News

Paul Costello, the founding chief executive of the Future Fund, the founding chief executive of NZ Super and the second-last chief executive of STA before its merger to form AustralianSuper, died at 8.50am last Monday, November 5. He didn’t want to talk much about his career in the months before his death. He mainly wanted…

In the largest asset owner survey it has conducted, consulting and manager search firm bfinance uncovered that the trend to alternative, and more ‘costly’ – in terms of fees – strategies has, overall, saved money for big pension and super funds. The survey of 485 fiduciary investors, including 37 from Australia and New Zealand, spoke…

Recent research by Harvard Business School has shown an increasing price premium for stocks which rate highly on an ESG scale over others, and that much of the premium increase can be attributed to investor sentiment. As always, though, investors need to watch for value. With the help of TruValue Labs, which provided data and…

Insight Investment, the big funds management subsidiary of BNY Mellon, has launched a global sustainability model which dissects the risks in each country for sovereign debt investors. In its first unveiling today, the model shows Australia to be “generally strong” on ESG scores, although it is dragged down by environmental issues. New Zealand comes out…

There’s a lot happening in the regulatory world for financial services. Stuart Robert, new Assistant Treasurer, told the SuperRatings/Lonsec conference late last month that he was hopeful of at least four, maybe five, Bills making it through Parliament this month. Here is an interesting update from QMV Solutions. While preparation for round seven of the…

Global real estate firm LaSalle Investment Management has launched a new multi-manager real estate business following the completion of the acquisition of Aviva Investors’ real estate multi-manager arm. The new business will cover private and public debt and equity strategies around the world. It starts with about US$10 billion under management across the range of…

In its own inquiry into banking, but without Australia’s dirty linen, New Zealand’s Financial Markets Authority (FMA) could be handed more direct powers to govern bank conduct in the wake a joint regulatory report released last week. Following a nine-month probe into 11 NZ financial institutions – a collaboration between the FMA and the Reserve…

QSuper, the Queensland-based public sector fund, is to appoint Northern Trust as its new securities servicing provider following a review of its arrangements led by former Mercer Sentinel consultant Matthew Heeney. Heeney, who joined QSuper as head of investment operations from Mercer in January 2016, declined to comment on the move via the fund’s public…

The Government is looking to improve the superannuation system with respect to “excessive fees”, “inappropriate insurance premiums” and “inefficiencies”, according to the new Minister. Good luck with that. Neither governments nor their regulators have a great track record in any of those areas. In his first major speech to the industry, at the SuperRatings/Lonsec ‘Day…

The issues raised at the Royal Commission are not new or unique, Jeff Bresnahan said before announcing the SuperRatings Fund of the Year – UniSuper – at a gala dinner in Melbourne last week. “Some organisations seem to have a sense of self-entitlement that overrides members’ interests.” Bresnahan also said that if the “two commissions”…

Sam Harris, HESTA’s general manager for ‘insights and customer experience’, has taken out the Pendal Group ‘Retirement Innovation Award’ at the annual SuperRatings/Lonsec Awards night last week. The enhanced technology better monitors member feedback in a range of fields and media. Harris was also a finalist for this award last year – which was won…

by David Chaplin AMP Capital has created a new ‘public markets’ business to be headed by Sydney-domiciled Simon Warner, previously global CIO for fixed income. The London-based equities CIO, David Allen, will report to Warner. Multi-asset group (MAG) New Zealand-born chief, Sean Henaghan, heads off an a 15-month “sabbatical” next March with his direct reports…