News

Darren Howlin Brisbane-based qualitative manager research firm mfund Research is expanding into New Zealand. It has partnered with the NZX-owned FundSource and has completed reviews of about half-a-dozen managers. According to Darren Howlin, head of mfund Research (known as Research IP in New Zealand) the firm has embarked on a busy schedule of NZ manager…

Taiwan’s Bureau of Labor Funds (BLF) has gone to tender with US$5.3 billion worth of new investment mandates, including four for the increasingly popular multi-asset partnerships. The mandates are for global multi-asset and enhanced Asia-Pacific mixed equity under its four affiliate labour pensions and national pension schemes. In Australia, Sunsuper announced last month its new…

Phil Tindall Towers Watson, a keen promoter of smart-beta strategies for its big fiduciary clients, has come up with a term for us to categorise the old-style beta: “bulk beta”. More importantly, the consulting firm has produced a paper describing the implications of smart-beta trends for what we used to know as “alpha”. The paper ‘Into…

Imran Gulamhuseinwala The level of fintech adoption among consumers is set to grow significantly this year – a change that will require traditional financial services companies to revisit their customer service strategies to compete effectively with new market entrants, according to EY’s first ‘FinTech Adoption Index’. According to a survey of 10,131 “digitally active” consumers…

(pictured: Bruce Watson)  The $9.5 billion industry super fund Mine Wealth + Wellbeing will soon change its administration systems provider, choosing a relatively small fintech company with its early experience in the SMSF market – Recreo Financial. The move, which includes the fund buying a minority stake in Recreo to cement the partnership, is a…

(pictured: Wouter Klijn) by Greg Bright Specialist publishers, such as those of us in the funds industry ‘trades’, have thought that we may well be the last people standing as the digital revolution rolled over generalist magazines and newspapers first. That may be true, but it’s still a very difficult market segment. Last week was the…

By Colin Martin* Super funds are constantly looking for better ways in which to engage members. Clever communication is the key and getting to the members in the mode they require is not always easy. This is sometimes carpeted over by the term ‘digital solution’, when really we need to think collaboratively. It is the…

Global investment risk consultancy CheckRisk has produced its annual assessment of the year ahead, just in time for Christmas cheer and best wishes for clients. It’s a scary Christmas card but at least it’s interesting. The UK-based firm, founded by frequent Australian visitor Nick Bullman, produced its top five risks for 2016 and also a…

(pictured: Rob De Dominicis)  The ASX-listed global software vendor GBST Holdings has confirmed insider Rob De Dominicis as its new managing director amid sustained selling pressure from its long-term shareholders, including recently retired managing director Stephen Lake. Lake announced on September 17 his pending retirement from the firm after 14 years at the helm and…

Wellington-based accounting software firm Xero was the highest-ranked Australasian company in the 2015 KPMG/H2 Ventures ‘Fintech 100’ list published last week. There were nine Australian companies ranked beneath it in the global 100. Xero, the only NZ company on the list, came in at number 15 of the top 50 global fintech elite named in…

(pictured: Grant Kennaway) Morningstar has published its first ‘Morningstar Australia Prospects’ report, a sort-of Morningstar Lite, which lists 26 funds that may be worthy of greater investor attention although they have not yet been fully analysed by the research house. Morningstar points out that the Australian managed fund universe has thousands of unique funds. As of…

(pictured: Raewyn Williams) by Greg Bright For the past year or so funds and their consultants – in particular Frontier Advisors – have been looking more closely at equity protection strategies, given the questionable value of bonds to provide downside protection in the short-medium term. There are various options, including a new entrant with an established…