(Justin Cowper) Investec Asset Management has announced the launch of an Australian-domiciled institutional fund to capitalize on the trend to multi-asset investment offerings and the firm’s large international multi-asset team. Called, the Investec Diversified Growth (Australian) strategy, the fund will be managed as part of Investec Asset Management’s range of global multi-asset strategies. Michael Spinks…
According to more than 250 of the world’s largest participants in financial markets – the owners and clients of DTCC, such as big custodian banks – cyber security is the number-one risk to financial markets. In its latest six-monthly survey of clients, DTCC (the industry-owned Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation) reports that almost half (46…
(Virginie Maisonneuve) PIMCO, the world’s largest fixed income manager with about US$1.6 trillion under management, has closed down two of its equity funds, which it has been nurturing since 2009, and lost its global head of equities. While the closures amount to less than US$1.5 billion of its US$50 billion in equities, it is a…
by Penny Pryor At a star-studded dinner at Sydney’s Ivy Ballroom, UniSuper and QSuper, won the two top awards at the third annual Chant West Awards night, but for many in the room, it was Bruce Watson of AUSCOAL who stole the show with an impromptu and heartfelt appeal for the victims of the Nepal…
(Bill English) The New Zealand Superannuation Fund (NZS) has won important concessions in soon-to-be-passed legislation that allows it to assume majority control of some investment entities and fences certain underlying assets from public scrutiny. This could help the Future Fund lobby the Australian Government to relax some of its restrictions. Under the New Zealand Superannuation…
(Tim McGavin) by Greg Bright Australian super funds have had a long, but sparse, history with agricultural investments. It may be, however, that times have changed. Demographics make the new-look agricultural investments currently on offer seem particularly appealing. The old Prudential Australia, before it was bought by Colonial in 1998, was a pioneer with a…
(Dietmar Roessler) The 2015 BNP Paribas Securities Services risk assessment survey of fiduciary investors paints a solid picture of confidence among senior management of 177 of the largest funds. But there are significant differences in risk tools and perceived challenges between regions. Important themes to emerge from the survey results included the abatement of regulatory change…
 by Rob Prugue* One of the anthems for baby boomers is ‘American Pie’ by Don McLean. Whenever I hear this song, a song so close to my youth, a flood of memories comes back.  Surprisingly, when I was recently asked if I could sing the whole song, I realised I could barely get past the…
A US study has found institutional index investors are using their powers to influence corporate governance behaviour. The University of Pennsylvania paper, titled ‘Passive investors, not passive owners’, says its research overturns the common perception that index investing is a hands-off exercise. “Many worry that passive investors lack both the motives and mechanisms to monitor…
(Stuart Zanchi) Citi Transitions & Pensions, the oldest and largest remaining transition management business in Australia, has recruited Stuart Zanchi from NSW Treasury Corporation. He previously worked at JP Morgan, which shuttered its transitions business last year, and Goldman Sachs. Zanchi will be responsible, after he starts in mid-May, for multi-asset class portfolio transitions, derivative…
