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 (Pictured: Tony Freeman) Omgeo, the global transactions systems company now owned by the US Government-owned DTCC, has appointed a new chief executive, Paula Arthus. The appointment is seen as a reflection of the evolution of Omgeo to become more of an industry utility. Omgeo was previously a joint venture between DTCC (the Depository Trust & Clearing…

Towers Watson has made three new appointments to its Australian investment team, comprising two investment consultants and one investment analyst. This follows the five new appointments the firm announced in December last year. Graeme Miller, director of investment Services for Towers Watson in Australia said: “Our investment team is now bigger and better resourced than…

(Pictured: Michael Kelly) By Greg Bright Past performance may not be much of a guide to future performance, however, you can learn a lot from the history of investment management strategies. Take asset allocation as an important example. Increasingly, since the global crisis, investors are looking at dynamic asset allocation (DAA) as a strategy for outcome-oriented…

(Pictured: Patrick Fanning) JP Morgan has closed down its transition management (TM) business in Australia, following the lead of its US and European colleagues who shuttered their operations last May. The Australian business, run by experienced TM manager Patrick Fanning, was given the extra time to support its local clients and discuss with them their likely…

(Pictured: Peter Cherecwich) Fund managers generally don’t like making major investments in technology and rebuilding their platforms. For most, this is not where they see their value-add for clients. More and more will be outsourcing middle-office functions in Australia, according to Peter Cherecwich. The Asia Pacific region has lagged Europe and the US in middle-office outsourcing,…

(Pictured: Andrea Slattery) Comment by Greg Bright SMSFs are much more skewed to small business ownership than previously thought. Their number will continue to rise for several years but their average balance will decline, indicating further disaggregation and diseconomies due to reduced scale. And they still hold way-too-much in cash and term deposits for their own…

(Pictured: Ben Phillips) Australian institutional investors, along with the rest of Asia, expect to sell property and increase equity exposures over the next two years, as the world takes on a greater divergence in asset allocations between regions and types of investor, according to Casey Quirk. In its eighth annual global survey, Casey Quirk, the…

(Pictured: Matthew Sherwood) There seems to be a growing consensus, certainly among value managers, that the best thing to like about 2014 is that it is that much closer to 2015. Perpetual Investment’s outlook briefing for Australian equities last week was very similar to Tyndall Asset Management’s the week before. The outlook for the domestic…

(Pictured: David Carruthers) Active Australian equities managers added more value last year than they have for nearly 25 years, according to the latest survey results from Mercer Investments. David Carruthers, a principal and global product manager at Mercer, said: “Not only did 2013 mark the second calendar year [in a row] of +20 per cent returns,…

(Pictured: Doug Hodge) Doug Hodge, a 24-year PIMCO veteran who has spent a lot of time in Australia and the Asia Pacific region, has become the new chief executive of the world’s largest bond manager. He has already participated in video links with other PIMCO executives around the world, including Australia, following the shock resignation last…

(Pictured: Nick Hamilton) With the good graces of his former boss, the head of institutional business development for Colonial First State Global Asset Management in Sydney, Nick Hamilton, is heading back to the UK to join a much-anticipated start-up funds manager led by former Invesco Perpetual star portfolio manager Neil Woodford. The UK firm, to…

(Pictured: Paul Coenraads) Paul Coenraads, former head of investments at AUSCOAL Super, has taken up a new role running investment operations at Australian Catholic Super in Sydney. He started there this month. AUSCOAL announced last August that it was restructuring its small investment team, with the proposed appointment of its first chief investment officer, who…