As super funds turn their attention to supporting members as they retire, the emergence of a “retirees’ champion” within funds will ensure products and services are developed to help members through one of the most stressful periods of their lives. But for this role to work, it must be properly resourced, enjoy support from across the fund and have a direct board reporting line.
APRA has warned platform trustees to lift their governance standards or face tougher regulatory oversight, after a review in the wake of Shield and First Guardian scandals found some trustees were over-reliant on external ratings agencies for due diligence and lacks systems to flag emerging investment product risks.
Accomplished financial services journalist Lachlan Maddock has been appointed editor of Investment Magazine as the publication positions to continue covering Australia’s superannuation funds and institutional asset owners as they contend with major investment and organisational challenges and expand their global influence.
Robin Khuda, founder and chief executive of AirTrunk, has been announced as a speaker at the Investment Magazine Fiduciary Investors Symposium in Healesville, taking institutional asset owners behind the $24 billion acquisition of the storied Australian data centre operator by Blackstone and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. The blockbuster deal is a sign of how the market narrative around AI is shifting from hyped public markets to private and fiduciary ownership.
Brighter Super CIO Mark Rider is stepping down, leaving behind a fund very different to the one he joined, and one that’s getting ready for the next chapter of the superannuation story: retirement.
Asset owners like the Future Fund continue to weigh up the shifting risk-return attributes of the booming data centre sector including deal structures, refinancing, energy requirements, and the future of AI.
Some funds experiencing weaker growth and operational inefficiency “often do not appear to be in a position” to improve their outlook, according to the prudential regulator. While specific funds weren’t named and shamed, APRA put a handful on notice to provide clear evidence they’ll lift their game.
Vanguard Australia managing director Daniel Shrimski has warned against watering down the Your Future Your Super performance test but thinks that changes to its benchmarks could encourage investment in “emerging asset classes”.
ASIC expressed reservations about changing RG97 to provide relief from stamp duty disclosure obligations prior to committing to a review, according to internal documents released to Investment Magazine under freedom of information laws. The corporate regulator also told Treasurer Jim Chalmers it will also reduce its data collection efforts and streamline the Financial Accountability Regime to make it less “burdensome”.
The size of the current infrastructure investment gap and the speed at which it is widening mean there is both a desire and a need for more public-private partnerships to unlock funding. Investors say that collaboration with local governments and raising public awareness of private investment benefits are crucial.
CIOs are now less likely to make individual investment decisions than manage the guardrails designed to stop them from going bad. But they must also now consider how politics can shape them too.
Macquarie’s decision to compensate its superannuation customers who lost money in the collapse of the Shield managed investment scheme looks good, but – having been caught red-handed – it really had no choice. And the way the compensation is structured will ultimately cost it a fraction of the headline figure.
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