News

In a highly unusual move, the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) has cracked down on fund managers advertising post-COVID boom-time annual returns. The regulator has warned managers that advertising any “phenomenal” returns garnered over the 12 months to March 31 could “mislead investors”. Global share markets bounced back spectacularly from the brief COVID-induced shock early last…

It was little more than a year ago that trading spreads across a range of instruments had blown out to record levels, courtesy of the first market impact of covid-19. Now, they are as narrow as they have ever been. It’s that sort of volatility with which most of the investment community has had to…

While ESG investing through equities attracts most of the limelight, fixed income is increasingly gaining the attention it deserves. The asset class is, after all, about 40 times the size of the equities market. In a webinar last week to coincide with World Earth Day (April 22), Insight Investment Australia hosted Joshua Kendall, the firm’s…

About a third of securities trading firms on both sides of the deal experienced operational stresses during the peak covid-19 volatility last year, according to a new DTCC white paper. The paper, carried out by global back-office behemoth DTCC (Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation) and consultancy firm McKinsey & Company found some weak links in…

Research Affiliates has taken the study of factor timing to a user-friendly new level through a paper which argues that the market’s momentum and valuation are good predictors of economic influences. The paper, by Mike Aked, director of research for Australia, shows that a strategy based on a factor’s discount to historical averages of value…

The three largest global custodian banks have enjoyed hefty increases in the total assets under custody and administration in the March quarter as markets continued to rebound. BNY Mellon is still the biggest. BNY Mellon remained the largest in the world, by a whisker, ahead of State Street, but third-placed J.P. Morgan Chase, America’s largest…

Front-to-back services and market activity have helped the big global asset servicing companies to record levels of assets under custody and administration in the March quarter, despite falling interest income. State Street emphasised the success of its front-to-back offering, which it calls ‘State Street Alpha’, with the quarterly Wall Street earnings statement (April 16) coinciding…

In recent years, the global surge towards ensuring diversity and inclusion within corporate leadership has intensified. In 2020, industry super fund HESTA launched an initiative called ’40:40 Vision’. It advocates for more diversity in executive leadership in corporate Australia by setting a gender balance target of at least 40 per cent men and 40 per…

Tricia Nguyen, a principal of Mercer, has been promoted to head of Mercer Sentinel following the move by Peter Baker to a part-time role with the business. The changeover had been planned for some time. Nguyen, who became a principal of the group on joining Mercer Sentinel in 2015, said that her move was part…

Warakirri Asset Management has cemented its position as the second-largest fund manager in Australian agriculture with the launch of a second fund in the buy/lease sector. The Warakirri Farmland Fund, launched last week (April 12), has been seeded by a European pension fund. It differentiates itself from the Warakirri Diversified Agriculture Fund (DAF) by being…

Amundi has revamped its old responsible investing green bond fund as a broader strategy which looks to also mitigate against societal damage from the shift to renewables. The new fund, ‘Just Transition for Climate’, retains the fixed income and credit investment strategies, with a sharper focus on carbon reduction, while integrating scores to do with…

After years of consolidation in the member administration space for big super funds, smaller and newer competitors appear to be gaining ground. FNZ and Grow have won their first clients. GROW Inc (formerly Grow Super) was selected by Vanguard as the administrator for the manager’s proposed new superannuation business, against most industry predictions, and FNZ…