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.
Reynolds continues boardroom blitz
Fiona Reynolds, the former CEO of the UN-supported Principles of Responsible Investment (PRI), has continued a barrage of board and executive appointments with a director position at Frontier.
Reynolds will join the board of Frontier as a non-executive director as she concludes a nine-year posting as chief executive for the PRI. The move comes as Frontier signs up to the newly launched Net Zero Investments Consultants Initiative alongside the likes of JANA and Willis Towers Watson.
“Fiona is well known to many in the Australian institutional investment community, both through her outstanding work at the PRI and from a connection to the superannuation industry that dates back more than two decades,” said Gabriel Szondy, Frontier chair.
“We look forward to Fiona bringing her extensive strategic experience, particularly her knowledge of, and passion for, responsible investment, to the Frontier Board. Fiona has spent her professional life advocating for industry best practice, whether that be for superannuation policy changes or driving for a more sustainable and just future through shaping investment practices.”
It’s the latest in a series of appointments for Reynolds, who is set to take on the CEO role at Sydney-based Conexus Financial in the New Year and has also been appointed as the first member of a proposed new advisory board at Affirmative Investment Management, a global fixed income manager specialising in impact bonds. Reynolds is set to take up the part-time, London-based role on October 1.
She is also a member of the Global Advisory Council on Stranded Assets at Oxford University, the
Advisory Board for the Green Investment Principles for the Belt and Road, and the Steering Committee for Climate Action 100+, one of the largest investor engagement initiatives in the world. During her tenure at the PRI Reynolds grew the network of signatories to more than 4000, representing US$121 trillion. She also spent seven years as CEO of the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees, and was named by the “Australian Financial Review” as one of Australia’s top 100 women of influence for her work in public policy in 2012 and 2018.
