Investors piled into exchange-traded funds (ETFs) at a record rate in 2024 as the listed product structured continued its decade-long trend as the investment vehicle of choice. According to new Morningstar data, global ETF net flows hit US$1.5 trillion – besting the previous high of US$1.2 trillion notched in 2021 – as soaring markets combined… [Read More…]
CFA study sketches how AI will redraw pension funds
Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to improve member outcomes, governance, scheme administration and investment in the pension fund sector, according to a new CFA Institute study, as long as robust safeguards and human accountability remain in place. The ‘Pensions in the Age of Artificial Intelligence’ report authored by CFA Institute senior affiliate researcher, Genevieve… [Read More…]
Outlook for 2025: how about no landing?
Kirsten Boldarin, Mint Asset Management wholesale head of distribution, considers the potential market trajectories of the year ahead as the global economy flies into new conditions… For much of the past few years, there has been an ongoing debate about whether the US was going to experience a ‘hard landing’ or a ‘soft landing’…. [Read More…]
Most eligible investor: regulatory proposition to complicate wholesale relationships
Establishing wholesale investor status will be a much more onerous process if the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) makes legal ground in an unusual test case filed at the back-end of 2024. If the High Court backs the FMA position on determining the validity of ‘eligible investor’ certificates, wholesale product offerors would face much tougher due… [Read More…]
Insignia bid highlights private equity binge for Australian/NZ financial firms
Rising private equity appetite for Australasian financial services entities was underscored as 2025 began by a flurry of interest in the ASX-listed diversified firm, Insignia. Formerly known as IOOF (and before that the International Order of Oddfellows), Insignia acknowledged a formal bid from New York-headquartered, CC Capital, early in January while officially denying rumours of… [Read More…]
BlackRock subtracts 20% from net zero fund body
The Net Zero Asset Managers initiative (NZAM) is set to lose about US$11.5 trillion of financial influence after BlackRock exited the climate collective last week amid growing political pressure in the US. Founded in 2020, NZAM counts 325 fund manager signatories, representing about US$57.5 trillion of assets that will shrink by 20 per cent as… [Read More…]
Bubbleishous: Marks on market blow-ups (25 years later)
A quarter of a century after publishing a prescient market crash think-piece, legendary US investor, Howard Marks, has revisited the theme in a new contribution to bubble literature. But while the Oaktree Capital co-founder unequivocally called out “another market bubble” in his January 2, 2000, investor note, Marks is less certain that 2025 conditions herald… [Read More…]
Ex Sharesies, Stake Australia licensee rapped by ASIC
The Australian financial services regulator has pinged the former licensee of trading platforms Sharesies and Stake across the Tasman over lax compliance protocols. Under a ‘court enforceable undertaking’ handed down at the end of December, the Australian branch of the South Africa-headquartered financial services giant, Sanlam Group, will face a review of its compliance operations… [Read More…]
Asness goes back to the future for performance predictions
While the hazy days of early January are usually a chance for investors to talk their book and speculate on what’s to come in the year ahead, AQR’s Cliff Asness has instead chosen to look back (and talk his book) from far-off 2035, adopting the guise of a fictional asset allocator mulling what did and… [Read More…]
Global government investment funds verge on US$55tn
State-owned investment (SOI) assets soared to a new record high of just under US$55 trillion last year, according to figures compiled by niche researcher, Global SWF. The Global SWF report published early in January found public pension funds weighed in at US$25 trillion by the end of 2024 with central banks (US$16.9 trillion) and sovereign… [Read More…]