The New Zealand Superannuation Fund (NZS) took out a clutch of prizes in the Australasian Reporting Awards (ARA) held in Sydney last week. As well as earning the highest Gold rating for overall reporting quality, NZS won top spot in two other categories: governance reporting in the public and not-for-profit sector, and; online reporting in… [Read More…]
Impossible things to do before Brexit
Dynamique’s Guy Dobson reports from London as investors everywhere wait for a very important date… The opening lines to Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice through the looking glass’ are unequivocal about who to blame: “One thing was certain, that the white kitten had nothing to do with it — it was the black kitten’s fault entirely.”… [Read More…]
EXCLUSIVE: Banks, AMP static as brokers grow AFA share in dwindling market
Banks have barely maintained authorised financial adviser (AFA) stocks over the last three years, a new Investment News NZ (IN NZ) analysis has found. The bespoke research, which follows on from the ground-breaking 2013 ‘AFA today’ study, shows collective bank AFA numbers grew by just six over the three-year period. Excluding the 32 JB Were… [Read More…]
Adminis adds custody to meet big demand from small-to-medium market
Wellington-based investment platform provider, Adminis, has launched a custody operation, luring over a top Public Trust executive to run the new service. Martin Kay, Adminis chief, said the firm, which boasts more than $750 million in funds under administration, added on the custody capability after experiencing strong demand from its growing client base for the… [Read More…]
MMC signs on first KiwiSaver registry clients, ticks above $25bn under admin
Fund administrator MMC’s new KiwiSaver registry system will go live later this year with two providers currently transitioning to the service. Robert Moss, MMC managing director, said there had been strong market interest in the firm’s KiwiSaver registry offering, which received Inland Revenue Department (IRD) approval only late last year. “We have got two existing… [Read More…]
Retail partners on Mercer NZ wish-list
Mercer is weighing up both “organic and inorganic” growth options in New Zealand with retail partnerships a possibility, according to local chief, Martin Lewington. Lewington said Mercer NZ, which last week reported funds under management (FUM) above $5 billion for the first time, could follow its Australian counterpart by forming relationships with “complementary” retail businesses…. [Read More…]
Senior Russell staff tip in equity as sale finalised
Russell Investments senior management have taken “a meaningful equity stake” in the business alongside new owners TA Associates and Reverence Capital Partners. The two US private equity firms picked up Russell Investments from the London Stock Exchange for US$1.15 billion last October after fending off bids from a range of suitors including two Chinese operations… [Read More…]
Smart beta shoots up insto pop charts
The smart beta trend has hit warp speed, according to new research from index provider FTSE Russell, with interest from global institutional investors up more than 60 per cent over the year. Over 70 per cent of asset owners are either “using or actively evaluating smart beta” the 2016 FTSE Russell smart beta survey found,… [Read More…]
From here to disruption: face-to-face with fintech
Binu Paul, founder of online KiwiSaver comparison business, SavvyKiwi, recounts his journey into the Valley of Disruption where he met with elders of the fabled Fintech Tribe… Financial technology, better known as ‘fintech’, in its simplest form refers to making financial services more efficient than it is today, by the use of technology. ‘Disruption’… [Read More…]
Stride stapled strategy to offer more property punch for investors
NZX-listed Stride Property could target a wider array of Australian and local wholesale investors or even the retail market for its recently-restructured managed fund offering. Peter Alexander, Stride chief executive, said the real estate investment company could attract interest in its existing and proposed funds management products beyond the current client base of two: the… [Read More…]