘Climate 500 Index’ of big funds published by the Asset Owners Disclosure Project. Local Government Super was ranked second in the world and…

(pictured: Hersh Gandhi) The global financial crisis prompted significant change among the world’s alternative fund managers – a move to greater liquidity, a move to a more institutional client base and a move to more diversification and customisation of investment offerings. The Man Group, the world’s largest listed alternatives manager, provides an interesting case study in…

(pictured: Niall Ferguson) Renowned UK financial historian, Niall Ferguson, will make his New Zealand debut next week in a one-time-only deal at the Portfolio Construction Forum (PCF) Symposium in Auckland, ahead of a series of meetings in Australia. In a coup for the Graham Rich-run PCF, Ferguson – author of 14 books including the bestseller-cum-TV series…

(pictured: Sandra Urie) Sandra Urie is to step down as chair and chief executive of global asset consultant Cambridge Associates after 25 years with the firm, but will remain, at least part-time, working with clients in the role as “chairman emeritus”. She hopes to devote more time to impact investing, which is a personal passion. Urie…

(pictured: Christopher Schelling) A big US pension fund is investigating the use of personality and aptitude tests for fund managers to become part of its due diligence process. The fund’s head of private equity investments, Christopher Schelling, has written a paper explaining the rationale. Schelling, the director of private equity at the Texas Municipal Retirement System,…

(pictured: Jonathan Shead) New research by State Street Global Advisors indicates that there is still a lot of work to be done for, even, big fiduciary investors to understand the value in factor investing. The research also shows these investors seem a bit unrealistic about expected returns. In its regular survey of 400 of the world’s largest…

(pictured: Jon Howie) BlackRock has cut the management fee on two of its most popular ETFs in the package launched last week as a ‘core’ offering designed for new investors to the ETF market. Jon Howie, the head of iShares Australia, said that in ‘Act I’, relatively sophisticated investors used iShares, with about 50 per cent…

(pictured: Alex Vynokur) AMP Capital and BetaShares have formed an alliance to launch a range of active ETFs. This follows the success of the launch late last year of Magellan’s global active ETF and, according to BetaShares, marks the new generation of exchange-traded products (ETPs). AMP Capital and BetaShares will launch the first three ETPs under their alliance on the…