A clarification to this article was issued on August 9, 2011Peter Hele, NAB Group’s new managing director of product and strategic alliances*, says the company plans to launch as many as four products by year-end while seeking to win business in New Zealand.
Australians are disillusioned with superannuation and should not invest in hedge or buyout funds but rather choose simple investment products, says Jim Minto, managing director of TAL Ltd.
Fund management companies and advisers are too internally focused and need to embrace new technology, says Peter Maher, group head of banking and financial services at Macquarie Bank Ltd.
Australia could become an international fund management centre, attracting billions of dollars of investment, jobs and tax revenue if it follows a European model by creating a unitised share class scheme with different base currencies.
Australian fund managers have not tackled the potential impact of liquidity fragmentation brought about by the increasing popularity of dark-pool and high-frequency trading, say a professor at the Australian National University and the ASX’s general manager of equity markets.
Fifteen per cent, or 30 companies, that are part of the S&P/ASX 200 Index do no reporting of their environmental, social and governance risks, say the Australian Council of Super Investors and the Financial Services Council.
Compulsory superannuation contributions should be raised to 15 per cent and there will be fewer fund managers working in the industry, says Greg Cooper, chief executive of Schroder Investment Management Australia Ltd.
A clarification to this story was issued on August 3, 2011.
On the walls of Christian Super’s office in Rhodes, Sydney, a poster proclaims it to be “investing your superannuation ethically for a better world”.
Geoff Wilson, founder of Wilson Asset Management (International) Ltd. that manages $305 million in three funds listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, says the expected end of financial planner commissions will prompt more investment in listed funds and exchange traded funds.