When it comes to geopolitics, investing isn’t as easy as “ESG”. With the prospect of sanctions leaving investors with stranded Russian assets on the balance sheet, several commentators have suggested this could all of have been avoided if those investors just took the “S” (social) and “G” (governance) in “ESG” more seriously. They believe that…
The chances of a nuclear apocalypse are allegedly higher now than during the Cold War – but from a financial perspective, investors should “largely ignore existential risk.” A note from Canada-based BCA Research warns that the world now faces a ten per cent chance of a nuclear war – but that the prospect of nuclear…
Rumoured talks between NAB Asset Servicing (NAS) and HSBC have re-opened the possibility that Australia’s last homegrown custody business will finally close its doors. The latest rumour circulating through Australia’s tight-knit asset servicing industry is that HSBC is pitching to negotiate the potential transfer of NAS’ 30 largest clients to its business, while NAS would…
While proponents believe that cryptocurrencies will inevitably disrupt traditional finance, it’ll be harder than it seems – and less lucrative than they think. As cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum have shot to prominence in the last several years, it’s now being taken as a given that they will eventually disrupt traditional finance. Blockchain technology offers…
While neither Ukraine or Russia are particularly large trading partners for the West, the risks created by the conflict aren’t negligible – and could easily spill over to the global economy. “The potential economic risk (of the Ukraine conflict) has three primary transmission mechanisms: higher global energy prices, further supply chain disruptions and a European…
To fix the Your Future, Your Super (YFYS) performance test, Treasury and regulators need to reconsider their fixation on a “bright line” measure. It’s a testament to the flaws of the YFYS performance test that, several months after it was first applied to MySuper products, the super sector’s intelligentsia are still trying to fix it….
Plenty of big super funds have announced their intention to dump their Russian assets, and the government wants them to. But saying do svidanya is harder than they thought. From a certain angle, there’s a lot of Russia in the super system. Once ruled by unapologetic socialists, they’ve both become capitalistic in the aftermath of…
BlackRock has a message for investors trying to navigate the confusion that has sundered markets in recent weeks: get used to it. Rising inflation was enough to give markets the jitters; tack on a war – and the prospect of an even bigger one, should the situation in Ukraine devolve further – and all the…
Hyperion believes that the sell-off in growth stocks in recent months has become indiscriminate, with the market failing to differentiate between trend setters and trend followers. The last few years has seen the ascendancy of high growth tech stocks in US and global markets, to the extent that many bears now believe it’s a bubble…
HSBC has recruited a State Street custody veteran as part of a long-planned expansion of its own business. Sinclair Scholfield has been appointed head of sales and client management for HSBC’s Securities Services business in Australia and New Zealand. Scholfield spent the last 18 years at State Street, where he was most recently head of…
