Investment News

Traditional bank and stock broker equity research income could plummet by as much as a third worldwide over three years following the introduction of new European financial regulations next year, global consulting shop McKinsey says in a recent report. “The result could be a sharp decline in the demand for equity research—the consensus view of… [Read More…]

Start-up online fund distributor firm, Sharesies, has signed up about 2,500 members who have invested a collective $400,000 or so less than a month since launching its ‘beta’ version. Sharesies, founded last year by a trio of former Kiwibank employees, offers the ‘closed beta’ members access to a range of NZX Smartshares exchange-traded funds (ETFs)…. [Read More…]

NZ fixed interest market pricing will get a qualitative boost this week following a landmark deal between Bloomberg and the NZ Financial Markets Association (NZFMA). Under the new arrangement announced this morning, the NZFMA, the professional body for the country’s wholesale banking and financial markets, will source real-time data via the Bloomberg ‘B-PIPE’ system. According… [Read More…]

Financial regulators may have to collaborate on a global scale to police the increasingly fuzzy legal border in the fintech era, according to a new International Monetary Fund (IMF) discussion note. The IMF paper, titled ‘Fintech and Financial Services: Initial Considerations’, says with new technology breaching traditional nation-state boundaries “international cooperation is essential to ensure… [Read More…]

Franklin Templeton in Australia, the subsidiary of the US$1 trillion Franklin Resources, is going through a management restructure. A recruitment firm has been appointed to search for a new country head and head of distribution, following recent redundancies and a senior departure. Maria Wilton, the local managing director for the past 11-or so years, will… [Read More…]

NZ fund managers now have to devote extra resources to client-servicing to comply with the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) ‘good conduct’ guidelines, according to Andrew Bascand, head of Harbour Asset Management. Bascand said the need to better understand and communicate good ‘customer outcomes’ – outlined in the ‘Conduct guide’ released last year – influenced Harbour’s… [Read More…]

The acquisitive Mainstream BPO has expanded its reach in the credit union and customer-owned bank fund admin market with the purchase of a piece of the IRESS business inherited through that company’s takeover of Financial Synergy. The deal also gives both companies a closer relationship with Equity Trustees. Mainstream BPO, which has expanded into several… [Read More…]

Buying momentum in the Chinese share market is a “very dangerous” tactic, according to Jonathan Wu, Premium China Funds executive director. The Sydney-based Wu, on a flying visit to NZ last week, said simply following on-trend stocks in China – or taking a broad passive exposure – exposes investors to the risk of rapid reversals… [Read More…]

If you are wanting to know someone’s risk tolerances, don’t ask him or her. Their ‘stated preferences’ will be different from their ‘revealed preferences’. The application of behavioural finance to risk has come a long way. Milliman seminars last week explained how. According to Professor Shachar Kariv of the University of California, Berkley, who addressed… [Read More…]

Fisher Funds has named Harbour Asset Management head of client servicing, Jody Kaye, as chief financial officer (CFO). Kaye, also Harbour chief operating officer, will take over as Fisher CFO from incumbent Glenn Ashwell later this month. Recently-appointed Fisher chief executive, Bruce McLachlan, said Ashwell “is taking a career break after a long stint at… [Read More…]