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A massive pipeline of securities servicing reviews has developed which will make this year the most significant for changes in more than 10 years. Coupled with the reviews are reductions in prices which question the sustainability of services to super funds and managers. Custody and securities servicing reviews are known to be underway for: TWU…

(Pictured:Raymond Harbert)  Super funds and other investors interested in going down the benchmark-unaware path could do worse than study family offices and fund managers which have developed from private fortunes. Harbert Management Corporation, from Birmingham, Alabama, presents an interesting case study. Harbert, which started in the 1980s with a grab-bag of investments designed to diversify…

(Pictured:Wayne Bowers) Northern Trust Global Investments has not had a lot of exposure to Australia, unlike its securities services sister company. But interest in the firm recently increased following its being awarded four mandates by New Zealand Superannuation Fund. Wayne Bowers, Northern Trust’s international (non-US) CIO, says that international growth has been a focus over…

(Pictured:Jean-Rene Adam) The global financial crisis changed a lot of things for funds managers, but one of the least-well publicised affects has been a resurgence in the comparative fortunes of top-down managers. This is happening at a time when there is talk of “deglobalisation”,  also in the wake of the crisis. Eaton Vance and one…

(Pictured:Matthew Beesley) Investors who follow the rules can generally do a good job in steady markets. Super funds look likely to produce, in 2013, on average, their best calendar year returns for 10 years. But change is all around us. As the cliché goes: it’s the one constant. Henderson Global Investors, a fund manager whose…

Amanda Gillespie… ‘retirement piece is what we, as an industry, have to come to terms with. Lonsec Research is one of the main entities under Lonsec Fiscal Holdings, the result of the ownership change and recapitalization of the Lonsec research and broking group in mid-2011 with the SuperRatings super fund research firm. Amanda Gillespie, a long-time Lonsec employee and the chief executive of Lonsec Research, is…

Comment by Greg Bright I’m not sure anyone knows the likely direction of the news media into the future. Fairfax last week accepted about 35 voluntary redundancies among journalists following the closure of the print edition of BRW. The company has shed more than 20 per cent of its staff in the past three years….

(Pictured: Andy Budden) Investing in broad market indices such as the S&P/ASX 200 may inadvertently give rise to unexpected geographic exposures, according to analysis by Capital Group, one of the world’s largest active fund managers. While investors have long known that many Australian companies are active in other countries, they may be surprised to learn that…

After its first custody review in more than 20 years, the $23 billion Cbus super fund is preparing to move securities servicing providers. The investment team has put a recommendation to the board to replace NAB Asset Servicing with JP Morgan Investor Services. The review, overseen by Trish Donohue, Cbus’s executive manager of investment management,…

(Pictured: Rob Harrison) Fischer Francis Trees & Watts, the US-based bond manager controlled by BNP Paribas Investment Partners, is looking to increase its marketing efforts in Australia to coincide with the search by super funds for alternative defensive assets. Rob Harrison, the global head of FFTW and North American head for BNPP IP, said last week…