In the competitive world of global equities strategies it is increasingly difficult to stand out from the crowd. In Europe and Asia Pacific, for instance, Mercer Investment Consulting lists nearly 200 global equities managers offering their services to institutional clients. So, when there’s a new(ish) entrant to the market, there is reason for a raft…
To understand the future is to understand the past. At the pointy end of the investment process, the story of the evolution of asset servicing can provide an important guide to the future, especially in the rapidly developing Asia Pacific region. In this regard, Northern Trust is a valuable case study. When Steven Fradkin joined…
Japan is proposing to remove some of the restrictions around short-selling in a move that should have a flow-on effect to the securities lending market and overall liquidity in the Japanese sharemarket. The main proposal is the removal of the ‘up-tick rule’, which prohibits short-selling at or below current prices – that is, the price…
The big challenge for the superannuation industry as it greets the latest “mega trend” of transparency is whether to go down the voluntary or compulsory route, Benjie Fraser, a London-based managing director of JP Morgan, will tell the annual CMSF Conference this week. Fraser, a governance expert who has worked with and studied Europe’s largest…
The trend to use new “smart beta” strategies appears to be gathering pace as fund managers broaden their offerings and seek to better differentiate their management styles and approaches. There is not yet a consensus about what constitutes smart beta but the investment management industry is pretty good at refining its jargon, especially when it…
The introduction of member investment choice within a fund and compulsory choice of fund for most employees split the Australian superannuation industry during the late 1990s. The arguments on both sides were both practical and philosophical. What’s happening now, though, may have far greater consequences for aggregate retirement incomes and yet is attracting little debate….
When institutional investors are picking active managers – whether or not they have asset consultants or other advisers involved – it’s all about confidence and judgement, according to new research. Quantitative analyses “are just tools”. The research, presented last Friday at a lunch organized by the Investment Innovation Institute (i3), followed a study of the…
Hedge funds, and particularly funds of hedge funds, have been getting a bad rap of late, but consulting firm Mercer is standing by these investment strategies – at least in theory. Writing on the Mercer Linkedin Group dialogue recently, Nick White, Mercer director of consulting, says that when used properly in the context of the…
Columbia University in the US has embarked on a study of short-termism among investors, and whether activist investors, company remuneration policies and other factors are contributing to it. Short-termism has been complained about for many years, but new styles of investing, such as rapid-trade and the addition of momentum to previously deep-value styles, appear to…
CARE Super’s head of investments, Greg Nolan, and Retirement Benefits Fund of Tasmania’s CEO, Phillip Mussared, won the top investment education scholarships presented by the Fund Executives Association Ltd last week. The scholarships, sponsored by Aberdeen Asset Management and the Centre for Investor Education (CIE), involve attendance at one of CIE’s international forums, this time…
