News

by David Chaplin The NZ$40 billion-odd NZ Superannuation Fund (NZS) has confirmed it will replace the CIO role formally left vacant this June as incumbent, Matt Whineray, ascended to the top job at the organisation. In a job ad listed last week, the NZS says the CIO role is a “high profile leadership position” with…

by Alex Wise* Decision making by Australian trustees and fiduciaries has been called into question during the recent hearings at the Royal Commission into banking and super. Effective due diligence underpins informed decision making when appointing external fund managers, argues Castle Hall. In today’s world of ever-widening duties on those charged with investment decisions, the…

Vanguard has rolled out a suite of environmental, social and governance (ESG) funds first offered in NZ to the Australian market. Last week Vanguard launched the ‘Ethically Conscious’ range of global share and bond funds in both unlisted and ETF formats in Australia. The passive fund giant, which manages more than US$5 trillion worldwide, released…

Super funds are participating in the global share market rally, with big gains from US and European markets providing a promising start to the 2018-19 financial year, according to the latest numbers from SuperRatings. The median balanced option grew at an estimated 1.1 per cent in July, while the median growth option delivered 1.3 per…

The nascent world of impact investing, whereby funds management enjoins with philanthropy and governments in specific projects and/or strategies, is about to get much more professional. A new academic study shows what needs to be done to give the recent growth trend a kick along. Michael van Niekerk, the author of “Scaling Impact Investment and…

The private debt market is taking off as an asset class for big internationally orientated pension funds. According to bfinance, the global mandate search specialist and advisor, more than 40 private debt searches have been undertaken in the past two years, two of which were for Australian super funds. Niels Bodenheim, a London-based senior director…

The avalanche of new regulations over all aspects of financial services in Europe – and we’re not talking about financial advisors here, we’re talking about the engine room of the financial system – is having increasingly global ramifications. A new study by DTCC attests to the latest imposts. The paper highlights the impact of securities…

by David Chaplin and Greg Bright Two stories in recent weeks from New Zealand may cast a light over the future direction for funds management and ‘product’ fees, such as those charged by super funds, in Australia and elsewhere. Because of its unique nature in the financial services world, New Zealand is becoming an interesting…

ESG investing, one of the major thematics of the last few years and, no doubt, the next many years, is not just about equity investing. Fixed income is becoming increasingly ESG focused. Insight Investment tells how it is going about the new wave of ESG oversight. Bruce Murphy, director, Australia and New Zealand, at Insight…

The Alternative Investment Management Association has published a paper that presents a future outlook of the role, value and sustainability of hedge funds in Australia through the eyes of institutional investors. The AIMA paper, ‘VISION 2025: Perspectives of Leading Australian Investors in Hedge Funds’ contains the views of some of Australia’s major investors in alternatives. They…

An under-researched element in the professional investment process is portfolio construction. Yet, according to a joint research effort by implementation specialist manager Parametric and the Sydney-based Australian Catholic Superannuation and Retirement Fund, the rewards can be very significant. The research report, ‘Optimality Is in the Eye of the Beholder: The Science and Art of Equity…

By Greg Bright APRA has picked a sore which has troubled the industry for years: ‘who is making what out of cash?’. And it’s a good thing to raise the question, but APRA perhaps should look a little deeper with its investigations. Perhaps bigger issues are not what the definition of cash should be, but…