The UN-backed Principles for Responsible Investment says Australian regulators like ASIC are not having enough dialogue with the private sector amid their greenwashing enforcement focus. While supervision around responsible investing is welcome to keep the market in check, PRI chief sustainable systems officer Nathan Fabian said Australia’s current approach lacks some nuance compared to global practice.
AMP has launched a debt strategy, which can be accessed by members invested in the MySuper or Future Directions options range.
Health industry super fund HESTA has appointed Natalie Kelly as its chief financial officer.
Australia’s second-largest super fund Australian Retirement Trust has successfully absorbed the $2.5 billion and 4800 members of AvSuper.
As regulatory and public scrutiny ramps up on decumulation, the mission statement of ‘delivering the best possible member outcome’ in Australia’s $3.5 trillion pension sector has just become even more complicated. Stepping out of the return-based objectives in accumulation, a recent Investment Magazine roundtable discussed how super funds are grappling with the different beast that is investing for retirement.
Having enjoyed a front row seat to numerous sharemarket scandals over the past decade, controversial AFR columnist turned independent writer Joe Aston says his experience with industry super funds has been overwhelmingly “positive”. While many commentators throw barbs at the growing profit-to-member super sector, Aston will tell the Fiduciary Investors Symposium next week that it is the nation’s biggest champion of corporate governance.
If you believe the critics, the private credit bubble is bound to burst any day now. However, asset owners are still bullish on its return potential and resilience. The Investment Magazine Private Credit Forum 2024 heard how investors can take advantage of an environment where opportunities and challenges co-exist for the asset class.
Prime Super has appointed Raelene Seales as chief executive, commencing 3 June 2024.
In the history of the corporation, directors appointed as a nominee of another entity have been commonplace. Large super funds nominating directors to ASX companies is something to be expected, and looks like both a foreseeable and manageable development.
UniSuper has experienced major website disruptions that have made its online account services, calculators and application forms temporarily unavailable. In a letter to members on Thursday night, the $130 billion fund confirmed that the issue originated from a third-party service provider.
Even as asset owners increase allocations to private credit, investors have been warned that the ultimate test of the asset class has yet to come. As long as returns adequately compensate investors for risk, the sector will continue to attract new money, but its moment of truth will come when borrowers run into trouble.
Australian asset owners have come to the consensus that poor investment governance will cost their portfolio at least to some extent, with 68 per cent saying the return penalty would be as great as 1 per cent per annum or more, according to a report by Frontier Advisors and KPMG.
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