Investment News

Blockchain could knock more than NZ$3.5 billion a year off managed fund processing costs globally, according to new research from UK-headquartered firm Calastone. In a statement, Calastone, which automates many back-office fund processes, says blockchain could further remove much of the transactional grit clogging up the system. “The forecast savings demonstrate the scale of financial… [Read More…]

Morningstar has reported a global cash profit of more than US$180 million driven by double-digit revenue growth across its licensing, asset-based and transactional business lines. The result, up about 21 per cent year-on-year, saw Morningstar’s core licensing revenue – including the group’s Data, Direct, and Advisor Workstation products – jump to $663 million compared to US$573 million in the… [Read More…]

NZ could learn from the Australian experience to reboot its extinct ‘pure’ annuities market, Challenger retirement income chair, Jeremy Cooper told a local audience last week. Cooper, on a dual-city NZ tour as guest of Harbour Asset Management, said the country faced the same retirement income dilemmas as Australia. “Retirees need to spend their savings… [Read More…]

The global shift to index investing is unlikely to rewind despite unfavourable conditions for passive allocations across asset classes, according to Kylie Willment, Mercer Australia chief investment officer. Willment, in NZ last week for investor presentations, said the secular move to passive exposure has been driven by a number of forces, including: equity market capacity… [Read More…]

Global fixed income giant PIMCO has warned investors not to bail out of bonds despite rising interest rates in a study published last week. The report – authored by PIMCO managing director, Robert Mead, and senior associate, Alex Smith – says investors considering selling bond holdings in anticipation of “meaningful” rate hikes “might not be [following]… [Read More…]

Initial coin offerings (ICOs) loom as one of the most dangerous financial services fads in 2018, a global survey of industry leaders has found. The survey of 30 fintech top guns – from organisations including Ant Financial, Citi, Ripple, Santander, Western Union, Starling Bank and Visa – found over half thought ICOs “represent more risk… [Read More…]

Pie Funds is set to launch a wealth advisory arm after snaring former Westpac financial planner, Simon Hepple, to head the venture. Mike Taylor, Pie chief, said another adviser was slated to join the Auckland-based Hepple in a few weeks as the wealth management operation goes live. Taylor said wealth management would be a complementary… [Read More…]

Labour and Green politicians rallied to support legislation introduced to Parliament by coalition partner NZ First last week to consider maybe creating a government-run and guaranteed KiwiSaver scheme. Opposition National members, however, argued the proposed law would merely create a wasteful “talkfest”. In the first reading last Wednesday of the KiwiFund bill, NZ First MP… [Read More…]

After a series of delays the NZX has further pushed out the investment platform boarding time for its first major client as a bigger deal with Hobson Wealth heads into the never-never. In its annual report released last week, the NZX says the group’s Wealth Technologies platform (formerly Apteryx) purchased in 2015 for $1.5 million… [Read More…]

A secret-shopping trip could be on the regulatory agenda this year – although Financial Markets Authority (FMA) general counsel, Nick Kynoch, won’t say for sure. While the FMA would be unlikely to signal the market if a mystery-shopper – also known as shadow-shopper – exercise was underway in the financial services industry, Kynoch said the… [Read More…]