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(Pictured: Byram Johnston) MainstreamBPO, the independent fund administrator for about 350 funds, has appointed its corporate and legal advisors for a planned ASX listing later this year. The size and timing of the capital raising are not yet known. While not exactly a fintech start-up, MainstreamBPO should attract some interest from investors who have been pouring…

by Jimmy Louca, Senior Economist, QIC Low interest rates have pumped up Australian house prices, leading to concerns that not only is housing across the nation becoming less affordable, but the boom will meet its eventual bust. However, we believe, the housing cycle over the next few years is likely to play out differently from this…

(Pictured: Tamar Hamlyn) Inflation-linked securities – CPI bonds – are likely to attract renewed interest because of the demographic shift happening in the super industry as it approaches the baby-boomers’ decumulation phase of their investment spans. Super funds should take note too. Tamar Hamlyn, a principal of fixed interest specialist Ardea Investment Management, has an interesting…

(Pictured: Steve Potter) After years of servicing Australia and New Zealand, successfully, with a fly-in/fly-out team, Northern Trust Asset Management has opened a three-person office in Melbourne under regional senior vice president for institutional business and strategy, Bert Rebelo, who will relocate from Hong Kong. Rebelo, who has been with Northern Trust for about 16 years…

(Pictured: Nadine Moore) Financial systems provider SS&C Technologies, which last December bought most of the business of DST International in Australia, has expanded its Australasian reach with the purchase of its enterprise reporting and investment portal platform by Trustee Executors of New Zealand.  The NZ firm had been a long-standing client of DST’s institutional back-office system…

(Pictured: Andrea West) An impressive array of industry and political heavyweights are to attend the third annual Chant West Super Fund Awards on May 6.  The Prime Minister, Mr Abbott, will present the Super Fund of the Year Award via video at the black-tie dinner. The awards night will be directed by MC Don Luke, the…

(Pictured: Patrick Colle) BNP Paribas Securities Services has invested more in Australia, in terms of people and systems, than in any other country in the past few years, Patrick Colle, the Paris-based chief executive told a media briefing last week. The firm is now getting about half of all new business from outside Europe. Colle said…

(Pictured: Andrew Kleinig) TIAA-CREF, a US firm with which many Australian industry funds have had discussions over the years, has opened an Australian office and last week held two roundtables – one on ESG issues and the other on investing in ‘real’ assets. But it’s TIAA-CREF’s expertise in retirement services that may most interest Australian funds….

(Pictured: Jesper Bruun-Olsen) Algomi Ltd, the fintech start-up backed by Lakestar Venture Capital, has commenced marketing its fixed income information platform in Australia, following the opening of a Hong Kong office earlier this year. The platform is like a social media hub for bond sellers – usually banks – and big investors – either fund managers…

Frontier Advisors has suggested its clients, mainly big super funds, include hedge funds in their consideration of portfolio insurance options, widening a brief that the consulting firm started early last year. This follows a ‘normalised’ value for the Aussie dollar and continued low level of sovereign bond yields. The asset-consulting firm says in its second…