Carl Blanchard The NZ$33 billion (A$30.3 billion) Accident Compensation Commission (ACC) investment fund is preparing to scale up its exposure to unlisted assets after hiring investment banker Carl Blanchard in a newly created role. Blanchard, who resigned from an investment banking position at broking house First NZ Capital last week, will join the ACC fund…
Daniel Ivascyn After its annual ‘Secular Forum’, which this year boasted speakers such as Ben Bernanke, Rob Arnott, Dr Anat Admati and Jean-Claude Trichet, as well as the PIMCO investment team leaders, the manager produced a cautiously optimistic report and a set of guidelines for global investors to follow. The report sets out six trends in…
Peter Gunning The annual Russell Investments/ASX long-term performance study of the nine major asset classes has led the advisory firm and multi-manager to question traditional investor allocations to domestic shares and residential property. With the possibility of a housing bubble in Sydney and Melbourne – as well as Auckland in New Zealand – being openly…
Michael Baldwin After 18 months as assistant director of the National Gallery in Canberra, Michael Baldwin has returned to the super fund industry in a new position at First State Super, following closely on two other senior changes at the $53 billion fund. The former chief executive of FEAL has become the head of corporate…
Xavier Dumon An interesting case study for both Australian fintech and traditional financial services firms alike is the experience over the last couple of years of Hello bank!, an associate company of BNP Paribas, which has taken Europe’s Generation Z’s by storm. Hello bank!, owned by the French-based BNP Paribas and Fortis bank of Belgium,…
by Sandy Rattray* It was US presidential advisor Bert Lance who popularised the phrase “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” while serving under Jimmy Carter in the late 1970s. He went on to say: “That’s the trouble with government: fixing things that aren’t broken and not fixing things that are broken.” For many in…
Pam McAlister Mercer has produced a detailed report on super fund governance, including board structures, in the context of worldwide practices. It supports improved competencies and independence levels among trustees, but has stopped short of recommending mandated changes. The report – written by Mercer partner Pam McAlister and principal Liana Brover, both consultants in Mercer’s ‘governance…
Alexandra McGuigan Tribeca Investment Partners, an affiliated manager of Grant Samuel Funds Management, has appointed a new head of business development, after splitting the role for the past two years between the portfolio managers and the Grant Samuel marketers. Alexandra McGuigan has left third-party marketer Shed Enterprises to take up the role, which was last…
Leigh Gavin by Barrie Dunstan Australian fund managers may be under more pressure from their big clients to reduce fees following a comprehensive survey by asset consultant Frontier Advisors which was presented to clients at its 20th annual conference last week in Melbourne. Senior Frontier consultant Leigh Gavin said Australians paid far too much in…
Chris Cuff and John Sevior Chris Cuffe, who built Colonial First State into a retail powerhouse before moving to the “other side” as chairman of UniSuper, has raised serious questions about the future structure of the wealth management industry over the next two-to-three years. Speaking at the Frontier Advisors conference, he queried the future of…
