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Historically, institutional investors don’t invest in gold. That is for individuals and, even then, professional advisors will often question the wisdom. But every now and again gold goes for a run in price and people have another look at their strategy. With the increasing popularity of ETFs, even among pension funds, access to the market…

When the then Frank Russell Co opened its first Asia Pacific office in the mid 1980s the big fund managers of the day had a right to be nervous. On the back of its one Australian client at the time, MLC, Russell launched what became a tidal wave of specialist investment mandates which led to…

Mercer is negotiating to install a member-directed platform for its Australian trusts, which account for the largest single group of its multi-manager funds under management globally, and is understood to have decided a shortlist of two providers. The move follows the high-profile trend by big super funds such as AustralianSuper to introduce an SMSF-type structure…

Fund managers have had a tough time for the last five years, observes Joe Antonellis, and it’s not going to get better anytime soon. What they need to do is adapt. And asset servicing companies will have to do the same. Antonellis, vice chairman of State Street, in Boston, and leader of the firm’s European…

If you think that Asia de-coupled from the west a few years ago, think again. If you think that Asian intra-regional trade is important enough to overcome slack western demand, think again. And if you think that spoons are better than chop sticks … well, you get the picture. Simon Ogus, founder and CEO of…

Hong Kong hedge fund managers will be introduced to the esoteric world of specialist, US-style, operational due diligence with a one-day seminar late April and the possible opening of a full-time office in the Asia Pacific region. Prism Alternative Investments, a New York-based specialist consulting firm which provides a hedge fund “platform” of approved managers…

The member-directed platforms being introduced by big super funds are likely to change the landscape of the institutional investment market in Australia, and very quickly. According to Patrick Liddy, principal of the consulting firm MSI Group, these platforms will have a massive impact on all the service providers to super funds, such as custodians, brokers,…

After focusing for many years on core custody for its Australian business, Citi has had some recent new business successes since branching out into a full service securities services provider. The foundations for Citi’s evolutionary spurt in Australia were laid in 2007 with a global arrangement to provide the middle-office services to Dimensional Fund Advisors,…

Two of the world’s largest asset consulting firms, Mercer and Towers Watson, last week published figures showing the continued trend for institutional asset management to be outsourced into multi-manager platforms, on the one hand, and increased diversification through direct investments in so-called “smart beta” strategies on the other. Mercer announced that its European assets from…

It is often said that the trustees and staff of big pension funds see risk differently to the way the members of their funds do. In benign markets this is not a problem. When markets fall, though, it’s a big problem. In 2008 in Thailand, for instance, members of the Government’s Thai Pension Fund held…

New research has cast doubt over the sustainability of the lifetime annuity business through the study of the holistic risk of issuing lifetime annuities from the insurer’s perspective. The researchers recommend the establishment of national catastrophe schemes in the markets where lifetime annuities are written – which is most developed markets. The researchers are: John…

The Australian Custodial Services Association, whose members recently passed the $A2 trillion mark for combined assets under custody, will resist the proposal by one of the regulators to change the name “custodian” to something more recognizable for retail investors. Pierre Jond, the ACSA chair, told the association’s annual conference in Sydney last week that the…