News

While there’s a perception that defined benefit funds have mostly vanished from the earth, they still manage a hefty chunk of Australia’s pension savings and DC funds can learn a lot from them in their efforts to solve the retirement problem for their members

With its former CIO off to CalPERS, the Guardians of New Zealand Superannuation has taken the opportunity to review its investment team structure and appoint co-CIOs.

AQR co-founder and CIO Cliff Asness talks to ISN about how social media might be making markets less efficient, the cloak and dagger world of alternative data, and why using machine learning means having to “let go of some things you cherish”.

The $341 billion AustralianSuper has taken a significant stake in US-based DataBank to catch the AI and digitalisation waves that pension funds all around the world are trying to surf.

Historically, the unglamorous asset servicing businesses of the big international banks have largely stood in the shadows. But their reliable cashflows and deep institutional relationships mean that’s all starting to change.

A coalition of Australian and British pension funds representing A$3.25 trillion of workers’ retirement savings has called on the Starmer government to reform policy settings so they can tip more money into the energy transition in the UK.

BNP Paribas Securities Services has released its European road-tested ESG compliance tool in Australia and NZ amid a step-up in regulatory oversight of sustainable investment practices in the region.

Even established asset managers are under threat from the violent shift towards low-cost investment vehicles, while allocator preference for platform businesses means they must also bulk up in the private markets.

Andrew Lill has stepped down as chief investment officer of the $86 billion Rest, bound for parts yet unknown. The fund he leaves looks very different to the one he joined.

Authorities have had enough of greenwashing excuses, and they’re lobbing record fines at transgressors. Funds will have to lift their game.

AMP will reduce the headcount across its superannuation and North platform businesses and press ahead with changes to its redundancy policies even as the Finance Sector Union warns that “staff deserve better”.

True diversification means owning assets that are truly uncorrelated. But that fact hasn’t stopped big investors from piling into the private markets while pretending that the Fed Put can protect their public portfolios.