Investment News

The forced closure of mortgage trust operator, Fund Managers Otago, reflects entity-specific problems rather than any systemic weakness in the sector, according to the Financial Markets Authority (FMA). “Fund Managers Otago [FMO] is one of five licensed fund managers currently operating mortgage trusts,” a spokesperson for the FMA said. “We regularly receive information from supervisors… [Read More…]

About half of institutional asset owner costs get lost in the wash, according to a new study by CEM Benchmarking. The just-released analysis of 24 large global asset owners representing over US$4.4 trillion found 49 per cent of investment costs were unreported – with the true figure likely to be higher across the whole industry…. [Read More…]

The odds are falling for the introduction of negative interest rates, according to a new analysis by Harbour Asset Management, as the NZ economy confounds downbeat central bank predictions. According to the Harbour report, the latest economic data shows NZ in “much better shape” than the Reserve Bank of NZ (RBNZ) forecast, presenting “a challenge… [Read More…]

AMP Capital has ended its brief foray in the exchange-traded fund (ETF) market, sounding the closing bell for its three ASX-listed actively managed products last week. The three AMP Capital ETFs – backed by Sydney-based BetaShares as responsible entity – will wind up on December 31 after gathering just over A$55 million over their four-year… [Read More…]

Citibank China Co will become the first global bank with a full-service custody operation in China from the new year. This follows its debut as one of only two to go live with securities lending contracts early this month (November 1). As announced last week, Citi and HSBC both went live with cross-border lending clients… [Read More…]

Early research on ethnicity as well as gender by Willis Towers Watson should significantly broaden the discussion about potential economic benefits from improved diversity among boards and management at super funds, corporates and other organisations. In the first public airing of its latest thoughts on what it terms ‘cognitive diversity’, Willis Towers Watson (WTW) says:… [Read More…]

The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) has highlighted its right to issue ‘stop orders’ to KiwiSaver schemes that breach fee standards in a new consultation document released this morning. In a follow-up to its ‘value for money’ report published earlier this year, the regulator says stop orders could, for example, “prevent schemes with unreasonable fees from… [Read More…]

Los Angeles-based investment firm Ares Management has lobbed a A$6.4 billion bid for the out-of-sorts AMP, according to Australian media reports, in the first shot of a likely bidding war. The Ares “non-binding, indicative, and conditional” scheme-of-arrangement offer, confirmed in an announcement to the ASX on Friday, valued AMP at about A$1.85 a share, Australian… [Read More…]

Responsible investment (RI) is not a buzz phrase – it is experiencing booming investor demand and is becoming the heart of the default investment model. But the global trend towards RI does not always reflect what companies and investment managers are doing at a micro level. With that in mind, Kiwi Invest quantitative and responsible… [Read More…]

Central bank largesse lubricated the relatively squeak-free ride of the global asset management industry through the COVID-19 crisis to date but liquidity risks remain high, according to a new Amundi Asset Management report. In a ‘blue paper’ published last week, Amundi says only 117 out of the 35,000 funds sold in Europe froze redemptions since… [Read More…]