Bryan Gray, JP Morgan Worldwide Securities Services’ domestic head of sales, has been elected chair of the Australian Custodial Services Association (ACSA) for the second time.
ACSA members voted Gray to the helm of the association during its annual general meeting on November 20. He was last chair of the association from 1999 to 2001. David Travers, former ACSA chair and managing director of investor services at State Street Australia, has become deputy chair, and Jean-Marc Pasquet, BNP Paribas Securities Services managing director, was voted in as treasurer. During Travers’ tenure as chair, Gray was a director of ACSA. During the AGM the association also created three more director positions, increasing this number from six to nine. “We wanted to broaden our representation,” Gray said. “We’re recognising that the custody industry has broadened.” ACSA currently has three working groups – regulatory, tax and corporate actions – providing industry representation on behalf of member associations. Gray said custodians’ adoption of master manager, or the ‘omega’ concept, was currently being illustrated by a focus on more tax-effective implementations of investment strategies, administration of an expanding range of investment instruments, such as synthetic products, and an ability to handle alternative investments such as private equity and infrastructure allocations. Engaging with legislators, and adjusting to their decrees, “;will always be a challenge,”; he added.
The role of IFM Investors in arranging a visit by a delegation of Australian super funds to the US last month gives a pointer to the scale of the longer-term ambitions of the global super-fund-owned asset manager, and a recent investment in the manager by the UK pension fund NEST is designed to give it even greater clout. IFM chair Cath Bowtell tells Investment Magazine the manager aims to be a partner to governments around the world as they seek capital to build critical infrastructure.
Glenda KorporaalMarch 21, 2025
