Big and traditional managers are encroaching further on the space of alternative managers, gauging by winners and finalists at the sector’s annual awards on Friday night. The Australian Alternative Investment Awards, held in conjunction with the Hedge Funds Rock charity night at the Sydney Hilton, December 10, represented a welcome live, and lively, event for…
Investor concerns about the pandemic are fading. All eyes are now on the burgeoning threat of cyber-attacks, and what they mean for financial system stability. The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC) risk barometer was launched in 2013, and provides a handy insight into what’s worrying investors in any given year. And after two years…
Michael Lebbon wants to create carbon data that’s as ubiquitous as Uber. But he believes that too much consolidation in the still nascent industry risks creating a dangerous game of follow the leader. “I’ve never wanted to work in pure finance; it didn’t sit well with me,” says Michael Lebbon, CEO of carbon data startup…
AMP has a long road ahead. But the big challenge isn’t to change the culture – it’s making everybody else care about it. For decades, the AMP logo has sat high above Sydney Harbour, a potent symbol of one of Australia’s oldest companies and an integral part of what many consider entirely peripheral: brand. Now…
When it comes to the question of who’s actually doing the research work, investors know the answer. And they don’t feel like sitting on the sidelines during a crisis. Some trends you can see from space. Inflows into ESG equity funds on the Calastone network between January and November were US$30 billion – 60 per…
The emergence of omicron has seen plenty of blood in the streets, and the quiet vindication of one of Australia’s most divisive investors. But doomsday has been postponed again. Like him or hate him, Hamish Douglass was (probably) right. Lambasted for the subpar performance of Magellan’s flagship global equity strategy during an incredible bull run…
Manufacturers and super funds alike need to do more on the burning issue of retirement products. So far, they’ve failed to innovate. A full generation of superannuants are about to enter the decumulation phase, with little idea about what to do with the nestegg they’ve built up. And despite the new retirement income covenant, superannuation…
Member engagement is starting to rise from a very low base. But the industry is still “net nowhere” when it comes to winning their hearts and minds. It’s widely acknowledged that member engagement remains unacceptably low. Try as they might, super funds can’t seem to get members to care about their retirement savings, as evidenced…
The economic aftermath of Covid-19 was never going to be as bad as it seemed at the time. But governments will be hooked on splashing cash. “Economic scarring” was all anybody could talk about in the immediate aftermath of the first wave of Covid-19, and for good reason; it’s well understood that the effects of…
Today’s investors are “riding for a fall”, according to Oaktree Capital founder Howard Marks. Markets could well be in for a repeat of the Nifty Fifty. When Howard Marks was just starting his career in finance in 1969, the preceding 20 years had been “a “mostly unchanging backdrop… in front of which events and cycles…
