The accusations of insider trading hurled at Australia’s big super funds are explosive in nature – and pose something of a headscratcher. Regardless of their weight, reputations are at stake. The revelations made by ASIC on Wednesday last week (October 27) are a tough wake-up call for an industry that prides itself on its duty…
A profound shift in the investment environment demands a revolution – not an evolution – in thinking, according to Ruffer. It might be the only way to defy gravity. The analogy that Ruffer uses for investor behaviour over the last 40 years is that of crabs. The humble crustaceans evolved to fill their niche from…
A significant chunk of super fund advertising could now be on ice, with APRA finding that marketing expenditure could not be shown to have improved members’ financial position. As stapling puts a nail in the coffin of default distribution, many of Australia’s biggest super funds have turned their attention to the dark art of advertising…
It’s probably too early to pick the winners in the transition to net-zero. But the lack of a solid plan at the Federal level is making things even more complicated. The interest in renewable energy has grown substantially over the past 18 months, and particularly in the leadup to COP26, where world leaders aim to…
Australia’s industry funds have launched a full-throated defence of their sector as the national default fund debate heats up. Politics and performance are both at stake. The idea of a national default fund is a bold one, and has been advanced a number of times over the 30-year history of compulsory superannuation in Australia. Its…
The money that industry super funds are spending on buying renewables would be better spent building them, according to Quinbrook. But there’s plenty of challengers for that view. The fresh interest in renewable infrastructure from industry funds has come with plenty of caveats. One of the major problems is finding investment opportunities at scale, while…
The new players in any market are smaller, faster, and (sometimes) better. But that doesn’t mean they can’t be dragged back down to the earth. Disruption is hard to take. It’s not for no reason that Luddites smashed up textile machinery (history has not been as kind to them as it perhaps could have, given…
In China, merchants have historically sat below poets in the social pecking order. Understanding why is the key to understanding the crackdown. China’s apparently punitive crackdown on its powerhouse fintechs is nothing new. “Look at the historical hierarchy of China; the courts and politicians are at the very top of the pyramid, where you can…
Pengana’s star international equities team have built their new home from the ground up, drawing on a history of weathering global crises to prepare for the climate upheaval sweeping markets. Six months before the collapse of Lehman Brothers sent markets into a death spiral, Jordan Cvetanovski sold the banks. Cvetanovski (pictured) was working at French…
Investor demand for climate disclosure is at an “all-time high” – and rising. But disclosure is only half the battle. It can sometimes be hard to remember that climate change action was once solely the domain of activist groups rather than those who occupy lofty board positions. As Mary Schapiro, head of the Task Force…
