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Crypto-currency assets will never catch on with institutional investors until post-trade standards match those of traditional financial markets, a new report claims. The report, by DTCC, outlines the problems crypto currencies are having to gain traction with big investors. In a new white paper, the plethora of platforms trading the so-called crypto assets or “security…

by Greg Bright It took a while to arrange an interview with Garry Weaven. For a recent retiree he remains very busy, mostly still with super industry business. One suspects that his retirement, like most of his life, will be very different from the norm. He turned 70 last November and says it doesn’t get…

The best-performing asset class for the $35 billion Hostplus industry fund last year was private equity, Peter Collins, a trustee director, told a delighted audience of, mainly, private equity managers at the newly named Australian Investment Council dinner in Sydney last week. There was a record attendance of nearly 500 at the dinner, held in…

The Link Group has merged its ‘operations’ and ‘technology and innovation’ teams and brought the operations units of both its corporate markets – the share registry business – and fund administration divisions together under Paul Gardiner. Gardiner’s new title will be chief operations, technology and innovation officer, according to an internal memo sent to Link…

Everyone loves a good IPO story. Exopharm, up 175 per cent in the year of listing, last year, and Adriatic Metals, up 188 per cent. Then there was Ardea Resources the year before, up 850 per cent in the year of listing. But such sensational examples mask the real story across the IPO market. According…

 by Wes Hall and Tristan Laszok* Australia’s super system is heralded as one of the world’s most successful retirement income systems, but scratch the surface and things look different. The industry is suffering from underinvestment in administration and communications infrastructure, risk and compliance. If the large incumbents hope to continue managing Australia’s retirement savings, they…

The NSW Trustee and Guardian, which oversees a fiduciary fund of about $3 billion, is understood to have decided on a new securities services provider and custodian following a review by KPMG and a tender process. The fund, which came about through the merger in 2009 of the NSW Public Trustee and the Office of…

by Wietske Blees* Factor investment strategies are on the rise among Australian asset owners, with multi-factor strategies proving particularly attractive. However, while available research shows significant long-term risk/ return benefits, implementation hurdles remain considerable and errors can be costly. Stephen Quance, Asia Pacific director of factor investing at Invesco has noticed a significant uptake in…

For people doing operational due diligence on fund managers and other service providers for institutional investors, the examination of audited financial statements, a crucial part of the process, can be particularly difficult. Here’s a guide from Castle Hall, the global due diligence specialist. In the latest ‘primer’ in its ‘Due Diligence University’ industry education series,…

Both the chair of the former AVCAL, Andrew Major, and chief executive, Yasser El-Ansary, emphasised that the process behind the change of name signalled a new beginning for the organisation. Just as well. The process took 18 months. The new name was announced at the annual dinner last week, held in conjunction with the Australasian…

Institutional investors and their fund managers have been talking about the importance of taking a long-term view for a long time. But other things, such as the performance surveys and peer pressure, tend to get in the way. Now, Edinburgh-based Martin Currie Investments has drawn a line in the sand. Martin Currie’s emerging markets team,…

The dominos have started to fall for Australian-related class actions with the market having become “passive enough” that investors are looking to update their policies to ensure they can partake in the potential gains from legal actions. Two high-profile cases, Crown Resorts and Vocation, have deadlines today (March 4) for investor registration. According to Financial…