The NZ retirement savings system should be tweaked to help middle-income earners, according to Mercer senior partner, David Knox. Knox, a keynote speaker at the Mercer conference in Wellington last week, said NZ middle-income earners faced the biggest risk of retirement lifestyle shock under current policy settings. Poorer people were well-served in NZ under the… [Read More…]
Investment News
All about the alpha: what investors want from private equity
Why is private equity so expensive? Because it’s worth it, Mike Forestner, Mercer head of private markets, told the group’s NZ conference last week. Forestner said private equity was “complicated, expensive and governance is a challenge” but – if well-implemented – the asset class could outperform public shares by 3 per cent or more on… [Read More…]
New relationships for Nikko, Morningstar
Nikko Asset Management NZ has hired Sam Bryden as senior relationship manager, replacing Michael Robson, who left for rival firm, Milford, in June. Bryden comes to Nikko from the ASB-owned investment platform Aegis, where he served in a similar client relationship management role. Prior to Aegis he was head of business development for sister entity… [Read More…]
Digital dreams hatch at Kiwi Wealth
Kiwi Wealth has signaled its digital ambitions with the launch of two new services in the space of a week. The government-owned financial services firm switched on both its direct-to-consumer US share investment platform, Hatch, and the long-awaited KiwiSaver robo-advice system over the last fortnight. Hatch, which emerged out of the Kiwibank ‘fintech accelerator’ hub,… [Read More…]
PIEs, Australasian shares face shake-up under Cullen plan (but FDR is OK)
The top portfolio investment entity (PIE) tax rate could rise for non-KiwiSaver funds under proposals tabled to government last week. Papers supporting the Sir Michael Cullen-led Tax Working Group (TWG) interim report suggest increasing the top PIE rate from the current 28 per cent to 33 per cent. The change would align all PIE tax… [Read More…]
NZ investor throws in $30m to kick-start new global bond fund; Pathfinder turns water into tofu
BlackRock has seeded its first NZ dollar-hedged exchange traded fund (ETF) with $30 million sourced from a single local investor. Christian Obrist, head of the BlackRock iShares ETF business in Australasia, said the group was in talks with a number of other NZ clients looking for “cost effective” international fixed income exposure. “There’s definitely lots… [Read More…]
Trust us, we’re not Australian: NZ banks tell parliament
NZ banks talked up their un-Australian-ness in a parliamentary select committee submission last week ahead of a pan-regulator report into the local financial services industry due for publication in October. The NZ Bankers Association (NZBA) submission to the Finance and Expenditure Select Committee (FES) argues that practices unearthed in the ongoing Australian Royal Commission (RC)… [Read More…]
The problems with Australia’s banks … heaps
In a typically controversial session at the Investment Management Research Conference 2018 last week – the conference formerly run by the Paul Woolley Centre for the Study of Capital Market Dysfunctionality – the US academic, Professor Anat Admati, of Stanford University, took a big aim at Australia’s banks. Banking, it seems, is not just potentially… [Read More…]
Operations chief quits Kiwi Wealth for Morgan family reunion
Kiwi Wealth head of operations, Robert Taylor, ends his almost 15-year career at the now government-owned organisation to take up a job with the group’s founding figure. Taylor, who finishes a transition period at Kiwi Wealth this week after officially leaving his role at the end of August, has been appointed head of investments for… [Read More…]
FMA has cute warning for greenwashers; global regulatory pressure mounts on ESG disclosure
Sustainable investment funds must stay true-to-label or risk regulatory intervention, according to Robert Sloan, Financial Markets Authority (FMA) head of disclosure capital markets. Sloan told the Responsible Investment Association of Australasia (RIAA) NZ conference last week. “If you say you’re a green fund, make sure you are,” he said. “Even if we think it’s close… [Read More…]