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(Pictured: Peter Hiom) Allowing the trading of international shares may well be the next challenge for ASX as it rolls out its “investment supermarket” strategy for Australian investors, but right now the mFund initiative is taking precedence, according to a roundtable organized last week by BNP Paribas Securities Services. A total of 18 fund managers, fiduciary…

(Pictured: Ken Chapman) by Penny Pryor The Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) is offering to help ratings providers finance research on retail corporate bonds. It has issued a request for a proposal through which it will help finance the ratings of retail bonds once the Simple Corporate Bonds and Other Measures Bill legislation, currently before parliament, is…

(Pictured: Grant Forster) While global institutional investors have gone cold on emerging markets as the place to be for the next few years, there are some interesting nuances to emerge in the latest CREATE-Research report commissioned by Principal Global Investors. Splitting investors into classes such as “buy and hold” or “opportunistic” and “true believers” or “non-believers”…

(Pictured: Daniel Cheever) REST Industry Super has renewed its custody and administration contract with State Street, growing total client funds to nine, which combined have over $100 billion in assets under administration. “It’s probably closer to $120 billion now,” Daniel Cheever, State Street vice president and head of superannuation, said. No official consultant was used for…

(Pictured: John Brogden) John Brogden, chief executive of the Financial Services Council, has offered to assist the Korean Government to set up an Australian investment office, as Korea has done in the US and UK, giving those countries an advantage in developing closer relationships. He also did a neat sales job for Australian fund managers in…

(Pictured: Roger Bridges) Comment by Greg Bright Australian investors have largely missed out on the 20-year bond rally, preferring to invest in cash for their liquid/defensive asset holding, according to Roger Bridges. He has the evidence to back this up but it’s not really the full story. Bridges is the respected head of fixed income…

While people like to focus on the size of the pensions and other savings pools a long-time into the future, they don’t often think about the size and structure of the asset management sector which will support the growth. A report from KPMG says the asset management industry is unsustainable. A combination of new technology,…

Fiona Trafford-Walker … ‘we have to be the voice of members who don’t have a voice’ On the cusp of its 20th birthday, Frontier Advisors will hold its annual conference in Melbourne next week. Greg Bright spoke with the big asset consulting firm’s Director of Consulting, Fiona Trafford-Walker, about the evolution of Frontier and the…

(Pictured: David Neal) Comment by Greg Bright  Maybe now, with confirmation of David Neal as its next chief executive, starting in August, it’s time for the Government to seriously consider privatising the Future Fund Management Agency. The Future Fund is a rare example of a government start-up business which has actually been successful. And while…

(Pictured: Craig Lazzarra) by Penny Pryor Superannuation funds should be benchmarking their performance to equal-weighted benchmarks instead of cap-weighted benchmarks, according to an S&P Dow Jones Indices (SPDJI) report. An equal-weighted index will give equal weighting to each stock within an index, whereas a cap-weighted index will have equivalent allocations to the stocks depending on…