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…
(Pictured: David Frazer) T. Rowe Price is continuing its Australian expansion with the appointment of David Frazer, an experienced relationships manager, following on from the establishment of a ‘client operations’ manager position, filled by Irene Chung. In the past 12 months the Baltimore-based global firm has established an Australian equities capability and also appointed its…
(Pictured: Michael Kelly) As super funds increasingly look to adopt a more outcomes-orientated approach to the governance of their assets, one interesting fall-out has been the trend to create a new bucket in their asset allocation for several multi-strategy managers. Sometimes called “the new balanced”, multi-strategy funds use dynamic asset allocation (DAA) skills to target…
(Pictured: James Hayes) Australia’s 15 largest asset owners and managers of credit portfolios are expecting to invest more in local credit markets this year, according to a study by BNP Paribas. But, no surprise, sovereign debt is their least favoured sub-class at the moment. The 15 big credit investors make up more than half of…
BNP Paribas Investment Partners has added to its suite of multi-affiliate managers through a deal with global value equity specialist Barrow, Hanley, Mewhinney & Strauss (Barrow Hanley). Through the alliance, BNP Paribas, which represents the quality fixed interest manager Fischer Francis Trees & Watts and several others, will be the exclusive distributor of Barrow Hanley’s…
(Pictured: Michael Dwyer) Michael Dwyer, the chief executive of the $43 billion First State Super, has long been a supporter of Australia for UNHCR. He urges his colleagues in the financial services industry to support the organization on World Refugee Day, this Friday, June 20. And he has some good reasons. Dwyer applauds the industry…
Robert da Silva, a fixed income specialist and new co-CIO at van Eyk Research, is about to begin a review of the fixed income sector and hints that ‘minor enhancements’ will be made in the process After leaving school and stocking shelves at Coles for two years, Robert da Silva went back to university and…
(Pictured:Â Martin Smith) Mainstream BPO, the fund management administration specialist, has both expanded its Asian presence and added to its Australian service offering through the acquisition of a Hong Kong-based middle-office service provider, HFO Hong Kong. The privately owned firm has had a fully fledged office in Singapore for the past two years but only a…
