Investment News

Rising NZ fintech firm, Invsta, has laid four critical growth strategies destined to shape the financial services industry over the next few years. In its inaugural report on technology and demographic trends likely to affect the sector, Invsta says financial services businesses must adapt to the rapidly changing environment. “Firms need to place the correct… [Read More…]

The proposed NZ financial sector climate risk reporting regime released by government last week could have market-skewing side-effects, according to a leading legal firm. Under the ‘world-first’ policy announced by Climate Minister James Shaw, a defined group of mainly large NZ financial businesses would have to report annually on a “comply-or-explain basis, based on the… [Read More…]

Even before the fallout from COVID-19 hit home, hedge funds and other alternatives managers had been looking to diversify their offerings to cater to a shifting investment environment. This has had “strong implications” for their operating models as well as their traditional service providers, according to a report by the asset servicing arm of Northern… [Read More…]

Retail investors have changed the dynamics of US share markets, according to a study by digital broking house, DriveWealth. The analysis by DriveWealth, which is the engine of several Australasian US share-trading platforms, found retail investors “have driven a shift in order timing” on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) this year. US equity orders… [Read More…]

Governments around the world drained a collective US$137 billion from sovereign wealth funds during the June quarter, according to a specialist research house, with some set to empty. The Global SWF study found 24 governments covering “all six continents” tapped into sovereign wealth funds in the second quarter as the COVID-19 economic crisis intensified. Government… [Read More…]

Russell Investments has won the consulting gig for the A$260 million of sovereign funds owned by the tiny Pacific archipelago of Tuvalu. Despite its ranking as the smallest GDP (about US$40 million) in the world, the Pacific nation – a group of nine atolls and reef islands – has built up a comparatively large pot… [Read More…]

Mercer has set the tone for the imminent KiwiSaver default scheme beauty parade, slimming down fees and embarking on an ambitious sustainable investment makeover. Following the changes implemented last week, Mercer KiwiSaver default fund fees fell almost 20 per cent along while the manager also laid out plans to bolster the product’s responsible investment (RI)… [Read More…]

Engagement has supplanted exclusion as the most popular NZ responsible investment (RI) strategy for the first time, according to the latest annual review of the sector. The Responsible Investment Association of Australasia (RIIA) 2020 ‘Benchmark report’ for NZ found than environmental, social and governance (ESG) integration topped negative screening as the most influential factor in… [Read More…]

Pie Funds has begun the hunt for a chief operating officer (COO) to replace the outgoing incumbent, Paul Gregory. Gregory will begin a second stint at the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) this November in the newly created senior ranking investment director role. According to the Pie recruitment campaign, the COO “is very much the 2IC… [Read More…]

Auckland-based fund administration business MMC completed a two-year shift to the cloud last week with its core systems joining Aegis services on the Microsoft Azure platform. Vedran Babic, MMC chief, said the cloud move would provide resilience, flexibility and scalability for the business, which grew substantially following the purchase of the Aegis platform from ASB… [Read More…]