Investment News

Financial service providers will need to adapt quickly as the post-COVID market glow fades into a harsher reality lit by rising volatility, higher costs, new technology and changing consumer demands, a new Invsta white paper concludes. The trend analysis by the Auckland-based fintech firm says the financial services industry should focus on four “key drivers”… [Read More…]

Australian impact investment firm, Brightlight, has launched its second wholesale bond offer in NZ to back six social housing projects. Brightlight, which established the Te Puna Hapori strategy with Trust Waikato in 2019, is seeking $37 million for the new impact bond following a similar $13.7 million fund-raise earlier this year. Trust Waikato has previously… [Read More…]

Former Public Trust head of corporate trustee services, Andrew Hughes, has popped-up at Booster as its inaugural chief risk officer. Hughes left Public Trust this June after almost three years at the government-owned institution. Previously, he spent over 15 years in Japan in senior roles at loan-servicing business, Capital Services Group, quitting as national manager… [Read More…]

Global passive investment giant, Vanguard, has registered 30 more funds in NZ under the trans-Tasman Mutual Recognition (TTMR) regime, bringing almost its entire Australian-domiciled wholesale product range across the ditch. In a document dump last week, the 30 Vanguard funds join the existing seven products available in NZ under TTMR, which includes three NZ dollar-hedged… [Read More…]

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has called for internationally coordinated mandatory measures including ‘swing pricing’ – equivalent to buy-sell spreads – to limit systemic risks posed by liquidity misalignment in open-ended funds. According to the IMF analysis published last week, daily-priced funds exposed to illiquid assets (such as corporate bonds) could cause a financial system… [Read More…]

Clocking peak wind-speeds of about 250kms per hour as it hit the Florida coast late in September, Hurricane Ian claimed over 100 lives and left repair bills totaling many billions of dollars. Exactly how many billions remains up for debate, according to niche insurance-linked securities (ILS) news website, Artemis. In a report last week, Artemis… [Read More…]

Magellan shed a further A$6.7 billion in funds under management (FUM) in September in an almost equal mix of net outflows and portfolio losses. The under-fire manager has now seen FUM slump by more than half since the December 2021 high of A$116 billion to just under A$51 billion as at the latest count. During… [Read More…]

NZ endowment and foundation (E&F) funds have all signaled a change in asset allocation ahead as inflation and market volatility dampen return expectations, according to the latest Mercer survey of the sector. The Mercer NZ findings, following on from a global poll of not-for-profit investors, show 100 per cent of local E&Fs plan to tinker… [Read More…]

Jonathan Ruffer, chairman of the eponymous money manager Ruffer, writes in his most recent investment missive that “humanity has a tendency to believe that a settled pattern of order will continue indefinitely”. But the Minsky Moment – a market collapse brought on by wildly speculative activity – may well have arrived after a “unidirectional bull… [Read More…]

Active management still reigns in fixed income but a notable cost-driven shift to passive and new ‘systematic’ investment options are challenging for the crown, according to a State Street Global Investors study. The State Street survey of some 700 global institutional investors found while active management remains the “go to” approach for fixed income, almost… [Read More…]