Analysis

Central bank largesse lubricated the relatively squeak-free ride of the global asset management industry through the COVID-19 crisis to date, but liquidity risks remain high, according to a new Amundi Asset Management report. In a ‘blue paper’ published last week, Amundi says only 117 out of the 35,000 funds sold in Europe froze redemptions since…

As super funds still struggle to build and manage their own better pension products, conscious of the ticking demographic clock, one of the key aspects to doing so will be the establishment of the most appropriate benchmark. Parametric runs through the possibilities. In a brief research note, ‘Income Targeting in a Retirement Portfolio – too…

Almost half of the top 500 global fund manager brands have disappeared in the last decade, the latest Thinking Ahead Institute annual review of the sector has found. A total of 232 names on the 2009 list of 500 largest asset managers were not on the 2019 list. Pre-dating the COVID-19 crisis, the Thinking Ahead…

Companies are increasingly making low-carbon investments, not only to reduce emissions and costs, but also to take advantage of revenue opportunities. When you step back and look at what’s required to reach the targets already set, massive disruption and investment means major business opportunities. The 189 parties to the Agreement, which took effect in November…

One of the great unanswerable questions for investors over the past 10 years is why value investing, the tried-and-true performer since it was identified in the 1930s but probably used innately well before, has stayed out of whack for so long. The chorus bemoaning value’s plight just gets louder and louder. But there are signs…

Big super funds appear to have taken at least one government change to their overall operations in their stride – the compulsion to hold a member annual meeting, with the first necessary before March next year. Some, such as AustralianSuper, CareSuper and UniSuper, have already been holding regular large meetings for members for years, as…

by David Chaplin Even a blind monkey-based manager could outperform the average active fund by simply flinging darts at the stock index chart, according to US academic, Burton Malkiel, 88. His claim, first aired in his classic ‘A Random Walk Down Wall St’, has been used as anti-active ammunition ever since. Later studies actually concluded…

The New Zealand Superannuation Fund (NZS) is overhauling its 10-year old responsible investment (RI) strategy to stay on track with global best practice, after recording a 60bps gain due to its old policy. In its ‘Climate Change Report’ published last week, the NZS says the fund had launched a project dubbed ‘Resetting the Responsible Investment…

A sample of institutional asset owners and fund managers has confirmed their views on the increasing complexity around both asset allocation and the strategies they design. They also confirmed the increasing importance of technology but expressed annoyance at continuing room for improvement in some areas. According to the authors at the study’s promoter, global systems…

Robert Shiller, Nobel laureate in economics, wrote about stories and images being created around new economic events. COVID-19 has thrown up a sequence of images from the past, pushing governments and central banks into unknown territory. This is the current ‘Day After’ narrative. In its views on a post-crisis world, Amundi Asset Management, Europe-based global…

While investing following strong and integrated ESG principles does not readily spring to mind when considering China there is more action going on across the sustainability space there than many people think. The building blocks are already in place: a growing green credit market that is encouraging companies to invest in ESG-related projects, strategic government…

It’s not only big super funds, such as Australian Super, which have taken a stick to Rio Tinto over the destruction of a 46,000-year-old Aboriginal heritage site at Juukan Gorge in Western Australia, forcing the departure of the chief executive, head of iron ore and head of corporate affairs. ESG-orientated fund managers have also been…