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(pictured: Celine Kabashima (r) with Suzanne Tavill, Victoria Shelton and Sam Mann) Gender and other biases represent a problem for the fund management industry, especially among alternatives managers, according to participants on both sides of an industry debate last week. The debate, before an audience of about 80 fund management professionals, was produced by CFA Society…

(pictured: Andrew Balls) One of the signals from Brexit, the adverse effects of which PIMCO believes will mainly be contained within the UK for the time being, may well be that Donald Trump could, conceivably, become president of the US and global markets would likely react negatively. In a summary of its latest thoughts, published last…

(pictured: Jack Inglis) AITEC, the global not-for-profit alternatives research community, and the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA), have launched a co-branded “Illustrative Questionnaire for Due Diligence of Vendor Cyber Security”. The due diligence questionnaire (DDQ) has been created to streamline the process of conducting due diligence on vendors servicing the alternative asset management industry. It reflects…

(pictured: Therese Singleton) AMP is moving to a broader fund platform approach in its two key retirement savings products on offer to the New Zealand market. AMP is the biggest provider of investment products to NZ financial planners. Therese Singleton, general manager AMP Services, said the Australasian financial services conglomerate would add a further 16 fund…

(pictured: Kevin Moloney) Milliman, the actuarial consulting firm, has hired former Telstra Super and Energy Super executive Kevin Moloney as ‘head of consulting services’. Moloney, who reports to Wade Matterson, Milliman’s superannuation practice leader, will enhance Milliman’s capabilities across marketing and member analytics, financial advice, and retirement solutions, the firm said last week. Prior to his…

Almost two years after launching an investigation into the van Eyk group in New Zealand, the local corporate cop was just about to close its case last week. Then Australia’s ASIC lobbed a big writ on van Eyk’s former RE, Macquarie Bank. The wounds have suddenly been re-opened. According to a spokesperson for New Zealand’s…

(pictured: Tamar Hamlyn) Ardea Investment Management, a $5 billion Australian-based fixed income boutique, has warned about the possibility of “inflation shock” for big super funds. A paper, published on the eve of Brexit last week, illustrates other dangers on the global stage than the complicated fallout of European disunity. Ardea, which was formed in a similarly…

(pictured: Fiona Mackenzie) The New Zealand Superannuation Fund (NZS) is on the cusp of appointing external managers to implement a new ‘factor investing’ strategy. It believes it is in a ‘fully valued’ universe but wants less active investment risk. Fiona Mackenzie, NZS head of investment, said the NZ$30 billion (A$28.6 billion) fund had opted to go…

(pictured: Raewyn Williams) With the increasing popularity of factor-based investing it is important to understand potential pitfalls, according to Raewyn Williams, the director, research and after-tax solutions, for Parametric Australia. It’s not as simple as it seems. In a recent client note Williams says super funds are becoming increasingly attracted to factor-based investing because it offers…

(pictured: Damian Moloney) By Greg Bright Management expense ratios of super funds will increase under the latest regulator moves – ASIC’s RG97 disclosure requirements – it was generally agreed at last week’s Frontier Advisors client conference. You sometimes wonder whose side the regulators are on. In his introduction to the conference, Frontier chief executive, Damian Moloney,…

(pictured: Michael Dundon)  The separation of fund investments between accumulation assets and retirement assets has become a new topic for study by big super funds. At the Frontier conference two executives of big funds analysed this and other retirement product issues. David Carruthers, the Frontier senior consultant who led the discussion with the $13 billion…

(pictured: Milton Samios) The world of what’s known as ‘native advertising’ seems to be meeting the world of funds management head on. In the latest move, Investec Australia has bought a stake in newsletter and investment spruiker ‘Wholesale Investor’. Fund manager Investec has taken an undisclosed stake for an undisclosed amount in ‘Wholesale Investor’, a free…