The exceptional economic growth of the Asian region, particularly that of China, compared with most of the rest of the world is prompting some institutional investors to canvass the possibility of considering the region, or even just China, as a separate asset class. They should be wary of taking such a path. Chris Condon, a…
The exemptions and detailed regulations surrounding the introduction of FATCA are unlikely to be resolved for several months, offering little comfort to custodians and other institutions, despite the postponed start date. The US Internal Revenue Service has announced that the impacted institutions have until January 2014 to put in place their reporting requirements under the…
The trend for increased regulation and capital requirements, which is unlikely to be reversed anytime soon, has prompted the formation of a new type of institutional investment – a ‘regulatory capital fund’. The fund, managed by a privately owned funds management start-up, Regulatory Capital Management, is an Australian-domiciled wholesale trust open to super funds and…
Asia is different from the West. Recent consolidation among investment banks, attempts to merge their activities with wealth management arms and disappointments among a plethora of expansionary Western institutions point to some of the fundamental differences. A recent report by Dr Arjuna Sittampalam, a research associate at the EDHC-Risk Institute, highlights some of the issues…
The “cluster effect” of Chinese financial services firms is benefitting Luxembourg as a hub for RMB-based investment in Europe, according to Nicolas Mackel, the country’s Consul General in Shanghai. He is part of a trade mission from Luxembourg to China late this month, which will include Prince Guillaume, Luxembourg’s Hereditary Grand Duke, and Etienne Schneider,…
China’s slowdown has driven a region-wide decline in exports and Asian underperformance compared with global markets, according to the latest Russell Asia Market Commentary. The report notes that Asia ex-Japan has underperformed in Russell’s Global Developed index over the last 12 months. “Concerns on China’s slowdown and the impact of the economic downturn on Asia’s…
@cap: Christina Liosis Telstra Super, Australia’s largest remaining corporate fund, with more than $US 11 billion under management, has become the latest to introduce a new investment platform targeting members with high account balances. Like AustralianSuper early this year, Telstra has selected the combination of systems provider FNZ and broker UBS for the new platform…
A proposal by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority for large super funds to disclose all of their holdings, even those requiring a “look through” their units in trusts, has raised several concerns by custodians on behalf of their clients. While not being opposed to the proposal’s aim of greater transparency, in line with what is…
A study by two academics from the University of Verona, who looked at four years of information on sovereign wealth funds, have concluded that these institutional investors behave differently, often for political reasons, but only in the short term. In the medium-to-long term, SWFs invest in much the same way as the big pension funds…
@cap: Matt Christensen Evidence is mounting that ESG factors are positively correlated with investment returns and, perhaps more surprisingly, it is not just at the stock selection level. Sovereign bonds are also impacted by ESG factors at the country level. New evidence is being presented by AXA Investment Managers throughout the region, as the diversified…
