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(Pictured: Michael Dwyer) Michael Dwyer, the chief executive of the $43 billion First State Super, has long been a supporter of Australia for UNHCR. He urges his colleagues in the financial services industry to support the organization on World Refugee Day, this Friday, June 20. And he has some good reasons. Dwyer applauds the industry…

(Pictured: Greg O’Neill) La Trobe Financial has negotiated a partnership for its annual CIO and COO Awards with the Fund Executives Association Ltd (FEAL), also agreeing to sponsor the Awards for the next three years. The two Awards, which each carries a $10,000 prize, will be next announced at a standalone ceremony on November 11 in…

(Pictured: Daphne van der Oord) S&P Dow Jones Indices (SPDJI) aims to increase its presence in the institutional index space as it builds out its Australian team under the leadership of recent hire Daphne van der Oord. “Given the partnership that we have with the ASX, a big portion of my role will be to ensure…

(Pictured: Ian Macoun) Boutique incubator Pinnacle Investments is continuing to look for outstanding asset managers and is willing to kiss as many frogs as it takes to find the next “Pinnacle prince or princess”, according to chairman and managing director Ian Macoun. “We haven’t started any new boutique managers in Pinnacle since we partnered with the…

(Pictured: Connie Mckeage) OneVue is still on track for its IPO this year, all being well with the relevant regulators, and is driving further into the industry fund market with its Individually Managed Account (IMA) option. OneVue chief executive officer, Connie Mckeage, says that members of industry funds which partner with them, will not only be…

(Pictured: Joseph Sheeran) Retail investors are expected to drive an increase in alternative fund assets under management over the next six to seven years, according to Joseph Sheeran, PricewaterhouseCoopers assurance partner. Global alternative fund assets are forecast to rise faster than almost any other asset class, according to PricewaterhouseCooper’s Asset Management 2020: A Brave New World…

(Pictured: Alan Dorsey) Alan Dorsey likens the new strategic partnerships between multi-asset managers and big pension funds as buying a custom-made suit where, generally, the wearer wants some alterations over time. Traditional mandates are more your off-the-rack fare. Dorsey, a managing director and head of investment strategy and risk for Neuberger Berman, based in New York,…

(Pictured: Daniel Celeghin) The retail fund and private banking markets will overtake pension and sovereign wealth funds in importance for fund managers in the Asia Pacific region in the next five years, according to a white paper by Casey Quirk. SWFs and other government entities have controlled the bulk of professionally managed assets to date…

(Pictured: Andrew Fairley (left) and David Miles) by Greg Bright SMSFs do not represent the threat to APRA-regulated super funds that many have thought, according to two fund chairs who happen also to be experienced lawyers. But perhaps APRA itself may be a threat. In a frank and entertaining final session at last Thursday’s Fund…

(Pictured: Jonathan Green) What’s new about the insourcing discussion, according to Lounarda David, head of investment operations at Sunsuper, is the pace at which it is going on. She warned that doing an assessment of benefits was relatively easy, but getting out if it doesn’t work might be very costly. The session on insourcing at the…

(Pictured: Giselle Awad) eSecLending, the world’s largest non-bank-aligned securities lending firm, has closed its Australian office and is expected to revert to servicing the APAC region from Boston and London. Giselle Awad, a former trader at RBC in Australia, the US and UK, had been the Australasian representative for eSecLending for the past five years, based…

(Pictured: Peter Gunning) Russell Investments, which has been on the back foot in the institutional market in Australia in recent years, has had a strong start to 2014, following completion of the arrangement with CSR over its outsourcing of the Harwood Superannuation Fund. Harwood, Australia’s oldest super fund, dating back to 1890, has about $1.4 billion…