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Vanguard Asia Pacific has seconded a senior investment analyst from the US, Jeffrey Johnson, to oversee its investment strategy and research team based in Melbourne. He will have a team of four analysts and economists. The team’s revamp is designed to promote and enhance Vanguard’s reputation for thought leadership in investment-related issues and as a…

(Pictured:Patrick Liddy) In 1915, for 10 months the ice-moored ship ‘Endurance’ drifted northwest before it was finally crushed. But for Ernest Shackleton and his crew of twenty-seven men the real ordeal had just begun. It was to go on for a further 10 months, in the most unforgiving of terrains, the Antarctic. Shackleton would bring them…

(Pictured:Jean-Rene Adam) The global financial crisis changed a lot of things for funds managers, but one of the least-well publicised affects has been a resurgence in the comparative fortunes of top-down managers. This is happening at a time when there is talk of “deglobalisation”,  also in the wake of the crisis. Eaton Vance and one…

New York State’s financial services regulator is investigating asset consultants to its public pension funds. The regulator has subpoenaed 20 firms, including the biggest names in global asset consulting, for information on their processes. While details of the investigation are sketchy, there is concern that it may damage the reputation of the consulting firms and…

(Pictured: Steve Gibbs) Steve Gibbs, the former chief executive of what is now Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation, who has been consulting in various ESG roles in recent years, has been contracted as an advisor to Eaton Vance Management and associated managers. Nicholas Allen, Eaton Vance’s Australian head, said the role was broader than just ESG. “Steve will…

(Pictured: Matt Olsen) Matt Olsen, the head of manager research at van Eyk Research, is moving to the retail multi-manager Select Asset Management, after a short period of ‘gardening leave’. He will be replaced by a former senior fund manager at BT Funds Management. Rob de Silva, who was head of fixed interest for Asia Pacific…

(Pictured: Robert Buckland) The outlook for global markets is still positive, but patchy, according to Citi’s latest strategic outlook, presented at its annual clients conference in Sydney last week. Robert Buckland, global equity strategist, said the rally of the past 12 months had been more about pricing out the bad news than pricing in any good…

A global survey of hedge fund managers reveals they are making significant investments in their firms’ infrastructure to comply with new regulations. The managers in the US pay the most and managers in Asia pay the least. The survey results say smaller fund managers are paying on average US$700,000 a year, medium-sized manager US$6 million…

(Pictured: Daniel Birch) Foreign exchange transactions represent, perhaps, the final challenge for pension funds around the world as they look to improve efficiencies in the implementation of investment strategies. And from all accounts, it’s worth the effort to study the common practices in this market. A lot of money can be saved … or wasted….

(Pictured: Robin Burns) Equity Trustees (EQT) has outsourced about A$2.5 billion of custody and administration to State Street under its year-old “Project Foundation” management strategy. While senior management at EQT could have been forgiven for being distracted from the management plan due to the recent battle to acquire Trust Company, the deal streamlines the remaining…

(Pictured: Carl Hess) If four of the major themes driving world economic growth play out, super funds will be looking to express that in their asset allocations and portfolio construction. For Towers Watson, this means: reduced home country bias, overweight emerging markets and incorporating thematic views both within and across the equities portfolios. At its…

(Pictured: Harry Liem) With a lot of attention being devoted to risk since the global financial crisis, Mercer has issued a reminder of the importance of modeling tools which go beyond mean-variance analysis. Harry Liem, a Mercer principal, says they should be seamlessly integrated. These increasingly advanced modeling tools include: risk factor analysis – examining…