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(Justin Walsh)  FTSE Group, the LSE-owned global index provider, has appointed an executive director to head up Australia and New Zealand – Justin Walsh, who was most recently executive director and head of sales at rival MSCI Group. Walsh has had a mix of research and sales roles over the past 15 years, including as…

(David Knights) David Braga, who recently became the Australia and New Zealand chief executive of BNP Paribas Securities Services, has stood down as chair of the Australian Custodial Services Association, to be replaced by NAB Asset Servicing’s David Knights. Knights is the general manager of client delivery at NAB, who took the spot at ACSA…

(Pictured: Adam Gee and Geoff Warren) by Greg Bright How can all these people be so wrong: Jeremy Cooper, two successive Federal Governments, the Financial System Inquiry and the Grattan Institute? But there is growing evidence that the focus on fees resulting in MySuper is failing members and that all those people are wrong. Two…

(Pictured: Steve Schubert) Steve Schubert, one of Australia’s leading actuaries, has made the move into funds management. He has left Mercer after four years as partner and, most recently, leader of strategic client partnerships and future opportunities. Schubert joined Melbourne-based Cooper Investors last month as chief operating officer. He said: “After 35 years working for companies…

(Pictured: Ray King)  Ray King has left Mercer Investments, where he has been a partner and senior consultant in the private markets and alternatives area for the past three years since Mercer acquired his former consulting firm, Sovereign Investment Research. His departure followed a restructure among Mercer’s alternatives teams internationally due to the amalgamation with…

Northern Trust has won out in the rationalisation by QIC of its asset servicing providers, replacing NAB Asset Servicing for the main back-office functions of the increasingly global manager. As reported last week, QIC had reviewed the use of both Northern Trust, which has provided mainly middle-office functions at QIC for the past few years,…

At least six final bidders remain in the running to buy Russell Investments, according to offshore media reports. Towers Watson and Threadneedle are considered among the frontrunners. The Financial Times (FT) last week named global asset consulting firm Towers Watson and Ameriprise, owner of funds management firm Threadneedle, as second-round bidders for the Russell Investments…

(Pictured: Leigh Gavin) For years fund managers have spoken about having ‘partnerships’ with their super fund clients, but it is only in the past few years, first in the US and now Australia, has the idea developed its own special forms of contract between the parties. Frontier Advisors has produced an interesting paper on the growing…

KiwiSaver member growth is continuing at a solid clip with total membership edging 2.5 million, according to the latest Inland Revenue Department (IRD) statistics. Over the previous 12 months, KiwiSaver member numbers grew 7.5 per cent to hit almost 2.49 million as at the end of March 2015, the IRD figures show. The membership figure…