News

(pictured: Jeremy Duffield) Vanguard Investments is going to tender, for the first time since it opened up in Australia, in a review of its securities services partner. It’s an historic moment. For JP Morgan, the incumbent provider, Vanguard was an early daily-pricing client here in the 1990s, setting a benchmark for other managers. Vanguard will assess an…

(pictured: Richard Clarida) The US Federal Reserve will start tightening monetary conditions in December, ramping up rates by 2 per cent over the next two years, according a new analysis by global fixed income manager PIMCO. The paper, authored by PIMCO global strategic advisor Richard Clarida, argues that – barring an international catastrophe – the Fed…

(pictured: Ian Simm) For big super funds and other fiduciary investors, today is an important day, hopefully. The eagerly awaited UN Climate Change Conference starts in Paris. Ian Simm, chief executive of Impax Asset Management, spoke last week about the latest developments in ESG investing. Simm was visiting Australia from London for the ASFA conference in…

(pictured: Kate Stewart) Australasia’s largest corporates are bearish about the coming 12 months, expecting more challenging financing markets in 2016, according to the results of a survey by BNP Paribas and Moody’s to be published today (November 30). Just 9 per cent of chief financial officers and corporate treasury managers expect credit spreads to be ‘highly…

(pictured: Glenn Ashwell) Mercer appears to have lost its largest registry client in New Zealand – the NZ$1.4 billion (A$1.27 billion) ‘Fisher Two’ fund, which was formerly operated by the Tower group – according to a report in Investment News NZ. Mercer’s own KiwiSaver fund will now be its largest registry client. Trustees Executors (TE)…

(pictured: Jack Gray) Robo-advice newcomer Clover is further institutionalising its offering, due to be launched about the middle of next year, with the recruitment of high-profile fund manager and academic Jack Gray to its small investment committee. Clover, co-founded by a former consultant to Equip who helped build the $7 billion fund’s My Pension product,…

(pictured: Brett Jollie) Investors believe it is “essential” that their asset managers engage with the companies in which they invest, but a significant proportion believe they are not very effective at it. A study commissioned by Aberdeen Asset Management globally provides strong support for the understanding that governance impacts on investment returns. The survey of…

Chris Wildman Mirae Asset Global Investments, the big Korean-owned global funds management and property group, has opened an Australian office for its investment firm, recruiting a former institutional business development manager at AMP Capital, Chris Wildman, to head business development for the operation. Mirae Asset is a diversified manager across the major asset classes but…

Benjamin Phillips The growing importance of the individual investor is changing the structure and growth prospects of the asset management industry. And it is happening fast in major markets. Managers need to be aware of their new business challenges, according to a report by Casey Quirk & Associates. Organic growth in the global asset management…

Andrew Godfrey Mercer this morning (November 23) launched its new initiative to advise on the big changes in the super industry – mainly consumerism and technological disruption. It involves five new customer platforms. The ‘Super Genome Project’ follows two years of business transformation, and involves a shift from the “age of administration to the age…

Paul Gardiner Link Group today (November 23) launches a smart phone super fund app, enabling members to manage their super account on what has recently become the most-used online platform. For big super funds, the pressure is now acute to have the mobile numbers and email addresses of all their members. According to evidence from…

 Seth Merrin Fund managers and their institutional clients all know about alpha losses due to market impact and other trading-related leakages but the losses are often hard to quantify. According to a study by the global trading network Liquidnet, volatility is on average 250 per cent higher for brokers and smaller dark pools. The results…