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The big challenge for the superannuation industry as it greets the latest “mega trend” of transparency is whether to go down the voluntary or compulsory route, Benjie Fraser, a London-based managing director of JP Morgan, will tell the annual CMSF Conference this week. Fraser, a governance expert who has worked with and studied Europe’s largest…

The trend to use new “smart beta” strategies appears to be gathering pace as fund managers broaden their offerings and seek to better differentiate their management styles and approaches. There is not yet a consensus about what constitutes smart beta but the investment management industry is pretty good at refining its jargon, especially when it…

The introduction of member investment choice within a fund and compulsory choice of fund for most employees split the Australian superannuation industry during the late 1990s. The arguments on both sides were both practical and philosophical. What’s happening now, though, may have far greater consequences for aggregate retirement incomes and yet is attracting little debate….

When institutional investors are picking active managers – whether or not they have asset consultants or other advisers involved – it’s all about confidence and judgement, according to new research. Quantitative analyses “are just tools”. The research, presented last Friday at a lunch organized by the Investment Innovation Institute (i3), followed a study of the…

Hedge funds, and particularly funds of hedge funds, have been getting a bad rap of late, but consulting firm Mercer is standing by these investment strategies – at least in theory. Writing on the Mercer Linkedin Group dialogue recently, Nick White, Mercer director of consulting, says that when used properly in the context of the…

Columbia University in the US has embarked on a study of short-termism among investors, and whether activist investors, company remuneration policies and other factors are contributing to it. Short-termism has been complained about for many years, but new styles of investing, such as rapid-trade and the addition of momentum to previously deep-value styles, appear to…

CARE Super’s head of investments, Greg Nolan, and Retirement Benefits Fund of Tasmania’s CEO, Phillip Mussared, won the top investment education scholarships presented by the Fund Executives Association Ltd last week. The scholarships, sponsored by Aberdeen Asset Management and the Centre for Investor Education (CIE), involve attendance at one of CIE’s international forums, this time…

According to Paul Krugman, the markets, especially the US market, are telling us that the gap between productivity and wages is widening. This means profits are rising but not being invested because demand is so weak. The rise to record levels by the Dow Jones Industrial Average index last week, and other markets which are…

Australia’s Future Fund has decided to instruct its managers to exclude tobacco stocks from its portfolio following a review by the board’s governance committee, which was established in May last year. While the fund says the decision was its own, it follows pressure from several politicians, especially the Greens senator Richard Di Natale, to do…

Big pension funds often rail about the governance of the companies they invest in. But what about their own? Benjie Fraser, a governance expert, focuses on Asia Pacific funds compared with European ones at the IO&C Conference in Shanghai, April 29-30. Fraser, a managing director of JP Morgan Worldwide Securities Services, Europe, says: “The Global…

China has extended its pilot securities lending program, for short sellers and other managers, which was launched last August. A group of 11 brokerages will be able to borrow shares in a pre-qualified pool of 90 listed “blue-chip” companies, the China Securities Journal said last week, citing information received from the state-owned China Securities Finance…

The Hong Kong-based alternative investment publishers IAIR announced their annual award winners last week, with La Trobe Financial*, UBS Global Asset Management and Winton Capital each picking up two of the 14 awards for asset managers. La Trobe was awarded for “excellence in mortgage fund management, independent, Australia” and “excellence and innovation in fund management,…