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While regulators often speak of moving away from prescriptive rules-based regulation towards to a more holistic principles-based system, their actions usually seem the opposite. Take, for example, last week’s announcement increasing financial requirements for custodians operating in Australia. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission published on November 14 a consultation paper on proposed changes for…

The differing concerns, fears and aspirations of institutional investors around the world have been starkly outlined in a landmark study by the State Street Centre for Applied Research. Chinese are more worried about transparency than performance. Australians, who are most concerned about performance, are more worried about their regulators but also distrust their service providers….

eVestment Alliance (eA) has thrown down the gauntlet to Mercer in the institutional performance information and fund ranking markets with the acquisition of two well-known hedge fund information businesses. eA has acquired PerTrac, one of the largest specialist hedge fund information firms, and Fundspire, a cloud-technology hedge fund analytics and performance data and tools provider….

Since the global financial crisis there has been a drying up of investing in not only venture capital but in the sort of venture capital which creates most jobs. But, if you look at the history of job-creating “big ideas”, which are venture backed, that is exactly what investors should be looking at right now….

Former Minister for Superannuation and Senate Select Committee member and chair, Nick Sherry, has picked up two non-executive roles in the industry, which already appear to be paying dividends, writes Patrick Liddy*: The platform provider FNZ made a shrewd investment when it appointed the ex Federal Minister, Nick Sherry, as its chairman. Citi was also…

The exceptional economic growth of the Asian region, particularly that of China, compared with most of the rest of the world is prompting some institutional investors to canvass the possibility of considering the region, or even just China, as a separate asset class. They should be wary of taking such a path. Chris Condon, a…

The exemptions and detailed regulations surrounding the introduction of FATCA are unlikely to be resolved for several months, offering little comfort to custodians and other institutions, despite the postponed start date. The US Internal Revenue Service has announced that the impacted institutions have until January 2014 to put in place their reporting requirements under the…

The trend for increased regulation and capital requirements, which is unlikely to be reversed anytime soon, has prompted the formation of a new type of institutional investment – a ‘regulatory capital fund’. The fund, managed by a privately owned funds management start-up, Regulatory Capital Management, is an Australian-domiciled wholesale trust open to super funds and…

Asia is different from the West. Recent consolidation among investment banks, attempts to merge their activities with wealth management arms and disappointments among a plethora of expansionary Western institutions point to some of the fundamental differences. A recent report by Dr Arjuna Sittampalam, a research associate at the EDHC-Risk Institute, highlights some of the issues…

The “cluster effect” of Chinese financial services firms is benefitting Luxembourg as a hub for RMB-based investment in Europe, according to Nicolas Mackel, the country’s Consul General in Shanghai. He is part of a trade mission from Luxembourg to China late this month, which will include Prince Guillaume, Luxembourg’s Hereditary Grand Duke, and Etienne Schneider,…

China’s slowdown has driven a region-wide decline in exports and Asian underperformance compared with global markets, according to the latest Russell Asia Market Commentary. The report notes that Asia ex-Japan has underperformed in Russell’s Global Developed index over the last 12 months. “Concerns on China’s slowdown and the impact of the economic downturn on Asia’s…

@cap: Christina Liosis Telstra Super, Australia’s largest remaining corporate fund, with more than $US 11 billion under management, has become the latest to introduce a new investment platform targeting members with high account balances. Like AustralianSuper early this year, Telstra has selected the combination of systems provider FNZ and broker UBS for the new platform…