Investment News

Fisher Funds Management has begun the search for a new chief after the firm’s eponymous founder, Carmel Fisher, confirmed last week she would step down from the role. In a letter to investors, Fisher says it she will retire as managing director of the almost $7 billion funds management business “some time in 2017”. “To… [Read More…]

Vanguard’s just-announced ethically-scrubbed global shares fund has arrived too late to retain one of its largest NZ institutional clients. In a statement, ASB said as at October 11 this year it would “no longer hold securities in companies that manufacture cluster munitions, landmines or nuclear weapons”. “This is the result of a change in international… [Read More…]

Australia’s largest financial institutions could face a collective bill of more than $180 million after charging over 175,000 customers for non-advice over multi-year periods. In a damning report delivered by the Australian corporate cop last week, six of the country’s biggest financial services firms – covering the big four banks plus AMP and Macquarie –… [Read More…]

Harbour Asset Management has formally included a new stock quality ranking system into its investment process. Andrew Bascand, Harbour chief, said the quality overlay – based on a nine-point scoring system developed in 2002 by Stanford University professor, Joseph Piotroski – would feed in to the manager’s investment decisions along with traditional analyst research and… [Read More…]

Believe it or not, the funds management industry is in better shape than it has been for years. However, disruption, due to a raft of technological developments, is happening now. Managers have to adapt quickly in order to survive, according to a paper by SEI Investment Manager Services. SEI, a major US-based fund manager, administrator… [Read More…]

After a two-year stint at Morningstar’s HQ in Chicago, NZ re-pat, Chris Douglas, is raring to apply the global experience to his new role as director of manager research ratings Asia-Pacific. Douglas, who returned to his native NZ near the end of October, said the offshore experience offered a valuable insight into the range of… [Read More…]

The government has removed a potential blockage to UK pension flows to New Zealand-based schemes in a Financial Markets Conduct Act amendment released last week. Included in a raft of last-minute FMC amendments, the new regulations essentially align NZ-based scheme withdrawal rules with the source UK pension fund arrangements. Under previous FMC wording, withdrawal rules… [Read More…]

Those who stayed the course with emerging markets over the last few bleak years should be feeling fairly chuffed, as more feint-hearted investors are now coming back to the asset class. Martin Currie Investment Management’s Kim Catechis says that order has been restored. The three big questions investors have, the Edinburgh=based head of emerging markets… [Read More…]

Incorrect standing settlement instructions account for 20 per cent of all trade fails, according to research commissioned by the industry-owned DTCC (Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation. And it’s, usually, human error. The research, undertaken by TABB Corp, found that the failed trades amounted to significant operations costs and risk exposures for fund managers and their… [Read More…]

The New Zealand Superannuation Fund (NZS) will venture further off-benchmark for its passive global equity holdings following a just-announced climate change policy. According to a NZS spokesperson, the ‘bespoke’ passive offshore shares portfolio would take the first hit as the $31.6 billion fund implemented its wide-sweeping climate change investment strategy revealed last week. While the… [Read More…]