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Thanks to APRA, the regulator for Australian super funds, the annual ‘health check’ traditionally performed by asset consultants may be a thing of the past. From next July, funds will be doing regular stress testing using new models developed by their custodians. As part of a raft of new regulations designed to improve prudential standards…

Mercer Investment Consulting has thrown its weight behind the trend for age-based – or ‘target date’ (US) or ‘glide path’ (UK) – default options for pension funds, notwithstanding the limitations of such strategies. The significance of this is that, unlike its big competitor, Russell Investments, Mercer does not have a ‘product’ to push. Target-date funds…

There’s a variation on an old joke doing the rounds: “Q: Why are we all looking forward so much to 2013? A: Because it’s that much closer to 2014.” The old joke is not that old. It first did the rounds in 2007. And then again in 2008. Gallows humour aside, 2014 is looking quite…

Perhaps this is a fitting way for the West to end this calendar year: The New York Stock Exchange has been sold! According to the ‘New York Times’s’ Dealbook news service: “The $US8.2 billion deal for the New York Stock Exchange showed how the power base in finance has shifted. Once seen as the cradle…

Dr Yuanzheng Cao, the chief economist and executive director of Bank of China Group will open the Investment Operations & Custody Conference in Shanghai on April 29-30 next year – the largest event of its kind held in China. Dr Cao is widely regarded as one of China’s leading macroeconomists and is leading Government’s renminbi…

Comment by Patrick Liddy* In human affairs the great movements of a period tend to be driven by day-to-day expediency. What seem to be, in retrospect, the greatest and most important changes tend to go unnoticed at the time. Their conclusions come as a surprise to many and are often treated with indifference until long…

BNP Paribas has gone against the recent trend for European and US banks by lifting its stake in the Chinese Bank of Nanjing by 2 per cent to just under 15 per cent. BNP bought the shares – about 60 million of them – on market between early October and December 6. According to a…

China and Australia are spearheading Citi’s growth plans in the Asia Pacific, according to David Russell, and the global staff cuts announced recently will have no impact on the firm in this region. Interviewed last week on FTV Talking Points, the investment internet TV program, Russell said: “We’re still expanding in Asia, so it’s not…

Tim Keaney’s role at BNY Mellon globally has been broadened among some changes at the top of the bank in New York. The head of asset servicing will become, as of next month, CEO of Investment Services, which is aimed at better aligning the areas of asset servicing, corporate trust, depositary receipts, global markets, global…

The $US 16 billion New Zealand Superannuation Fund, which regularly ranks at the top of various sovereign wealth fund governance charts, has sold its small holdings in three Israeli companies for ethical reasons after a review of its passive international portfolio. Two companies, Africa Israel and Shikun & Binui, had been involved in building Israeli…

An academic study of sovereign wealth funds shows that they behave differently from other institutional investors when investing in private equity. The study, by Sofia Johan of York University in Canada, April Knill of Florida State University in the US, and Nathan Mauck of the University of Missouri in the US, examined the investments of…

After a walk down memory lane, Patrick Liddy* meets the new boss of NAB Asset Servicing and is suitably impressed.  Level 34, 500 Bourke Street, Melbourne, is a floor coated in art and NAB history. Walking through it you get the feeling that the less powerful are compelled to whisper. I certainly did (whisper that…