Search Results for: coronavirus

While APRA has asked big super funds and other institutions – and for them to ask their service providers – about their plans to deal with the pandemic – unnecessarily, one would have thought – the funds and their advisers are already onto the case as much as you could expect them to be. No-one… [Read More…]

Global research house, Morningstar, has prepped investors for disappointment amid a ‘thematic’ fund boom. In a new report on the sector, the researcher notes that while thematic funds have experienced record growth in recent years as well as outperformance, history suggests the good times won’t last for long. “Over the past 15 years, more than… [Read More…]

The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) could reprise its 2020 COVID-related regulator reporting relief measures if the recent delta wave rolls on. In a note issued last week, the FMA said while regulated entities affected by the new lockdowns could seek ‘no action’ relief on a case-by-case basis it “may also grant class exemptions as a… [Read More…]

Aon will pay a US$1 billion break fee to Willis Towers Watson (WTW) after a proposed marriage between the two global insurance broking and professional services firms fell over last week. In a joint statement, Aon and WTW blamed the end of their 16-month engagement on a legal challenge from the US Department of Justice… [Read More…]

MFS global investment strategist, Robert Almeida, has joined a growing chorus of market participants calling the end of the negative rates era with a “day of reckoning” ahead for risk assets. In a note penned last week, Almeida says while the widely expected impending burst of inflation is likely to prove “transitory”, real interest rates… [Read More…]

New data from direct-to-consumer fund platform InvestNow shows a marked pandemic reaction in March last year followed by a swift swing back to growth assets. However, the InvestNow figures – which track monthly net fund flows – reveal the COVID-19 crisis did shift asset class sentiment for the rest of 2020 with listed property, in… [Read More…]

The Commission for Financial Capability (CFFC) will launch a new ‘national strategy’ this month developed in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis. Retirement Commissioner (RC), Jane Wrightson, told a parliamentary committee last month that the CFFC would unveil the new approach on April 16, targeting financial resilience, better stakeholder co-operation and access to ‘independent’ guidance…. [Read More…]

Bryan Gray, a genuine stalwart of, and major contributor to, the strong position of Australia and New Zealand’s asset servicing sector, has retired. He spent 12 years at State Street followed by nearly 20 years at J.P. Morgan. Gray is the only person to have been chair of the Australian Custodial Services Association twice, in… [Read More…]

The Commonwealth of Australia Bank (CBA) NZ subsidiary, ASB, recorded a 4 per cent decline in funds management revenue for the last half of 2020 compared to the same period a year earlier, largely due to its exit from the investment administration business. According to the CBA half-year results released last week, ASB funds management… [Read More…]

When a 25-year-old English fund manager with £21 billion (A$37 billion) under management discloses it had made a sizable investment in bitcoin, it is bound to give the institutionalisation of the crypto currency a big kickalong. This is especially so when the manager regards bitcoin as a potential store of wealth and not an alternative… [Read More…]

The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) reported a worse-than-budgeted deficit in the 2019/20 fiscal year, falling $5.6 million into the red largely on ballooning employment costs and a shortfall in adviser licensing revenue. According to the FMA annual report released last week, the latest deficit was about $850,000 above budget forecasts of $4.7 million. Employee expenses… [Read More…]

Almost all global pension investors expect post-COVID financial markets to follow a W path or play an accordion-like tune, a new survey has found. The study by UK-based research firm, Create, shows almost half of the respondents projected a W-shaped recovery ahead while 36 per cent forecast an accordion future featuring “a series of mini… [Read More…]

Despite the imminent release of vaccines, COVID-19 remains the number one threat to financial stability in the year ahead, according to a new study by The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC). The 2021 DTCC ‘Systemic Risk Barometer’, based on a survey of 220 financial institutions globally, found about two-thirds of respondents were concerned both… [Read More…]

The Wellington-based online investment platform, Sharesies is sounding out the Australian market for possible expansion. Brooke Roberts, co-founder of Sharesies, said the firm was currently recruiting for an Australian country manager. “We are looking at launching Sharesies in Australia,” Roberts said. “But at the moment we’re working on a product that might fit the market… [Read More…]

Large financial institutions could slash back-office trading costs by up to a quarter through automation, a new white paper by The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) claims. The DTCC findings, based on a survey of nine large global trading institutions, found automating seven key back-office processes could reduce costs by between 20-25 per cent…. [Read More…]

Central bank largesse lubricated the relatively squeak-free ride of the global asset management industry through the COVID-19 crisis to date but liquidity risks remain high, according to a new Amundi Asset Management report. In a ‘blue paper’ published last week, Amundi says only 117 out of the 35,000 funds sold in Europe froze redemptions since… [Read More…]

AMP Capital has lost another senior executive as its multi-asset group chief investment officer, Sean Henaghan, rounded off his 15-month sabbatical with a formal resignation last week. Henaghan, who has washed up in NZ following extensive travels through the Americas, was past due to rejoin the embattled Australian funds management group but has instead opted… [Read More…]