Analysis

Recent research by Harvard Business School has shown an increasing price premium for stocks which rate highly on an ESG scale over others, and that much of the premium increase can be attributed to investor sentiment. As always, though, investors need to watch for value. With the help of TruValue Labs, which provided data and…

Insight Investment, the big funds management subsidiary of BNY Mellon, has launched a global sustainability model which dissects the risks in each country for sovereign debt investors. In its first unveiling today, the model shows Australia to be “generally strong” on ESG scores, although it is dragged down by environmental issues. New Zealand comes out…

There’s a lot happening in the regulatory world for financial services. Stuart Robert, new Assistant Treasurer, told the SuperRatings/Lonsec conference late last month that he was hopeful of at least four, maybe five, Bills making it through Parliament this month. Here is an interesting update from QMV Solutions. While preparation for round seven of the…

There are 27 open class actions in Australia at the moment, accounting for roughly 10 per cent of the market capitalisation of the ASX 200. Australia has become the second-most important market for investor class cations in the world. Investors need to take note. Whether or not it is an emerging asset class, there is…

by John Hamer* Paul Smith, the global president and chief executive of the CFA Institute, says shining a light on a problem, as Australia’s Royal Commission into banking has done, is a good thing. Before you find a cure you need to find the illness, he says. Australian cricket’s ball-tampering’ scandal is a good analogy….

In the country’s biggest single investment mandate, State Street Global Advisors ended the financial year with almost NZ$8 billion (A$7.6 billion) under management for the NZ Superannuation Fund (NZS). The just-released NZS annual accounts show the State Street passive global equities mandate sat just $24 million shy of the $8 billion mark as at June…

by Greg Bright Two conflicting trends are emerging in investment management which contrast fundamental top-down research with quantitative data sourcing, analysis and management. Forget the index versus active debate, it’s looking more like politics versus big data and artificial intelligence. Quantitative analysis could be at an interesting point of its evolution. On the one hand,…

The Australian Custodial Services Association, one of only two industry bodies which can genuinely be considered to be apolitical, has embarked on a new growth path, having appointed its first chief executive for many years and drawn up a clear program of study and member engagement. Given the Royal Commission, there is no better time…

With just some hints in its interim report – some stronger than others – as to what its recommendations may be, the Royal Commission into banking, insurance and superannuation will next focus on bank oversight at its November hearings. This will prompt the whole industry to discuss the likely options and the challenges and opportunities…

Why is private equity so expensive? Because it’s worth it, according to Mike Forestner, Mercer’s Atlanta-based global co-CIO of private markets. It can offer 3 per cent returns above public markets, he says. Forestner told Mercer’s annual NZ conference last week that private equity was “complicated, expensive and governance is a challenge” but – if…

by Greg Bright As the number of class actions over financial problems at listed companies grows in Australia, as it has been doing for the past three-four years, so does the pressure on aggrieved investors and their representatives to quantify the damage. The Australian trend is to follow America and leave that decision to the…

DTCC has published a new white paper to raise awareness of key risks and emerging threats facing the finance and investment industry and proposes actions to help address them. While the stability and resiliency of the global financial marketplace has improved significantly since the 2008 crisis, the paper published by DTCC (The Depository Trust &…