Opening up early access to super for housing would have a negative effect on the balances of even those members that don’t dig into their savings, with funds forced to adopt more conservative investment strategies and hold more liquid assets.
The circa $88 billion industry fund for workers in health and community services reckons that alleviating the affordable housing crisis will boost its other investments by easing the cost of living and inflation.
JP Morgan keeps Aussie transitions business open
JP Morgan and Credit Suisse have both closed down much of their transition management businesses internationally, but JP Morgan confirmed Friday that its Australian business was unaffected by the offshore moves.
According to the newsletter ‘aiCIO’, Credit Suisse has quietly closed at least part of its transitions business, but declined to comment on the matter. JP Morgan announced that it was closing its business in the western hemisphere, including North America, as well as emerging markets and the Middle East.
Bryan Gray, Sydney-based managing director and head of sales and marketing for JP Morgan, said the transitions business in the other markets was “non-core”. The company would focus on custody and fund services, prime broking and financing and agency clearing, collateral and execution globally.
“It is business as usual for our TM business in Australia,” Gray said. “Our Australian clients are active users of the service and it has become a critical component of our service offering to them. The team will all remain in the business in Australia and there’s no change for our local clients.”
According to ‘aiCIO’, JP Morgan had become one of the dominant players in the transitions market, on the back of its US$18.8 trillion in global client custody assets as of last year.
