AustralianSuper is looking to add up to 20 investment staff as it moves to take part of the management of its Australian equity portfolio in-house. The $43-billion fund’s chief investment officer Mark Delaney says the fund’s 40-member investment team – half of which are in the policy part of the portfolio – will be expanded … Read more
Maintenance of insurance data will become “one of the biggest issues” for trustees in coming years, according to Richard Weatherhead, head of life insurance at Rice Warner Actuaries. Weatherhead says a combination of tightened regulation from the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority (APRA), along with the provisions of the new MySuper legislation, will make insurance a … Read more
The federal opposition leader, Tony Abbott, has confirmed his commitment to increase the superannuation guarantee from 9 to 12 per cent in correspondence with Investment Magazine Online. The support of the increase comes in the wake of ambiguity about the opposition’s stance on the matter fuelled by the press department of Minister for Financial Services and … Read more
Mergers can benefit superannuation funds: favourable mandate structures, terms and fees can be secured; co-investments or direct investments in unlisted assets can be made; more money to allocate becomes available in a capital-constrained world; and capital-gains-tax credits can be used to offset future profits from domestic stocks. What can go wrong? Funds don’t agree on … Read more
Growing demand from consumers wanting to manage their finances from mobile devices will be a major driver for an increased IT spend by wealth managers, according to technology analysts Ovum. Ovum forecasts that IT spending by the global wealth-management industry will reach almost $35 billion by 2016, with a heavy investment in digital channels. In … Read more
More than half of Asian institutional investors plan to increase their allocations to European and US investment-grade bonds in the next five years, research reveals. The independent research carried out by Greenwich Associates for Fidelity Worldwide found Asian investors were willing to move up the risk spectrum in their fixed-income investments and were prepared to … Read more
JP Morgan has today announced a series of sales appointments to drive the strong growth of its treasury services business in Australia and New Zealand. The new hires include the appointment of Jason Clinton as head of financial institution group sales, JP Morgan Treasury Services (TS). Clinton brings to the TS business deep global and … Read more
BNP Paribas Securities Services’ local custody and settlement services has added its third client since its launch in May, winning the business of EFG Bank, a Zurich-headquartered global private bank. EFG Bank has appointed BNP Paribas as both its global and local custodian in four markets covered by the group’s 23 branches around the world. … Read more
National Australia Bank (NAB) Asset Services has won a custody mandate to provide administrative services for the $630-million Health Industry Plan (HIP), supplanting the incumbent provider BNP Paribas. Australia’s largest custodian bank with about $508 billion in assets under custody, NAB secured the deal after a competitive tendering process run by the fund’s consultants Jana. … Read more
Global investors should have as much as 30 per cent of their portfolios exposed to natural resources, more than double the current market average, because of a burgeoning worldwide food crisis, GMO’s Jeremy Grantham says. The droughts afflicting farmers in the US and the subsequent spike in food commodity prices are just forerunners to the … Read more
UniSuper’s Terry McCredden says that leadership in the superannuation industry starts at the front line rather than from the top, and staff should be empowered to look for opportunities to innovate and improve in every day of their working lives. McCredden took time out from the recent Fund Executives Association Limited (FEAL) national conference to … Read more
Sustainability and environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) were key considerations in VicSuper appointing four new international equities managers as part of an investment strategy review. The $9-billion fund has announced the appointment of international equities managers to share mandates of just under $550 million. The open-ended mandates followed an investment strategy review and were … Read more
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Investment Magazine provides in-depth, monthly analysis of trends and developments for all the businesses in which superannuation funds engage‚ including asset allocation, investment manager selection, custody and fund accounting, member administration, group insurance and compliance.
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