News

Michael Baldwin After 18 months as assistant director of the National Gallery in Canberra, Michael Baldwin has returned to the super fund industry in a new position at First State Super, following closely on two other senior changes at the $53 billion fund. The former chief executive of FEAL has become the head of corporate…

Xavier Dumon An interesting case study for both Australian fintech and traditional financial services firms alike is the experience over the last couple of years of Hello bank!, an associate company of BNP Paribas, which has taken Europe’s Generation Z’s by storm. Hello bank!, owned by the French-based BNP Paribas and Fortis bank of Belgium,…

by Sandy Rattray* It was US presidential advisor Bert Lance who popularised the phrase “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” while serving under Jimmy Carter in the late 1970s. He went on to say: “That’s the trouble with government: fixing things that aren’t broken and not fixing things that are broken.” For many in…

Pam McAlister Mercer has produced a detailed report on super fund governance, including board structures, in the context of worldwide practices. It supports improved competencies and independence levels among trustees, but has stopped short of recommending mandated changes. The report – written by Mercer partner Pam McAlister and principal Liana Brover, both consultants in Mercer’s ‘governance…

Alexandra McGuigan Tribeca Investment Partners, an affiliated manager of Grant Samuel Funds Management, has appointed a new head of business development, after splitting the role for the past two years between the portfolio managers and the Grant Samuel marketers. Alexandra McGuigan has left third-party marketer Shed Enterprises to take up the role, which was last…

Leigh Gavin by Barrie Dunstan Australian fund managers may be under more pressure from their big clients to reduce fees following a comprehensive survey by asset consultant Frontier Advisors which was presented to clients at its 20th annual conference last week in Melbourne. Senior Frontier consultant Leigh Gavin said Australians paid far too much in…

Chris Cuff and John Sevior Chris Cuffe, who built Colonial First State into a retail powerhouse before moving to the “other side” as chairman of UniSuper, has raised serious questions about the future structure of the wealth management industry over the next two-to-three years. Speaking at the Frontier Advisors conference, he queried the future of…

Andrew Sisson While investment managers explore new products to provide income for retirees, no-one should underestimate the importance of Australia’s dividend franking system, according to veteran fund manager Andrew Sisson, managing director of Balanced Equity Management, a member of the Franklin Templeton Group. Speaking at the annual Frontier Advisors conference, Sisson said critics complaining that…

John Peterson Peterson Research Institute (PRI) has produced a strident defence of active management by institutional investors based on an assessment of manager skill as allocated in super funds’ investment risk budgets. John Peterson says: “The active/passive debate is over – the real numbers tell the real story”. Peterson, a former fund manager and asset…

John Phokos  The Australian Catholic Superannuation & Retirement Fund is building out its investment team following the recruitment of Michael Block in December 2014 to replace the retired Anne Whittaker. John Phokos joins today, June 1, as investment manager, private markets. Phokos has a 20-year history in financial services, most recently as senior investment analyst…

Charlie Lanchester BlackRock has recruited two senior investment professionals – Charlie Lanchester and Madeleine Beaumont – to launch a new fundamental active Australian equities capability. They will be recruiting further investment professionals and establishing the product offering for clients over coming months. The traditional stock-picking strategy, with a style bias to quality first, then value,…

Stafford Capital Partners, the global alternatives fund-of-funds manager and advisor, which took majority control of Australia’s Quay Partners in 2012 and bought three alternatives trusts from Macquarie Bank last year, has closed its seventh timberland fund 21 per cent oversubscribed. The Stafford International Timberland VII Fund raised US$484 million (A$630 million) compared with a target…