Auckland-headquartered fund administration firm, MMC, is expanding into the KiwiSaver registry market with a new system officially approved for operation. According to the November quarter MMC newsletter, the group’s KiwiSaver registry software has been “granted certification” by the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) “Our IT team have gone through a systems integration and compatibility testing process… [Read More…]
SuiteBox finds the sweet spot as compliance hits home
About 70 Australasian financial services firms – including banks, super funds, insurance advisers and financial planning firms – are currently using the award-winning, NZ-designed ‘virtual room’ system, SuiteBox. Craig Meek, SuiteBox founder, said the client feedback has been “very positive” with more than 10 new enquiries each week. Meek said the group – which released… [Read More…]
Boutiques hire EY to boost GST arguments
An alliance of boutique managers has hired consultancy firm EY (formerly known as Ernst & Young) to help argue the case against dropping GST on fund fees in a submission to the Inland Revenue Department (IRD). Rebecca Thomas, Mint Asset Management chief, said the group of managers had engaged EY to present the technical arguments… [Read More…]
BNP the winner in IOOF’s $20b custody revamp
IOOF is consolidating the custody and fund accounting for its managed funds and multi-manager business, covering more than $20 billion, and will reduce the number of custodians from three to one after a review which began late last year. As part of the review, the manager is also having a new system built with the… [Read More…]
New PIMCO platform prompts State Street retail hook up
With the industry’s continued trend of retailisation, State Street has become the third big custodian to link with OneVue for retail registry – due to important client PIMCO’s new digital platform and information portal. As previously announced, PIMCO insourced its retail distribution from Equity Trustees and built up its internal team ahead of the launch… [Read More…]
Brokers to lose bundles, US report finds
Almost 75 per cent of US institutional equity managers expect global share broking services will become “fully unbundled” in the next five years, according to a new survey. The Equities Leaders Summit ‘Benchmarking report’ found 61 per cent of those surveyed said global market ‘unbundling’ – where broker execution services must be separated from other… [Read More…]
Crowe Horwath NZ puts advice on to-do list as Australian owner goes holistic
The New Zealand arm of Australasian accountancy firm Crowe Horwath is considering adding wealth advice to its range of services, according to Julia Scott, head of marketing. Scott said while the Crowe Horwath NZ group to date has not provided financial planning or investment advice as sister Australian firm does, it was on the agenda…. [Read More…]
Wholesale trainer tests out retail market
Niche investment research and continuing professional development (CPD) provider, Dynamique, has launched a new product aimed at retail investors. Guy Dobson, Dynamique director, said the retail investor training program was its first foray into the ‘mums and dads’ market. “We’re also hoping the course will appeal to financial advisers and others who often struggle to… [Read More…]
Vanguard to tender in ‘historic’ custody review
Vanguard Investments is going to tender, for the first time since it opened up in Australia, in a review of its securities services partner. It’s an historic moment. For JP Morgan, the incumbent provider, Vanguard was its first daily-pricing client here in the 1990s. Vanguard will assess an RFP (request for proposal) in the first… [Read More…]
Trustees tipped to beat Mercer in Fisher back-office bout
Investment News NZ (IN NZ) understands Trustees Executors (TE) has won the Fisher Funds combined registry contract, besting Mercer in the one-on-one back-office battle. If confirmed, the news would see Mercer lose its biggest registry client in NZ while proving a huge relief to TE. According to sources familiar with the matter, Fisher Funds constituted… [Read More…]