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(Pictured: Rachel Botsman) It won’t be all good news for the super industry executives attending the SuperRatings conference and awards night in Melbourne on October 15. Rachel Botsman has some confronting views for funds and managers on the big new institutional risk of reputation. Botsman, billed as one of the world’s most sought-after speakers, says…

(Pictured: Ken Marshman) Ken Marshman, the chair and head of investment outcomes at JANA Investment Advisers, who is due to retire from full-time consulting at the end of this month, has been awarded a major accolade as the “fifth most influential consultant in the world”. And another Australian, Frontier Advisors’ most senior investment person, Fiona…

(Pictured: Matt Christensen) There has been a strong trend to incorporate environmental, social and governance considerations in investment processes in the past 10 years. But what of the next 10 years and what are the trends within the trend? AXA Investment Managers has produced an interesting analysis. In a series of briefings, including participation at last…

On the eve of its Australian conference, the global Alternative Investment Management Association has produced a new set of policy principles in relation to the regulation of capital markets, which updates the principles announced in 2009 in response to the global financial crisis. The four main categories addressed in the new principles are: Improving investor…

(Pictured: Stewart Brentnall) ANZ Wealth’s OnePath multi-manager offering and other investment processes across its Australian, New Zealand and Asian businesses have been centralised into a single CIO function of five divisions, following the ANZ’s termination of its relationship with ING last year. At the time, Stewart Brentnall was appointed Global CIO for ANZ Wealth. The…

(Pictured: James Norman) QS Investors, the top-down global manager, has launched an Australian-domiciled emerging markets fund, as investors are taking a second look at the asset class following the recent correction. QS Investors, which already has about A$1 billion in Australasian-sourced investments, offers an alternative to fundamentals-driven stock selection in these markets. The firm concentrates…

Chris Davies, the chief operating officer at UniSuper, will step up to a CEO role and Ben Samild, the well-regarded investment manager at industry fund LUCRF is to join the Future Fund in a yet-to-be-specified capacity. Davies is set to replace the retiring Martin Crowe at the $11 billion Telstra Super after a lengthy search….

NAB Asset Servicing has won a tender for the outsourcing of more than $20 billion of backoffice custody and administration by Suncorp Life, including the old Asteron business, and will proceed with a “lift and shift” of the Sydney-based operation. The tender, administered by PwC, came down to two competing outsource models. NAB will uplift…

(Pictured: Michael Holm) A confluence of both market and demographic trends looks like providing a perfect storm for Michael Holm after 31 years at the helm of his alternative debt funds management business, Balmain Investment Management. With the help of Brookvine, he has launched a “Secured Private Debt Fund” focused on mid-cap secured commercial real…

(Pictured: Connie Mckeage) OneVue will become the largest independent provider of unit registry services in Australia following completion of the agreed purchase of Computershare’s fund registry business. Sydney-based OneVue is in the process of securing premises in Melbourne for the 50-or-so staff to come across from Computershare. OneVue is also moving a business development manager to…

(Pictured: Byram Johnston) The normally sleepy world of fund administration and registry has generated an air of excitement in the past few months. Well, perhaps not excitement. But the corporate activity in the field is at least attracting some press for the first time in years. For Byram Johnston and Martin Smith, the new level…

(Pictured: Ian Irvine) It may sound dull but the automation of settlements, applications and redemptions, using the CHESS infrastructure and with ASX oversight is about to offer fund managers a brand new distribution channel, particularly among SMSF investors. ASX confirmed last week that the first 65 participants aimed to be going live with AQUA II…