Louise Unger is set to join the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) in June as permanent replacement for Paul Gregory, former executive director response and enforcement. Gregory resigned last December to take up a newly created role as head of investment partnerships for the ANZ NZ funds management shop. FMA general counsel and head of evaluation… [Read More…]
Portrait of a client-focused portfolio: why advisers need to work better with alpha and beta
Heathcote Investment Partners founder, Clayton Coplestone, puts a modern perspective on portfolio construction for NZ financial advisers… The art of creating truly personalised investment portfolios transcends mere paint-by-numbers asset allocation or join-the-dots product placement. Instead, portfolio construction is a highly skilled craft that demands financial advisers capture the essence of individual client preferences while… [Read More…]
Not frozen in time: final update faults Link in £230 million Woodford liquidity disaster
Link Fund Solutions has been slammed one last time by the UK regulator for its part in the 2019 Woodford Equity Income Fund (WEIF) debacle that seriously harmed late-exiting investors from the liquidity-compromised vehicle. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) says in its final report on the Woodford affair published mid-April that only a parent company-funded… [Read More…]
The ‘Finternet’ has landed: one giant leap for financial-kind
The Bank of International Settlements (BIS) laid out an ambitious moon-shot program to rocket the global financial system into unification and beyond. In a new paper published last week, the BIS proposes a worldwide reboot of finance built “on ecosystems interconnected with each other – much like the internet”. Unavoidably dubbed the ‘Finternet’ by report… [Read More…]
Bentham waits for post-lag impact with more duration, less credit
The lag is over. Most economies should, theoretically, now be feeling the full force of high interest rates that first lurched into a new rising cycle late in 2021. Nik Persic, Bentham Asset Management deputy chief investment officer, said the impact of interest rate hikes typically take 12-18 months to flow from the initial monetary… [Read More…]
Six of the best: how factors played out in emerging markets
Emerging markets (EM) have offered fertile ground for factor-based strategies, according to new data from specialist index firm, Scientific Beta. The Scientific Beta analysis shows an EM index blending six “well-established equity factors” outperformed a cap-weighted counterpart by an annualised 3.4 per cent since June 2002 and more than 7 per cent for the one-… [Read More…]
‘No pain, no gain’: Marks on the investing game of chess
Good investing requires real sacrifices, according to Oaktree’s Howard Marks, but you can’t expect to be compensated just for making them. Running to a fairly abbreviated four pages, Howard Marks’ latest memo deals with the “indispensability of risk” – and why investors don’t like taking it. It stems from his perusal of an article in… [Read More…]
Russell NZ leader departs; FNZ restocks local corporate ranks
Matthew Arnold, Russell Investments NZ director, has left the business after almost five years with the multi-manager and consulting firm. Arnold joined Russell in 2019 from State Street Singapore, where he led the exchange-traded fund arm, replacing Alister van der Maas as NZ country head two years later. The Russell Australasian division saw a leadership… [Read More…]
Harbour, TE vacate Flint shares as ResearchIP takes charge
Challenger investment platform, Flint Wealth, has reverted to a single shareholder with the exit of Harbour Asset Management and Trustees Executors (TE) from the company’s register. Harbour and TE both took about a third each of Flint (via holding entity, Formosa Wealth) late in 2019 with Australian firm, ResearchIP, owning the remainder. Both Harbour and… [Read More…]
NZX signals in-house platform-funds closer relationship with Smartshares deal
NZX Wealth Technologies has made the “first step to a closer collaboration” with sister funds management firm, Smartshares, after taking on new back-office duties for an institutional client. According to a release, the NZX-owned platform is “extending its technology expertise and wealth custody and operational services to Smartshares” – initially for a single institutional client,… [Read More…]