State Super of NSW, Australia’s largest defined benefit fund, has secured its CIO, Mark O’Brien, as a key part of its reconstruction under a new board and management. Four other investment professionals are currently being sought. State Super (SAS Trustee Corporation) is a $A36 billion closed fund overseen by the NSW Government for some of…
In contrast with its competitor Mercer, Russell Investments has more closely linked its Australia and New Zealand businesses with the rest of Asia by abolishing the position held by former chief executive Chris Corneil. Alan Schoenheimer, who has had responsibility for Australia, New Zealand and SE Asia since 2004, and who has been based back…
As authorities and banks trial various alternatives to the Libor index in the wake of its manipulation in the past, fund managers and their clients need to decide on a policy for measurement of short-term interest rate movements in the future. While many managers may well “muddle through” by continuing to use Libor without contingencies,…
Most pension funds had a good year for returns in both equities and bonds in 2012, according to the latest Towers Watson Global Pension Assets Study, to be published today. Australian superannuation assets rose from 96 per cent of GDP to 101 per cent, joining the Netherlands, Switzerland, the UK and US as the only…
Telstra Super, Australia’s largest corporate fund, has filled its vacant chief financial officer position but is now searching for a new chairman ahead of the retirement of David Leggo. Paul Curtin has resigned from a similar position at industry fund Vision Super to take up the Telstra CFO role, which has been vacant since last…
IO&C, the conference business which produces this newsletter, has recruited the services of John Hamer, an experienced funds management executive, as a consulting conference producer. Hamer, who was most recently a sales and marketing executive in funds management at Pengana Capital, will be working part-time with IO&C, which is a business unit of Binalong Advisory…
In an upbeat finish to the World Economic Forum in Davos, the European Central Bank president and the Goldman Sachs chief executive expressed optimism about conditions later this year. Mario Draghi said he expected the Eurozone economy to begin its recovery in the second half but that further “fiscal consolidation” was inevitable. Goldman’s Lloyd Blankfein…
The sustainability trend among institutional investors is gathering pace with Mercer publishing a note announcing it was “seeking innovative and experienced managers with a compelling investment case to help our clients implement their sustainable strategy”. Helga Birgden, Mercer’s head of responsible investment, Asia Pacific, who wrote the note, says that Mercer’s research over a number…
Chris Cuffe, the UniSuper chair and former Colonial First State boss, is about to get into publishing with the launch of a weekly newsletter for investment and superannuation, called Cuffelinks. Cuffe is joined by three other “grey-haired colleagues” who believe the industry is lacking sufficient independent quality writing about issues, at the same time defending…
Andrew Bloore, the founder of SMSF platform provider SuperIQ, believes that large super funds are seeing that they are better off working together with the self-managed market rather than “tearing each other apart”. “We are not the enemy,” he says. “The emerging superannuation landscape allows people to move out of an industry fund, once they…
